# Notifications

Canonical: https://useformwork.com/docs/forms/notifications

Updated: 2026-10-09

Email your team about new entries, send respondents a confirmation and alert admins when an automation run fails, all without building an automation.

Notifications send emails each time someone submits a form, and can alert admins when one of the form's automations fails. They are quick to set up and need no automation.

Open a form in the builder and select **Notifications**, or select **Email notifications** from the form's menu on its entries page.

Notifications belong to the form, not a version. Select **Save changes** and they apply to the next submission, without publishing.

## Email your team

Turn on **Email your team** to get the answers and a link to the entry for every submission.

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Send to** | Up to 10 email addresses, separated by commas. Your own address is filled in when you first turn it on. |
| **Subject** | Defaults to "New entry: {{ form_title }}". |
| **Message** | Text above the answers. Defaults to "{{ form_title }} has a new entry." |
| **Include all the answers** | Lists the answers under the message. On by default. |
| **Replies go to** | Choose **Their answer to** an email question so that replying goes straight to the respondent, or **No reply address**. |

The email has an **Open entry** button that takes your team to the entry.

## Email the person who filled it in

Turn on **Email the person who filled it in** to send a confirmation to the address the respondent gave. The form needs an email question first; one that repeats cannot be used.

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Send to** | The email question to send to, shown as **Their answer to** followed by the question label. |
| **Subject** | Defaults to "We've received your answers". |
| **Message** | Defaults to "Thanks for filling in {{ form_title }}. Here's a copy of what you sent." |
| **Include a copy of their answers** | Lists their answers under the message. On by default. |
| **Reply-to address** | Optional. One address where replies to the confirmation go, such as your support inbox. |

If the respondent's answer is not a valid email address, no confirmation is sent. The submission still goes through.

If the form's process shows respondents their progress, the confirmation also has a **See progress** button. See [Respondent status](/docs/process/respondent-status).

## Insert answers

Select **Insert answer** above a subject or message to add the **Form title** or the answer to any question. It appears as a placeholder such as `{{ form_title }}` and is replaced with the answer when the email is sent. A placeholder for a question with no answer is left blank.

In messages, leave a blank line to start a new paragraph.

To place the **See progress** link inside your message, type `{{ status_link }}`.

## What the answers look like

When answers are included, they are listed in form order with each question's label:

- Empty answers, and questions or pages hidden by conditional logic, are left out.
- Display-only content, such as headings and paragraphs, and password answers are never included.
- Hidden fields are included in the team email but not in the respondent's copy.
- Choices show their labels, yes-or-no questions show "Yes" or "No", files show as "1 file" or the number of files, and signatures show as "Signed".
- Repeating questions and groups are numbered, for example "Guest 1" and "Guest 2".

## Email admins when an automation run fails

Turn on **Email admins when an automation run fails** to email every admin in your account when one of this form's automations fails: a step fails and the run is marked as failed, or a Stop ends the run as failed. The email names the automation, the step that failed and the error, or the Stop's reason, and has an **Open the run** button.

A failed step whose **When it fails** is **Stop, with the run completed** or **Carry on with the next step** doesn't send this email. See [When a step fails](/docs/automations/steps#when-a-step-fails).

Admins get at most one email an hour for each automation, so a run of failures does not flood their inbox. To investigate failures, see [Runs and testing](/docs/automations/runs).

## Who sends the emails

Emails come from FormWork, with your account name as the sender, for example "Acme via FormWork". They are sent after the submission is saved, so a problem sending an email never stops a submission.

Submissions made through a draft preview link or **Preview** are real, so they send notifications too.

## When you need more

Notifications cover the common cases. For anything else, such as emailing a different person depending on an answer, sending an email when an entry moves to a new stage, or attaching a generated document, use an automation. See [Automations](/docs/automations/overview) and [Steps](/docs/automations/steps).