Lots of WordPress form plugins can store its submissions within the WordPress database, although it’s not always available or ideal. I’ve had to copy this sort of info into a spreadsheet more than once, especially where it’s a complex or non-typical form. The Bit Flows plugin lets me (and you) automate captures from your form plugin and whisk them over to your choice of ‘storage’ – all within the confines of WordPress.

To show you, I’m going to take a typical example of storing form submissions in a Google Sheets document, but Bit Flows isn’t a one-trick pony. In fact, let me start with what the plugin offers.

Understanding Bit Flows and its capabilities

Bit Flows is a self-hosted automation plugin for WordPress. It gives you similar functionality to apps such as Zapier or Make, but runs within your WordPress dashboard without relying on external servers.

The plugin addresses two specific problems that other automation tools create:

• There are no workflow limits that restrict how many automations you can build or how many times they can run. Bit Flows doesn’t care whether you build ten workflows or ten thousand, ran once or a million times.
• Your data remains within your own hosting environment rather than passing through third-party servers. As such, form submissions stay within your infrastructure until it reaches the destination.

The visual builder uses a drag-and-drop interface that connects triggers to actions. Triggers represent events that start the workflow, such as form submissions or new posts. Actions define what happens next, such as sending data to Google Sheets or creating a CRM contact.

Between these elements, you can add logic tools such as routers for conditional branching, delays for time-based sequences, and iterators for processing multiple items. These tools let you build workflows that match your specific business logic rather than forcing you into predefined templates.

How Bit Flows pricing works

The pricing structure offers both one-time payments and subscriptions. While there are four tiers, the rising cost only relates to the number of licenses you want to purchase.

Yes, that’s right – Bit Flows does the thing I like! It offers the entire feature set across all plans, so all you have to worry about is the number of installs you need:

• Starter: $142 annually or $238 lifetime for a single site.
• Plus: $238 for annual billing or a lifetime license for $358 extends coverage to five sites.
• Developer: Annual access to 50 licenses costs $358, while a lifetime license is $598.
• Agency: This plan is slightly different for its lifetime licenses. While it costs $478 per year for 100 sites and the lifetime license is $838, there’s also a five month option available.

The unlimited workflow and task execution means you’re not paying more based on how many automations you create or how often they run. This contrasts with subscription services that charge based on monthly task limits.

Of course, for the workflow I’m demonstrating here the Starter plan provides everything you need. The higher tiers make sense when you manage multiple sites or client projects rather than different feature sets.

Why Bit Flows works for WordPress automation

You’d have a logical case that there are already tools to connect apps and solutions together, which might negate the need for Bit Flows. Hold your horses though, because typical automation services require you to leave WordPress. At times, this is not an ideal situation.

For instance, you can log into Zapier or Make, configure workflows in its interface, and hope the integration with WordPress works correctly. Any troubleshooting means switching between platforms and figuring out which system caused the problem.

In contrast, you won’t have to head anywhere else but your WordPress dashboard with Bit Flows. You configure triggers, build workflows, and monitor execution without opening another tab. For quick adjustments or troubleshooting issues during a busy workday, this will pay for itself.

The plugin supports hundreds of platform integrations. This includes form builders such as Bit Form, Elementor Forms, and WPForms; e-commerce tools such as WooCommerce and Shopify; CRM systems (think FluentCRM or HubSpot); and productivity apps (Google Sheets, Slack, Mailchimp, and more).

When a native integration doesn’t exist, the Custom API functionality lets you build connections to any service with a documented API. This flexibility means you’re not locked into a fixed set of supported platforms.

How to to Automate Your Form Submissions Using Bit Flows (5 Step Process)

Okay, now you’re up to speed on Bit Flows, you can begin to use it. I’m going to get straight into a walk through on combining Bit Flows with Google Sheets to automate your form submissions. However, the process will adapt to whatever services you use and scenario.

Before you start, you’ll want the following in place:

• A valid Bit Flows license.
• Access to Google Sheets.
• A suitable form plugin within WordPress. I’m using Bit Form, but there is support for many others.

