How to View and Manage Form Submissions in Koala Forms

Email notifications are great for staying alerted, but inboxes get messy, messages get deleted, and important entries get buried under everything else in your day. That’s why Koala Forms also stores every submission safely in your WordPress database, giving you a permanent, searchable record you can return to any time — and a lightweight workflow to actually process those entries.

In this guide you’ll learn where your WordPress form submissions live, how to review individual entries, how to track them through your workflow with stages, and how to clean up safely.

Where form submissions are stored

Every time someone submits one of your forms, Koala Forms saves the entry — along with useful metadata like the submission date and the visitor’s browser — directly inside WordPress. Nothing depends on a third-party service, and nothing is lost if a notification email fails to deliver. Your data is yours, sitting in your own database.

This is a meaningful advantage: even if you never set up email notifications, no submission is ever lost. The Submissions screen is your source of truth.

Step 1: Open the Submissions screen

In your WordPress admin, go to Koala Forms → Submissions. This is the central list of every entry across all your forms, sorted newest first.

Each row shows the essentials at a glance — which form the entry came from, when it arrived, and its current status — so you can scan recent activity in seconds without opening anything.

Step 2: Open a single submission

Click a submission to open its full detail view. You’ll see two sections:

Submission Details — every field the visitor filled in, laid out clearly and in order.
Submission Information — metadata about the entry, such as when it was submitted and its current stage in your workflow.

Opening a submission also automatically marks it as read, so you can immediately tell which entries you’ve handled and which are brand new — a small touch that keeps a busy queue manageable.

Step 3: Track a submission’s stage

Koala Forms isn’t just a passive archive — it helps you process entries like a lightweight ticketing system. Every submission carries a stage that reflects where it is in your workflow. By default the stages are:

Submitted — a new, unhandled entry
Under Review — you’re actively looking at it
Approved — accepted / actioned
Rejected — declined

Change the stage right from the submission’s detail page, and optionally add a note explaining the change. Koala Forms keeps a full history of every stage change — who changed it, when, and why — so you always have a clear audit trail. That’s invaluable when a team shares the workload or when you need to justify a past decision.

This turns your submissions list into a review queue: applications flow from Submitted to Under Review to Approved or Rejected, and everyone can see the current state at a glance.

Step 4: Delete, trash, and restore submissions

Housekeeping is straightforward and safe, because Koala Forms uses the same trash-and-restore model as WordPress posts:

Move to Trash — remove an entry from the main list without permanently deleting it.
Restore — bring a trashed submission back if you removed it by mistake.
Delete permanently — clear entries you’re certain you no longer need, individually or by emptying the trash.

You can act on one submission at a time from its row, or select several and use bulk actions to trash, restore, or permanently delete them together — handy for clearing out spam or old test entries.

Step 5: Keep your submissions organized

A few simple habits keep even a high-traffic form manageable:

Work the stages. Move entries out of Submitted as you handle them, so the Submitted view always means “not yet touched.”
Add notes on stage changes. Future-you — and your teammates — will appreciate knowing why something was approved or rejected.
Trash spam promptly so it doesn’t clutter your real data.
Review regularly. A quick daily scan of new entries helps you spot trends, gaps, or setup issues early.

Frequently asked questions

Where are Koala Forms submissions stored?
Every submission is saved in your own WordPress database and viewable under Koala Forms → Submissions. Nothing is sent to a third-party service.

Can I see submissions even if email notifications fail?
Yes. Submissions are stored independently of email. Even with no notifications set up, every entry is safely recorded and viewable in the admin.

What are submission stages?
Stages are a built-in workflow status for each entry — Submitted, Under Review, Approved, or Rejected by default — so you can track and process entries like tickets. Every change is logged with a note and timestamp.

Can I delete a submission and get it back?
Yes. Move a submission to Trash and it can be restored later. Only “Delete permanently” (or emptying the trash) removes it for good.

Can I act on many submissions at once?
Yes. Select multiple entries and use the bulk actions to trash, restore, or permanently delete them together.

Key takeaways

WordPress form submissions are stored safely in your own database and listed under Koala Forms → Submissions.
Open any entry to see all submitted fields plus metadata; opening it marks it as read.
Use stages (Submitted → Under Review → Approved/Rejected) and notes to process entries with a full audit trail.
Trash, restore, and bulk actions make cleanup safe and fast.

With submissions stored, readable, and trackable inside WordPress, you have a complete record of everything your forms collect. When that record grows large, you’ll want to zero in on exactly the entries that matter — filtering by form and status — which is what we’ll cover next.