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Google Forms Limiter - How to Stop Accepting Responses

Form Controller helps you control when you want to open or close the form. There are two triggers to open or close the form .You can open or close based on time . You can also close the form when the no of responses reaches a certain size. You can also evaluate a cell value from a Google sheet and the form can be controlled when the cell value evaluates to true. Let's understand the features through a set of examples. Access settings by opening "Setup Controller" from the add-on menu.

When you open the "Setup Controller" menu, by default you see Time Based Form Limit Options . This is ideal if you want to open or close the form at a certain time or recurringly at certain times (Lets say every weekday between 10 AM and 12 PM)

If you want to control the Form based on a Formula you can switch to Formula Based Controller . This feature allows you to define a formula in a Google sheet where the form is attached . When this formula evaluates to true the form can be closed automatically with a custom message.

Time based Form Limiter​

Timezone​

By default, the add-on identifies your timezone. If you want to set it up for a different timezone, please select the appropriate timezone from the dropdown. This is mandatory for all setups.

Set Timezone

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This Timezone settings is different from Timezone and Date Time pattern

Open on a Future Date​

Open the form on a specific future date and time:

  • Open the "Setup Controller" window.
  • Select the future date and time for "Open form at."

Future Open

Close On a Future Date​

Close the form on a specific future date:

  • Open the "Setup Controller" window.
  • Select the future date and time for "Close form at."

Future Close

Display Custom Message for Respondents​

Display a custom message when the form is closed:

  • Configure the close message in the "Setup Controller" window.
  • A close message requires additional close conditions to take effect.

Custom Message

Open and Close in Future​

Keep the form open from next Monday at 10 AM to Friday at 5 PM:

  • Use the following controller setup in the "Setup Controller" window.

Open And Close

Open and Close Recurringly For Ever​

Open the form every Wednesday and Thursday between 10 AM and 12 PM:

  • Use the controller settings as shown in the "Setup Controller" window.

Open And Close Recurringly

Open and Close Recurringly Between Specific Dates​

Open the form every Wednesday and Thursday between 10 AM and 12 PM between 21st June 2021 and 21st Oct 12 AM:

  • Use the controller settings as shown in the "Setup Controller" window.

Open And Close Between Dates

Form Limiter Response Limit : Close Form Based on Number of responses​

You can use Max Responses Allowed field to configure this . Your Google form will automatically close when it reaches the configured number of responses .This is extremely useful when combined with time based controls .Lets say you want to open a form between 10 to 11 AM every weekday and you can take only 15 appointments .In this scenario the response counter will be reset automatically when the form reopens every day . The form will close automatically either at 11 AM or when it reaches 15 responses for the day ,whichever event happens earlier. You will also receive an email that tells if the form was closed because of Timer or Max response trigger .

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  • There may be a delay of +/-15 minutes during form open and close relative to the exact time mentioned in the controller settings.
  • Open and close dates take precedence over recurring open and close times.
  • Form will close on the specified date even if it is part of recurring open/close times. Let's say 19th June of a particular year falls on Saturday You have mentioned close date as 19th June 2 PM and Recurring End Time as Friday , Saturday between 10 AM to 4 PM. On Saturday 19th June the Close Time(2 PM) comes before the Recurring End Time (4 PM).So the Form will be closed at 2 PM on 19th June.
  • The form may not close exactly at the configured value of ``Max Responses Allowed` . This is because if multiple responses come at the same time they may be allowed before the form could be closed.

Formula based Form Limiter​

It is mandatory to link a spread sheet to google form for this feature to work . If your form is not already linked to a google sheet , Please link one by going to form Responses tab.

Sheet Name​

In the linked Google sheet ,you should add another Sheet .You can name the new sheet as "Form Notify Formula" . Though you can name it any thing , it's better to name it with the add-on so that you can later remember looking at the sheet. This name should be provided in the "Sheet Name" field of controller set up . You are going to create a formula in a cell of this sheet in the below steps .

Sheet cell​

In the new sheet you created please create a formula in a single cell that will evaluate to either "TRUE" or "FALSE" . Let's understand this with an example . Say you want to close the form when you have 20 form submissions. Google automatically names the Linked sheet as "Form Responses 1" , "Form Responses 2" etc . Create a formula =IF(COUNTA('Form Responses 1'!A2:A) >= 20, TRUE, FALSE) in cell A1 of "Form Notify Formula" sheet . The cell value of this will become TRUE as soon as you have 20 or more form submissions . You can see the we are counting the total rows from "Form Responses 1" using A2:A range which means we are ignoring the header row.

So the input value for this field in Controller setup for our example will be A1 .

Validate​

This button used to validate several things .

  • It validates that the Google form has a linked sheet.
  • It ensures the Sheet Name provided exists.
  • reads the cell value using the input from Sheet Cell field.

You will see appropriate message if any of these is invalid .You should not save the settings without validating .

Test​

When you click on the "test" button , this can actually close you form if the formula provided in the cell value is TRUE . This is extremely useful to see if your set up is working as expected. You can reduce the limits of your formula and test this . For the above example , you can reduce the limit to 2 by changing the formula to =IF(COUNTA('Form Responses 1'!A2:A) >= 2, TRUE, FALSE). Now the form will be closed once you have two submissions .

Once you are satisfied with your test , you can save the controller settings and revert the cell formula to actual limits you wish to.

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  • The formula based Limiter is evaluated every time a form is submitted .
  • If multiple submissions come exactly at the same time ,then the form may accept more than the limits specified.