Any plugins that need installing and activating follow the typical approach for WordPress. Once you’re ready, you can look to build a new flow.

1. Create a new workflow and name it

To start, navigate to Bit Flows Pro > Flows then click Create Flow.

Here, give your flow a name and choose an option. You can create a blank flow or work with an example. The example flow is going to work for this use case. Selecting it will open the visual builder canvas:

Let me take you on a quick tour of what you can see. In the middle is the flow canvas, which is where you drag and drop the elements to build your automation. On the left-hand side are the Apps and Tools that make up those flows. Apps are the services you’ll connect and Tools are the means to link them.

Note that the canvas autosaves your work as you build, so you can keep going with the peace of mind that you won’t lose your progress.

2. Add and configure your Bit Form trigger

Every workflow starts with a trigger that defines when the automation runs. For this use case, the trigger fires when someone submits a specific Bit Form. There will always be a blank trigger within the middle of the canvas. In this instance, I’m going to have to delete the existing Incoming Webhook trigger to add my own. You do this through clicking it and choosing the Trash icon:

When it’s empty, click it again and search for your form solution within the right-hand sidebar. You can click the item you want to add as your trigger and in the case of this one, select the correct contact form that will trigger the trigger!

Choosing a form will give you a handy setup for ‘listening’ to the trigger, which is simply a test that Bit Flows is capturing data. This is where using Bit Form is cool, because you can preview a form, fill it with dummy data, and submit without building a page or navigating to your site:

Back in Bit Flows, you’ll see the response that should contain the form submission contents. Bit Flows captures all fields from your selected form. The system grabs name fields, email addresses, phone numbers, message text, and any custom fields you’ve added. This data becomes available to use in subsequent workflow steps.

3. Connect Google Sheets as your action

With the trigger in place, you need to tell Bit Flows what to do with the form data. This requires adding a Google Sheets action to the workflow, but first, you can delete almost everything on the canvas to leave only the Google Sheet tool:

While the Google Sheet tool is already here, you can add more in the same way you added triggers to the canvas. For this App, you can choose to add or append rows to the spreadsheet. Regardless, click the Google Sheet tool to open its sidebar. This is where you’ll make the connection between Google and Bit Flows.

Building this connection is beyond the scope of the post, but it’s a matter of creating a Client ID within Google Console and pasting that into the Google Sheet tool field:

Eventually, you’ll be able to choose a spreadsheet from a drop-down list:

Next, choose which worksheet (tab) within the spreadsheet will receive your data and prepare to map your fields.

4. Map your form fields to spreadsheet columns

The mapping section determines how form data will align with your spreadsheet structure. In other words, you match each form field to the correct column in Google Sheets.

Bit Flows displays a list of all columns in your selected worksheet. Next to each column name there’s a field where you can insert form data (the Value). Here, you select the variables that correspond to the right data you want to pass along the chain:

Test Run will let you check that you’ve set up the fields correctly. I’ll talk more about this aspect next.

5. Test your workflow before going live

There are a few ways you can test out your connections, triggers, actions, and anything else. When adding certain actions – such as the Google Sheets connection in this example – you can submit a Test Run to see what data is passed along:

This is a ‘live’ run of this part of your flow. For me, I’m checking the spreadsheet simply to see if the data populates:

Once you know everything works you can also click the Test Flow Once button to run the whole thing. You’ll spy a notification in the corner of the screen letting you know the status of the test and to check the logs:

This is a good idea, as Bit Flows records the details of every run of your flow. Checking this will let you dig into any issues so you can see exactly where a flow is not optimal. Remember, your flow will be live now. If you need to do any further work and don’t want to populate your tools with test data, toggle the flow off on the Bit Flows Pro > Flows screen.

Automating Anything in Bit Flows is a Breeze!

Using Bit Flows means your form data never leaves your infrastructure until it reaches Google Sheets (or whichever service you push to). If you’re managing contact forms, lead generation, or customer inquiries yet need to automate the data collection, Bit Flows is going to provide immediate value. I was able to get a basic flow up and running in about ten minutes, less the setup time in Google.

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Do you have any questions about using Bit Flows? Ask away in the comments section below!