Common issues with lead capture forms and how to resolve them, from duplicate contacts to embed display problems.
Duplicate contacts from different email addresses
Dubsado matches contacts by email address. If a returning client fills out your lead capture form using a different email address than the one on file (even a minor variation like a typo, an extra period, or a different address entirely), Dubsado creates a new contact entry in Contacts rather than linking to the existing one.
If the email address matches exactly, Dubsado creates a new project under the existing contact without creating a duplicate.
Can't change the contact on a project
Once a contact is attached to a project, you can't reassign the project to a different contact. If the wrong contact was attached, you have two options to correct it:
Fill out the lead capture form again on behalf of the correct contact. See create a lead capture form for how to access and submit your form.
Create a new project manually with the correct contact. See Creating projects for the steps.
Once you have a new project set up with the correct contact, delete the project that was created in error.
Can't merge duplicate contacts
Dubsado does not support merging contact profiles. If you have a duplicate, the workaround is to delete it.
Before you can delete a contact, you must first delete all projects associated with that contact, including any archived projects. Once all associated projects are removed, you can delete the contact in one of two ways:
Go to Contacts, select the contact using the checkbox, then click Delete in the bulk actions bar that appears.
Go to Contacts, open the contact entry, click the three dots menu (...) next to the contact name, and select Delete.
Deleting a contact is permanent. Make sure to transfer any important information before deleting.
Lead capture forms don't update existing contact info
Lead capture forms are designed to collect information from new leads. They don't update existing contact profiles when a returning client submits them. This is intentional: because lead capture forms are publicly posted, automatically overwriting saved contact data with unverified form submissions would be a security risk.
To see what the contact submitted, follow these steps:
Go to Projects and click the client's project.
Click the Forms tab.
Click the lead capture form in the list to open it.
In the form detail view, click Responses to see the submitted information.
To manually update the contact's profile with the submitted information:
From the project overview, click the pencil icon on the contact card. This opens the contact edit modal.
Enter the updated information.
Click Save.
If you need contact profile fields to update automatically when a client submits a form, send your client a different form type, like a questionnaire. Information entered on other form types will update the contact profile.
You can also update a contact's profile directly from Contacts by opening the contact entry and editing from there.
Blank contact name and email from incorrect field mapping
If a lead capture submission comes in with a blank contact name or email address, the form's field mapping is likely missing or incorrect. Field mapping tells Dubsado where to store the information a client enters. Without it, the data doesn't connect to the contact profile.
To check and fix the field mapping, open the lead capture form template in the form builder and click each input element. For each name and email field, verify:
The element type is Short Answer or Date Select.
The Required toggle is set to Yes (otherwise clients can submit the form without filling in the field).
The Field Mapping dropdown is correctly mapped to the appropriate contact field.
For detailed steps on mapping fields, see map a form field. You can also use smart fields to pull saved contact data into other parts of your forms.
Can't find a client's lead capture form
Submitted lead capture forms are stored in the project that was created when the form was filled out. To find the form:
Go to Projects and click the client's project.
Click the Forms tab.
Click the lead capture form in the list to open it. Use the Responses and Preview toggles in the detail view to review what the client submitted.
Too much space at the top when embedded
Lead capture forms include default top padding of 60px, which can appear as extra space when the form is embedded on your website. To reduce it:
Open the lead capture form template in the form builder.
Click the Styling tab in the sidebar.
Change the Top padding value to reduce the space. You can also adjust Bottom padding from the same tab.
Embedded form scroll bar
If your embedded lead capture form displays a scroll bar, the iframe on your website doesn't have enough minimum height set to display the full form. This is fixed in your website's embed code, not in Dubsado itself.
You can find your embed code in the form builder by going to the Sharing tab and locating the Embed code section.
In your embed code, find this string:
style="width:1px; min-width:100%;"
Change it to:
style="width:1px; min-width:100%; min-height:1000px;"
Save and preview the page to verify the full form is visible. You may need to increase or decrease the 1000 value depending on the length of your form.
If you change the padding in the Styling tab, you may need to re-adjust the min-height value in your embed code.