Logging In Without a Guest List

Quick Tip

Guests who aren’t on a guest list can still log in and access shared entries as long as they have at least one authenticated Save & Resume or Workflow link sent to them and there’s a Public role view available for that form.

Use this option when you want to grant access without maintaining a guest list.

  1. Enable Guest Access.

  2. Choose the form you want guests to access and open the Build page.

  3. If needed, update the Show This Field and Read-Only settings on each field to control which fields guests can see and update when viewing their entries. You can adjust these settings specifically for the Public role.
    Update the Show This Field and Read-Only field settings.

  4. Share entries with guests in the Public role by either:

    • Sending authenticated Save & Resume links or Workflow links. Save & Resume links are generated when someone saves your form. You can share Workflow links through email notifications or manually from the Entries page.
      To enable these, open the form’s Workflow settings. Under Save & Resume, set Require Authentication to Always. Or, under Workflow Links, set Require Authentication to either Always or For Roles – Public.
      Send authenticated Workflow links.
  • In the settings for the Public role (in this example, the Employee role), under Share With, select an Email field or a Person field on your form to identify your guest.
    Edit the Public role.
  1. Save your changes, then go to the Entries page.
  2. Click the plus sign (+) to create an entry view (Grid, Task, or Form View) in the Public role.
  3. If needed, hide or filter out any data you don’t want guests to see — guests will see all visible columns by default.
    Hide or filter any data you don't want guests to see.

What happens next:

When guests open an authenticated Save & Resume or Workflow link sent to them, the entry will open automatically after they verify their email address and log in.

The entry will open automatically.

Guests can also log in directly at your organization’s Cognito Forms URL (example: https://www.cognitoforms.com/yourorganizationname) as long as they have an entry shared with them and the form has an entry view available for the Public role.