Tips & FAQs

Best Practices

These practices come from real-world event management experience with Forge and Salesforce. Following them will save you time and reduce errors.

Event setup

Use the Clone feature to create a new event from an existing one — it copies ticket types, form configuration, and page settings, saving 30–60 minutes of setup per event.
Set capacity (Maximum_Attendees__c) before activating an event. Changing capacity after registrations begin can cause waitlist edge cases.
Create a sandbox event first if you're testing a new checkout flow, payment gateway, or form configuration. Never use a production event for testing.
Always preview the registration page (Checkout Preview, beta) before publishing to registrants.
Name ticket types descriptively — "General Admission — $50" is clearer than "Ticket A" when reviewing attendee reports in Salesforce.

Use status filters in the Attendees tab rather than exporting and filtering in a spreadsheet. Forge queries live Salesforce data; a CSV export is a static snapshot.
When cancelling an attendee, decide whether to also issue a refund as a separate action. Changing an attendee's status to Cancelled does not automatically trigger a refund.
Use bulk actions (select multiple attendees, then choose an action) for status updates, email sends, and exports to avoid repetitive manual work.
Import attendees from a CSV only when you need to manually add people who did not register through the public page — for example, comp tickets for sponsors or speakers.

Map form questions to Contact or Attendee fields rather than creating new custom fields unless there is a specific reason. Reusing existing fields ensures Salesforce reports work correctly.
Test your form end-to-end in a sandbox before attaching it to a production event. Verify that answers are correctly written to the mapped Salesforce fields.
Use visibility rules sparingly — complex conditional logic can confuse registrants. Test every combination of conditions before launch.
Keep forms short. Every additional required question reduces registration completion rates.

Test your payment gateway with a $1 charge in a sandbox before enabling paid tickets in production. Confirm the Transaction record appears correctly in Salesforce.
Configure fees thoughtfully — passing 100% of processing fees to registrants increases sticker shock. Many organizations absorb a portion.
Issue discount codes with expiry dates or usage limits to prevent over-redemption.
Reconcile revenue monthly: compare Forge's Finance tab totals to your Salesforce Transaction reports and your gateway's dashboard.

Send a test email to yourself before scheduling any email to a real audience segment.
Build audience segments before you need them — audience creation requires saved criteria, and building them under time pressure leads to mistakes.
Use Salesforce's merge fields (first name, ticket type) to personalize emails. Generic emails have lower open rates.
Schedule reminder emails at least 3 days before the event, not the morning of.

Don't delete Salesforce records that Forge created without understanding the cascading effects. Deleting an Event_Item__c that has Attendee records will cause errors.
Run Salesforce data health reports monthly — duplicate Contacts lead to duplicate Attendee records, which distorts your registration counts.
Review Salesforce validation rules before adding new form fields. A validation rule that blocks a field write will silently prevent form answers from saving in some configurations.