Set up form notifications so leads do not arrive silently

| Field | Value ||---|---|| Audience | SGEN site owners, marketing managers, team admins || Page type | guide || Area | Get Started || Updated | 2026-05-25 |

How to configure form notification routing so every submission reaches the right inbox

A visitor submits your contact form. SGEN records the submission. No email goes out. Three days later, a potential customer has moved on because nobody followed up.

This is the default outcome if form notifications are not configured. SGEN stores submissions safely in the dashboard — but without a notification recipient set, no email is triggered. The lead exists. Nobody knows about it.

This guide covers the complete notification routing setup: who receives the email, what the email says, what the reply-to address is, how to test delivery before you go live, and how to verify that notifications keep working over time. You do this once per form. For most sites, the setup takes under ten minutes.

The configuration this guide builds: a contact form routes to the marketing inbox, a wholesale inquiry form routes to the sales lead, and an event RSVP form routes to the events coordinator. Each form has its own recipient. The audit log shows delivery records for all three.

What is this for?

Form notifications in SGEN are the email alerts SGEN sends when a visitor submits a form on your site. Every form has a Mail Settings panel. That panel controls who gets the email, what the subject line says, what the body includes, and what address the recipient can reply to.

Without a notification recipient set, submissions accumulate in the dashboard silently. They are not lost — they can still be retrieved from the submissions list under My Forms — but no one is alerted in real time. For most sites that use forms to collect leads, inquiries, or RSVPs, that silent accumulation means slow or missed follow-up.

Three situations make this guide directly relevant.

You published a new form. The form is live and collecting submissions, but you have not configured Mail Settings yet. Any submissions that arrive before you finish this guide will not trigger notifications. Completing this setup now closes that gap and makes the form fully operational.

You are auditing existing forms. Your site has been running for a while. You are not sure which forms have notification routing configured and which do not. This guide shows you where to check and what to fix. A five-minute audit of each form using the Mail Settings panel tells you exactly where the gaps are.

You are changing who receives the notifications. A team member left. The email address on an old form routes to an inbox nobody monitors. You need to update the recipient. The same Mail Settings panel handles this. Change the address, test delivery, save — done.

Good use cases

These are the situations where form notification routing has the most impact.

• A new contact form with a single recipient. A general contact form routes to one address: the marketing inbox. The marketing manager receives an email the moment a visitor submits. She replies directly from her email client, and the reply goes to the visitor — not to a SGEN no-reply address — because the reply-to is set to the visitor's submitted email. This is the most common configuration and this guide builds it exactly.

• A wholesale inquiry form routed to the sales lead. Wholesale inquiries have a different urgency and a different owner. The sales lead receives those submissions separately. The form uses the same SGEN notification system but with a different recipient address in Mail Settings. No custom integration required — it is a different address in the same field.

• A team-shared inbox for high-volume forms. A newsletter signup form gets dozens of submissions a week. Instead of routing to a single person, notifications go to a shared team inbox that the whole marketing team monitors. The shared inbox address goes in the recipient field. Any team member can act on a submission without one person becoming a bottleneck.

• A role-based routing setup across multiple forms. A site with four different forms — contact, support, partnership inquiry, press — routes each one to the team role that owns it. Support goes to the support team inbox, partnership goes to the business development lead, press goes to the communications manager. Each form has its own Mail Settings. Each recipient only hears about the submissions relevant to their work.

• An RSVP form where confirmation is time-sensitive. An event RSVP form needs immediate attention when someone registers. The events coordinator receives the notification, cross-checks against a capacity cap, and sends a personal confirmation to the attendee within the hour. This only works if the notification routing is configured before registrations open.

• A CRM integration via webhook alongside email notifications. Every wholesale inquiry submission needs to land in both the sales inbox (for immediate follow-up) and the CRM (for long-term tracking). SGEN supports both: the email notification goes to the sales lead, and a webhook fires separately to the CRM endpoint. This guide covers the email path; the webhook setup guide covers the CRM connection. Both run in parallel.

What NOT to use this for

• This guide does not cover building or editing the form itself. Fields, layout, conditional logic, and submission validation live in the form builder. Mail Settings is separate from the form design — it only controls what happens after a submission arrives. If your form fields are not right, fix those first, then come back here.

• This guide does not cover spam filtering or anti-spam configuration. If you are receiving too many spam submissions and want to reduce them, that is a separate setting. This guide is for configuring where legitimate submissions go — not for reducing noise at the submission stage.

• This guide does not cover downloading or exporting submission data. If you need a CSV export of submissions, or you want to configure how submission records are stored, that is covered in the submission management documentation. Notification routing is about real-time alerts — not about the data store.

