How to save/export "Payments" listing

By: Jerry M | Asked: 03/15/2024
ForumsCategory: How-toHow to save/export "Payments" listing
Jerry M asked 4 months ago
In my Wordpress Formidable menu there is an item called "Payments". When I select that and then filter for a form (ex "Membership" form) I get a listing of all payments (2,118 items!). But there is no option to export or download this list. The option is not listed in 'import/export' menu and this report is not listed in "Reports." How can I download this listing of payments?  Additionally, I have the add-on installed for Google Docs, so ideally I would like to export the list directly into a Google Sheet.  Is this possible?   
2 Answers
Victor Font answered 4 months ago
Jerry, I don't know the answer to your question because I never had a need to use Formidable's payments. Formidable does have a dedicated table named wp_frm_payments. If you have access to the database, you can use PHPMyAdmin to export its contents as CSV that you can upload into Google Docs. In the meantime, I suggest you open a ticket with Strategy 11 support and share your wish list with them. Here's the Formidable database schema: https://formidableforms.com/knowledgebase/database-schema/
Victor Font replied 4 months ago

If you can write code, you may be able to create your own payment export system since it is a stand alone table. I don't think it would be that difficult for an experienced developer to hook into WordPress to solve your requirement. If you need a developer's help, here's where you can start: https://formidable-masterminds.com/developers-directory/

Jerry M answered 4 months ago
@victor, That is helpful. I do have access to phpmyadmin and I will try to export the table (I am not a developer but I understand databases). And I did submit a ticket and got a timely response from them. He said most of those fields could be accessed but not directly. He said he thought it was a good idea and he would submit a feature request to have the ability to export that page. I appreciated the quick and helpful response from them but I was/am surprised that any page of any kind of list did not have a way to save/export to a spreadsheet.  It's good to know the table but it must be easier than that.  For context, for others to understand, I am referring to payments made by my users for their memberships. I currently have about 2100 payment records and that page has info on the amount, date, user, payment mode/gateway, email, and some others. Potentially very useful to send to our treasurer or to do some trend analysis or payment verification.  I also have the Google Docs add-on so it should be easy to export that page to a Google Sheet to share with others in the association. It is amazing to me in 2024 that information like that is not easily made more accessible. 
Victor Font replied 4 months ago

You might be on to something Jerry. I'd like to understand your demographic because it almost sounds like there could be a need for a small business owner reporting dashboard.

I also think you're on the money about export being a standard feature wherever data is displayed.

If all you need is what's in the payment table, then it should be a simple extract. If you need to tie it to form entry data, it won't be so simple because of the Formidable's metadata schema design.

Jerry M replied 4 months ago

Victor, I suppose it could be useful for a small business but we are a national membership association. I'm not sure of the posting guidelines here but some places don't allow posting of websites, so let me just say I am the webmaster for the United Sidecar Association (think motorcycles with sidecars). Google that. So we have a membership person, a treasurer, and a board of directors. The membership guy and the treasurer are not very technical and record payments into Quickbooks and a Microsoft Access database from emails received from Paypal. (!) Amazing in 2024, I know. I am trying to change that and move our processes to web-based and manageable using common plug-ins in WordPress. Also with the view that each of our roles must be kept as simple as possible for future people when we move on (everyone leaves their role eventually). So if I could export that payments list into a Google Sheet that is always current and shared with some key people we could generate useful pivot tables and graphs that would be informative and evergreen. So that's why I asked the question. To me it seems like an oversight that this is not already available. Finally, I remember reading an article about 30 years ago that basically said "All data eventually ends up in Excel." And that has proven true over time.

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