One link anybody can answer, and when to use it instead of a named request.
Every form has one public address of its own. When you turn it on, anyone who has that address can fill in the form and upload documents, with no named request behind it. It is useful in a few places and risky in others, so it is off until you choose to open it.
An open link suits a form you want to publish rather than send. Examples are a "get in touch" form on your website, a sign-up sheet for a seminar, or a questionnaire you print on a flyer.
It is the wrong choice for anything you would chase or track. Something sent through an open link:
For anything personal, such as account paperwork, statements or IDs, send a named request instead. See Sending a form to a client.
Only owners and admins can change General access, because they hold the permission to manage forms; everyone else sees which it is. The address only works while the form itself is open to clients. Going back to Only clients you send it to does not affect the private links you have sent to named clients. Those keep working.
Some forms cannot be opened this way. A form whose signature has to be confirmed with a code sent to an address you already hold can only go to named clients. If you try to open one, Cartenda tells you why.
You can also copy the address from the form's Actions menu with Copy link.
If the address has gone somewhere it should not have, owners and admins can choose Replace link… from the same menu, then Replace link. The old address stops working immediately, and anyone who needs the form will need the new one. Your named requests are not affected.
A reply from an email address you already have a client for appears in The Requests list with an Open link badge, and is filed under that client. So is a reply that gives no email address, which is filed under nobody. A reply from an address you have no client for waits for you first. See New people. Cartenda names it from the answers where it can. It uses an email question for the address, and a question asking for the person's own name, such as "Full name" or "Your legal name". If the form asks neither, the reply shows as an anonymous submission. Adding a name and an email question to any form you publish this way makes replies much easier to file. Without an email question, you cannot write back to the person, remind them or ask them for more, and the Share dialog says so while the link is on.
You review it like any other submission. See Reviewing a submission. The difference is that there is no link to send back through. You can still mark a document Not usable, but you cannot ask the sender for more through Cartenda. Contact them directly instead.
An open link accepts whatever email address is typed into it. So when a reply comes from an address you have no client for, Cartenda does not make that person a client on its own. You decide.
Everyone in your workspace who gets arrival emails is told somebody new is waiting, and the Problems list on your dashboard counts them. One form sends at most 20 of these emails a day; past that, new people still wait in the list and your morning summary, without an email each. An open link also takes only so many replies an hour, so a page posting to it in a loop is turned away. At the top of Requests, under New people, each one is listed with the name and email address they gave, the form, and when it arrived. Press Decide to see how many answers and documents they sent. You can't read the answers or open the documents yet.
While somebody waits, they are not counted as an active client, their documents do not count toward your storage, and nothing is sent to your CRM or webhooks.
A reply nobody decides about is deleted 30 days after it arrived, whatever your retention setting. Your morning summary email lists who is waiting and the day each will be deleted.
You confirm a person, not a reply. Once you confirm somebody, everything else they sent from that address while waiting is opened too, and their later replies arrive like any client's. Sending a request to that address, or adding or importing a client with it, confirms them the same way.
Anyone who holds the address can use it, including someone it was forwarded to. Set General access back to Only clients you send it to when a campaign ends. For more on this, see Keeping sensitive data out of email.
Still stuck? Write to hello@cartenda.com and a person will answer.