• This guide does not cover what happens when your SMTP relay goes down. If notifications stop because of a custom SMTP configuration issue, that is an Email / SMTP setup problem. This guide assumes SGEN's built-in email delivery is working. If you are using a custom SMTP relay, confirm it is operating before using this guide to configure notification recipients.

• This guide does not cover setting up the forms themselves from scratch. If you have not built your form yet, build it first. A notification recipient configured on a form that is not published does not trigger emails. Publish the form, then configure Mail Settings.

How this connects to other features

Form notification routing works alongside several other SGEN features. Understanding where they intersect helps you configure a complete setup.

My Forms is where all of this lives. The full list of your site's forms, including their submission counts and current status, is under the admin → My Forms. Mail Settings is accessed from the detail view of each individual form. Every form has its own Mail Settings — there is no global default recipient.

User roles determine who can appear as a notification recipient. SGEN does not restrict the notification email address to users who have a dashboard account — any email address can be entered as a recipient. But if you plan to route notifications to a team member who also has dashboard access, their role determines what they can do when they follow up inside the dashboard.

Audit log records notification delivery events. Every notification SGEN attempts to send is logged. If a recipient reports they are not receiving notifications, the audit log is the first place to check — it shows whether the notification was sent, when, and to which address. the admin → Audit Log → filter by "form notification."

Webhooks extend notification routing to external systems. If you want submission data to flow into a CRM, a Slack channel, or any other endpoint in addition to the email notification, you configure that in the Webhooks section. Email notification and webhook fire independently — enabling one does not affect the other.

Email / SMTP setup controls the sending infrastructure. By default, SGEN uses its own delivery infrastructure. If your account is configured to use a custom SMTP relay, notifications route through that relay. If notifications are not arriving, check Email / SMTP settings before troubleshooting the recipient address.

Before you start

Confirm these things before opening Mail Settings on any form.

The form is built and published. Mail Settings on an unpublished form does not trigger notifications — there are no submissions to notify about. Make sure the form is live on your site and accepting submissions before configuring routing.

You know who should receive notifications for this form. Have the recipient email address ready. For a shared inbox, confirm the address with your team before entering it. For a role-based setup where different forms route to different people, write down the mapping: form name → recipient address. One minute of planning avoids the confusion of reconfiguring every form individually.

The recipient email address is reachable and monitored. A notification routed to an inbox nobody checks is no better than no notification at all. Confirm with the intended recipient that they check that address regularly and that it will not automatically file SGEN notifications to a folder that gets ignored.

You have admin access to the form. Mail Settings is available to users with admin-level access on the account. If you cannot see the Mail Settings tab when you open a form in My Forms, your role may not include it. Ask your account admin for access or ask them to complete this configuration on your behalf.

Where to go

Navigate to the admin → My Forms. Find the form you want to configure. Click its name or the Settings action to open the form detail view.

Inside the form detail view, look for the Mail Settings tab. It sits alongside the form builder tabs (Fields, Design, Integrations, depending on your SGEN version). Click Mail Settings to open the notification configuration panel.

The path is: yoursite.com/sg-admin/forms → click the form name → click Mail Settings.

Every form has its own Mail Settings panel. Changes you make here apply only to this form. Repeat this process for each form you want to configure.

Steps — Configure form notification routing

These steps take you from no notification configured to a fully tested, active notification setup on a single form. Repeat for each form on your site.

1. Open the form's Mail Settings

From the admin → My Forms, locate the form you want to configure. Click the form name to open the detail view.

Click the Mail Settings tab. The notification configuration panel opens. If the panel shows blank fields, notifications have never been configured for this form. If it shows a pre-filled address, a previous configuration exists — review it before making changes.

Check the Enable notifications toggle or checkbox at the top of the panel. If it is off, notifications will not fire regardless of what is configured in the other fields. Turn it on before proceeding.

2. Set the notification recipient

Enter the email address that should receive notifications in the Notification recipient field.

For a single recipient, enter one email address: you@yoursite.com.

For multiple recipients — a shared inbox pattern or a team distribution — enter addresses separated by commas with no space after the comma: marketing@yoursite.com,you@yoursite.com.

A wholesale inquiry form can route to two addresses: the sales lead and the sales shared inbox. Both receive every submission. The sales lead handles immediate follow-up; the shared inbox is the permanent record.

Do not enter more than four or five individual addresses in one field. If your notification routing requires more recipients than that, use a distribution list or shared inbox at the email provider level and enter that single address in SGEN.

3. Customize the notification subject and body template

The subject line is what the recipient sees in their inbox before opening the email. Make it specific enough to be actionable at a glance.

