Web Form intake when you don’t have the emails

Intake is the case where you need a signature and you do not have the inbox yet. A vendor finds you. A volunteer lands on a public page. A teammate on an intranet should start an acknowledgment without waiting for someone on the desk to type their address. That is a Web Form: a published /form/SLUG on top of a workspace template. The filler does not sign in. Each successful fill becomes a sent envelope.

The publish walkthrough is publish a Web Form from a template. The fork against a known list is bulk send vs Web Forms. Desk help is Docs. This guide is the intake job: when the slug is the right door, what the stranger actually completes, and what the form cannot do.

When intake is the right job

Use a Web Form when the next signer arrives on their own clock. You publish once. People fill when they are ready. You do not paste a CSV you do not have, and you do not stand up a hidden API form that pretends to be public.

• Vendor or contractor onboarding you cannot pre-list.
• A public request — a form on a site you already operate.
• Intranet acknowledgments where the audience is larger than the roster you keep current.
• Any envelope that should start from a name and email the person types themselves.

Do not use a Web Form when you already exported the addresses. That is bulk send: you start every envelope today. Do not use a Web Form when one agreement needs a requester and a countersigner on the same envelope. Routing lives on a send you start — send one envelope to multiple signers — not on the public fill. After a fill, if you later need a second signer, start a new envelope from the template once you have both names.

The template is the form

A Web Form is not a blank public upload. Save the PDF and its field marks as a workspace template, then publish from that layout. Members of another organization cannot see the form or the template. Templates that reuse field layouts and More on templates are the three-click save. Place text, date, checkbox, and select marks the filler should complete on the form. Signature and initials still happen on the signing page after the envelope exists.

What the stranger actually fills

They open /form/SLUG. They do not create a desk account. They complete required text, date, checkbox, and select fields plus their name and email. Inkpacket creates an envelope, copies those values onto the envelope, and sends the signing invite. If Resend is not configured the fill still succeeds and the page says The invite email was not sent. Use the signing link below. Copy that URL. The envelope exists.

The audit trail starts when that envelope exists, not when they first opened the slug. Created then sent, then viewed and signed on the signing page, then completed. Reading an audit trail is how to quote those events later.

PIN, reminders, and expiry on the form

You can set an optional access code, reminder days, and expiration on the published form. Every later fill inherits that window and that PIN. Envelopes already created keep the days they were born with. The PIN uses the same five-try, 15-minute lockout as an envelope access code. Share the code separately from the slug — a public page plus a PIN in the same paragraph is not a second factor. Access codes for sensitive envelopes and Docs match both paths. How to choose an envelope expiry is the window decision.

Caps, lanes, and what a fill costs

Each fill is a sent envelope. Free allows 5 packets a month and 1 published Web Form. Free at 5 packets a month is still the monthly gate on Free. Starter is 20 envelopes — more than Free — plus 3 published Web Forms. Growth is 10 forms, Agency 25. Starter grants more envelopes than Free (20 versus 5) and extra Web Forms. Seat counts are planning numbers; invite does not refuse when a workspace is full.

Billing is published, not charging. Checkout is not open. Workspaces start on Free. Hitting the envelope cap returns the same HTTP 402 ENVELOPE_LIMIT a desk send returns. Unpublish or wait for the month if you are testing fills against a real cap. Choosing a plan and published pricing state the same ladder.

What Web Form intake is not

• Not multi-signer routing. One filler, one envelope.
• Not a text entry point. The fill uses the email they typed. Text-message (SMS) is coming soon, and reminders go out by email today.
• Not a Drive upload. Archive still reports Drive not configured without credentials.
• Not a second envelope factory that skips the monthly cap.
• Not model-based field detection. Suggest starting layout is a page-count heuristic on the desk.

If you have the list, start the job. If a system already has the recipient, mint a token and create from the template — create an envelope from a template via the API. If the PDF is unique, upload once. If strangers should start the envelope, publish the slug and leave it up. Then file what they sign. Open a workspace on Free and share one form you actually intend to receive.