Use Formester Workflows to automatically remind respondents who started a form but did not finish it. This is useful for applications, registrations, surveys, and other forms with a fixed deadline.

In this example, we will create an Annual Scholarship Application form and send two reminders to applicants who abandon their application:

• 10 days before the deadline
• 2 days before the deadline

The same setup can be repeated for each application period throughout the year.

Example use case

A scholarship organization accepts applications three times a year:

This results in six reminder emails across the year.

For the example below, we will configure the workflow for the Spring Scholarship deadline of April 30, 2027.

Before you start

Make sure your form has an Email field. Formester uses this email address to send the reminder to the respondent.

You also need to enable Partial submission so that data from forms that were started but not submitted can be collected.

1. Add an Email field

Open your scholarship application form and add an Email field where respondents can enter their email address.

For example:

Email Address
applicant@example.com

This email address will be used by the workflow's Send email step.

2. Enable Partial Submission

Go to your form's:

Settings → Save, resume and collaborate

Enable Partial submission.

Partial submission allows Formester to collect data from forms that were started but not submitted.

Create the reminder workflow

3. Open Workflows

From your form, go to:

Automate → Workflows

Click Add Workflow.

4. Choose the Form Abandoned trigger

Select Form abandoned and click Continue.

The Form Abandoned trigger runs when someone starts the form but does not finish it.

You can also configure how long the respondent needs to be inactive before the form is considered abandoned.

For example, you could set:

Wait for: 15 Minutes

For testing, you can use a shorter duration such as 5 minutes.

Configure the reminder dates

After adding the trigger, create two branches from the Form abandoned step.

Each branch will contain:

Wait until a date → Send email

One branch will handle the 10-day reminder, and the other will handle the 2-day reminder.

Your workflow will look like this:

Form abandoned
      │
      ├── Wait until April 20, 2027 → Send email
      │
      └── Wait until April 28, 2027 → Send email

5. Add the first "Wait until a date" step

Click the + below the Form Abandoned trigger and select Wait until a date.

Set the date and time to when you want to send the first reminder.

For our example:

Date: April 20, 2027
Time: Choose the time you want the email to be sent

This is 10 days before the April 30 deadline.

6. Add the second "Wait until a date" step

Create another branch from Form abandoned and add another Wait until a date step.

Set:

Date: April 28, 2027
Time: Choose the time you want the email to be sent

This is 2 days before the deadline.

Configure the reminder email

7. Add a Send email step

Add a Send email step after each Wait until a date step.

The email should be sent to the email address collected in the form.

In the To field, select the form's Email Address field.

8. Add the reminder email content

You can personalize the email using form fields and workflow variables.

For example, you can insert the respondent's first name using the @ menu.

A reminder email could look like this:

Subject: Complete your scholarship application

Body:

Hello @First Name,

You started an application for the Scholarship but have not submitted it yet.

The application deadline is April 30, 2027.

You can return to your application and complete the remaining questions before the deadline:

@ → Submission → Continue draft link

Please complete and submit your application before the deadline.

Best regards,
Scholarship Team

9. Add the Continue draft link

In the email editor, type @ and select:

Submission → Continue draft link

This inserts a link that allows the respondent to reopen their unfinished submission and continue where they left off.
This is important for abandoned-form reminders because the recipient can continue their existing response instead of starting the form again.

10. Configure the email sender

Complete the remaining email settings, including:

• To: Select the form's Email Address field
• Reply to: Add a reply address if required
• SMTP Integration: Select your configured sending account
• Subject: Add the reminder subject
• Body: Add your reminder message and Continue draft link

Repeat the same setup for the second Send email step.

For the second reminder, you can make the subject more time-sensitive:

Subject: Reminder: Your scholarship application is due in 2 days

Publish the workflow

11. Publish the workflow

Once both reminder branches are configured, click Publish.

Your workflow will now be active for new abandoned submissions.

The workflow list will show the workflow and its published status.

Test the workflow

Before using the workflow in production, test it with a sample submission.

1. Start the form

Open the form and fill out several fields.

Make sure you also enter an email address that you can access.

2. Abandon the form

Close the form without submitting it.

The workflow will treat the submission as abandoned after the inactivity period configured in the Form abandoned trigger.

For testing, you can use a shorter period such as 5 or 15 minutes instead of waiting for the production value.

3. Check Workflow Runs

Go to:

Automate → Workflows → Open your workflow → Runs

You should see a new workflow run for the abandoned submission.

The run will show the workflow steps and their status.

4. Verify the scheduled steps

Open the workflow run to see the path taken and the status of each step.

The Wait until a date steps will pause the workflow until their configured date and time, after which the corresponding Send email step will run.

Verify that:

• The abandoned submission triggered the workflow.
• The respondent's email address was selected correctly.
• The workflow reached the Wait until a date step.
• The reminder email was sent at the configured time.
• The Continue draft link is included in the email.

5. Verify the reminder email

After configuring the Send email step, test the workflow to verify that the respondent receives the reminder email as expected.

Updated on: 21/09/2026