A generic subject like "New submission" requires the recipient to open the email to know which form it is from and why it matters. A specific subject like "New wholesale inquiry — Your Site Name" gives them the context before they open.

SGEN supports dynamic variables in the subject line:

• {form_name} — inserts the form's name as configured in My Forms
• {site_name} — inserts your site name from Site Settings
• {submission_date} — inserts the date and time of the submission

A recommended subject template for most use cases: New {form_name} submission — {site_name}

For the notification body, SGEN pre-populates a default template that includes all submitted field values. Review the default template and adjust it for your team's needs. Key variables for the body:

• {submission_fields} — outputs every form field and its submitted value, formatted as a readable list
• {submission_date} — the timestamp of the submission
• {field:email} — the value submitted in the field named "email" (useful for the reply-to configuration)
• {field:name} — the value submitted in the field named "name"

If your form has a field with a specific slug (the internal field identifier set in the form builder), use {field:your_field_slug} to pull that specific value into the subject or body. Check the form builder for the field slug if you are unsure what it is.

4. Set the reply-to address

The reply-to field controls what happens when the recipient hits Reply in their email client.

Without a reply-to address set, replying to a SGEN notification sends your response to SGEN's no-reply sender address. The lead never receives your response. This is the most common configuration error in form notification setups.

Set the reply-to to {field:email} — this tells SGEN to populate the reply-to address with the value the visitor entered in the form's email field. When the recipient replies, the response goes directly to the lead.

This requires that your form has a field named "email" (or with the slug "email"). If your form uses a different slug for the email field — for example, "contact_email" — use {field:contact_email} instead. Check the form builder for the exact slug.

For forms where the visitor does not submit an email address (RSVP forms that only collect a name and response, for example), leave the reply-to blank or enter a general inbox address your team monitors.

5. Send a test notification and verify delivery

Before you save and consider this done, send a test notification. SGEN provides a Send test notification button at the bottom of the Mail Settings panel. Click it.

The test notification arrives at the configured recipient address within one to two minutes. Check the inbox.

Verify three things when the test arrives.

First, the subject line reads correctly. Dynamic variables should be resolved — not showing raw {form_name} placeholders. If variables are showing as raw text, the variable name is likely mistyped in the subject field. Fix it and test again.

Second, the body includes the submission fields formatted readably. The test notification uses placeholder values for the submission fields. Confirm the layout and field order make sense for the recipient.

Third, the reply-to address is set correctly. In your email client, hit Reply on the test notification. The To field of your reply should show the reply-to address you configured — either a resolved visitor email (in test mode, a placeholder) or the static address you entered. If it shows SGEN's no-reply address, the reply-to field is blank or misconfigured.

6. Save and activate notifications

Once the test notification passes all three checks, click Save mail settings.

SGEN confirms the save with a success message. From this point, every submission on this form triggers a notification to the configured recipient.

To confirm the setting is active: navigate away from Mail Settings, then return. The recipient field should show the address you entered. The Enable notifications toggle should show as on.

If you have multiple forms to configure, return to the admin → My Forms and repeat this process for each one. Each form has its own Mail Settings — you cannot configure a global default recipient that applies to all forms.

7. Enable audit logging and verify delivery on a live submission

After going live, verify that notifications are functioning on real submissions — not the test.

Submit the form yourself using a browser tab where you are not logged in to the dashboard. Use your own email address as the visitor email so you can verify what the lead receives (reply-to should send responses to your address).

Check two things after submitting.

First, the notification arrives at the configured recipient inbox within one to two minutes. If it does not, go to the troubleshooting section below.

Second, the audit log shows the delivery attempt. Go to the admin → Audit Log and filter for form notification events. The log shows each notification attempt, the destination address, the timestamp, and the delivery status (delivered, bounced, or failed). A green delivered status confirms the notification reached the recipient's mail server.

What success looks like

When form notification routing is fully configured and verified, these things are true.

• Every form on your site that handles leads, inquiries, or RSVPs has a notification recipient set in Mail Settings.
• The Enable notifications toggle is on for each configured form.
• The notification subject is specific enough to identify the form and the site at a glance without opening the email.
• The reply-to is set to {field:email} (or the appropriate field slug), so replies from the recipient go directly to the lead.
• A test notification was sent and received before saving.
• At least one live submission has been verified — the notification arrived in the inbox within two minutes of the form being submitted.
• The audit log shows a delivered status for the live submission notification.
• You know the recipient is actively monitoring the inbox the notifications go to.

The next step after this is routine — not configuration. A working form notification setup requires no regular maintenance unless the recipient address changes or you add a new form. When you add a form, come back here and repeat Steps 1 through 7 for the new form before publishing it.

