---
title: "Send a confirmation email when a form is submitted - Workflow Forms"
description: "A Shopify Flow workflow that emails the visitor a confirmation with their own message after they submit a Workflow Forms form, using Workflow Transactional Email. With the .flow file to import."
canonical: "https://docs.workflow-forms.app/send-a-confirmation-email-when-a-form-is-submitted"
---

# Send a confirmation email when a form is submitted

A visitor fills in your contact form and gets an email a moment later: *we received your message*, with the message they wrote quoted back. This article builds that workflow in Shopify Flow, step by step, and offers the finished workflow as a file to import.

**What you need**

- Workflow Forms with a form that has an **Email** field (the trigger's *Email* variable is the first email field of the form).
- Shopify Flow.
- An app that adds a *send email to anyone* action to Flow. Flow's own **Send internal email** only reaches your staff. This article uses our [Workflow Transactional Email](https://apps.shopify.com/flow-action-extensions) with a connected Microsoft 365, Google or SMTP sender.

## The workflow

| Step | Setting | Value |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Trigger | **Form submitted** (Workflow Forms) | no configuration |
| Action | **Send Transactional Email** (Workflow Transactional Email) | see below |

The trigger starts for every form. Add a **condition** on *Form handle* between the two steps if only one form should send this email.

### The Send Transactional Email step

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| To Email(s) | `{{ email }}` |
| Variables (JSON) | see the code below |
| Config page (**Configure Email**) | your sender and the layout *Thanks for your message* |

```json
{"form_title": "{{ formTitle }}", "data": {{ data }}}
```

`{{ data }}` is written **without quotes**: the trigger's *Data* variable is already JSON, so it becomes a nested object and the layout can read every field by its handle, for example `variables.data.message`. This is the easiest way to get a single submitted value into an email; no *Run code* step is needed.

### The email layout

In Workflow Transactional Email, create a transactional layout (text editor is enough) and select it on the step's config page together with a sender:

| Setting | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Name | Thanks for your message |
| Subject | `We received your message{% if variables.data.subject %}: {{ variables.data.subject }}{% endif %}` |
| Preview text | Thanks, we will get back to you shortly. |

```liquid
<p>Hi {{ variables.data.name | default: "there" }},</p>
<p>thanks for getting in touch through our <strong>{{ variables.form_title }}</strong> form. We received your message and will get back to you shortly.</p>
{% if variables.data.subject %}<p><em>Subject:</em> {{ variables.data.subject }}</p>{% endif %}
<p><em>Your message:</em><br>{{ variables.data.message | newline_to_br }}</p>
<p>Kind regards<br>{{ shop.name }}</p>
```

`name`, `subject` and `message` are the **field handles** of the form (Fields and the field library shows them). Rename them in the body if your form uses other handles. A field the form does not have, or a field hidden by a condition, is simply empty; the `default` filter and the `{% if %}` take care of that.

## Import the workflow instead

The file below is this workflow exported from Shopify Flow.

1. In Shopify Flow, click **Import** and choose the `.flow` file.
2. Open the **Send Transactional Email** step, click **Configure Email** and pick your sender and layout. The file carries the fields of the step, not your sender and layout, so this is always needed once.
3. **Turn on** the workflow.

## Test it

Send your form once on your storefront (the editor's *Test like a visitor* mode sends nothing to Flow). The run appears in Shopify Flow under **Recent runs**, the email in Workflow Transactional Email's **History**, with the variables the step received. Both apps keep the visitor's address out of their logs.

## Good to know

- **Reply-To**: set the step's *Reply-To* to your support address so a reply to the confirmation lands with your team.
- **Language**: the trigger's *Locale* variable is the storefront language the form was filled in. Put `{{ locale }}` into the step's *Language* field and the layout's translation in that language is sent, when it has one.
- **Consent**: a confirmation about the visitor's own message is transactional. Do not add newsletter content to it; *Marketing consent* tells you whether the visitor opted in, subscribing them is a separate step.

## Next steps

- [Shopify Flow triggers](https://docs.workflow-forms.app/shopify-flow-triggers.md) - every variable of the three triggers.
- [Fields and the field library](https://docs.workflow-forms.app/fields-and-the-field-library.md) - field handles.
- [The submissions inbox](https://docs.workflow-forms.app/submissions-inbox.md) - *Send to Flow again* repeats the trigger for a stored submission.