If your site has more than a few forms, keep a simple internal record of which form routes to which recipient. A shared note or a row in a team spreadsheet is enough. When team members change and you need to update routing, you will know exactly which forms to check rather than opening Mail Settings on every form one by one.

What to do if it does not work

The notification is not arriving at all.

Check the audit log first. Go to the admin → Audit Log and filter for form notification events from the time you submitted the form. If the log shows a delivered status, SGEN sent the notification — the issue is on the recipient's mail server or in their spam folder. Ask the recipient to check spam or junk.

If the audit log shows a failed or bounced status, SGEN attempted the send but it did not reach the mail server. The most common cause is a typo in the recipient address. Open Mail Settings for the form, verify the address character by character, correct it, and send another test.

If the audit log shows no record of the notification at all, the Enable notifications toggle is likely off. Open Mail Settings, check the toggle, turn it on, save, and test again.

The notification is going to the wrong recipient.

Open Mail Settings for the form and review the recipient field. If the field shows an old address, update it to the correct one. Save and send a test to confirm the new address is receiving.

If you configured multiple addresses and one of them is not receiving, check whether the comma-separated list is formatted correctly. SGEN expects no spaces after the comma: address1@domain.com,address2@domain.com. A space before the second address can cause the second address to fail silently.

The subject line shows raw placeholder text like {form_name} instead of the actual value.

The variable name is either mistyped or the form name is blank. Check the form name in My Forms — it is the label displayed in the forms list. If the form name is set, the variable should resolve. Try removing and re-entering the {form_name} variable in the subject field to rule out a formatting issue, then test again.

Replies to the notification go to SGEN's no-reply address, not to the lead.

The reply-to field is blank or not set correctly. Open Mail Settings, find the reply-to field, and confirm it contains {field:email} (or the correct field slug for your form's email field). If the field is blank, enter the variable, save, and test by hitting Reply on a test notification to verify the To address.

One recipient in a multi-recipient setup is not receiving notifications.

Verify the comma-separated list in the recipient field has no spaces after commas. Then check whether the missing recipient's email address is correct — a single-character typo silently drops one address from the delivery while the others continue working. Ask the missing recipient to check their spam folder as a first step.

The webhook is not firing even though email notifications are working.

Email notification and webhook are configured and fired separately. Working email notifications do not confirm the webhook is active. Go to the admin → Integrations → Webhooks, find the webhook associated with this form, and check its status and delivery log. If the webhook URL is unreachable or the integration is not enabled, it fails independently of the email notification. The Webhooks setup guide covers this in detail.

Notifications stopped working on a form that was previously configured correctly.

Check whether the Enable notifications toggle was accidentally turned off. Open Mail Settings for the form and verify the toggle is on. If it is on and the recipient address is correct, check the Email / SMTP settings page to confirm the sending infrastructure is operating. An SMTP relay configuration issue can cause all form notifications across the site to stop simultaneously, while Mail Settings for individual forms appears correct.

A few habits that keep notifications reliable

These are small practices that prevent the most common failure modes after initial setup.

Test every new form before publishing it.

The five minutes it takes to send a test notification before a form goes live is the only reliable way to confirm the routing works. Discovering a misconfiguration after real leads have arrived silently costs more time than the test does.

Audit your forms after any team change.

When someone leaves the team or changes roles, their email address may still be the notification recipient on one or more forms. Go to My Forms and check the recipient field for every form. Update any addresses that route to inactive inboxes. The audit takes less time than the first missed lead.

Use shared inboxes for high-volume forms.

Routing high-volume form notifications to a single person's inbox creates a dependency on that person. If they are out, notifications arrive and go unread. A shared team inbox distributes the load and eliminates the single point of failure. Set it up at your email provider level and enter the shared address in SGEN.

Check the audit log when a recipient reports a delivery issue.

Do not guess whether SGEN sent the notification. Open the audit log, filter for form notifications, and look for the delivery status. A delivered status in the log means the issue is on the recipient's side — spam filter, wrong inbox folder, or email client delay. A failed status means SGEN did not send it, and the Mail Settings need attention.

Configure reply-to before the form goes live, not after.

The reply-to configuration is easy to skip during setup and easy to forget exists. But it is what separates a notification setup where leads get followed up from one where the recipient's reply disappears into a no-reply void. Configure it in Step 4, test it by hitting Reply on the test notification, and confirm before saving.

Retest after any SMTP relay change.

If your account switches from SGEN's built-in email delivery to a custom SMTP relay — or the other way around — form notifications are affected. Send a test notification from Mail Settings after any delivery infrastructure change, even if the form and its recipient have not changed.

## Related reading

Topic
Manage form submissions
User roles and permissions
View the audit log
Set up a webhook integration
Email and SMTP setup