Field your survey with any sample provider.

Panel companies and fieldwork agencies send respondents to your survey with an ID on the link, and expect them back on one of three links: complete, terminate or over-quota. This guide shows where each one goes in Plumeform, so every respondent is counted the way the provider bills.

Setup time: About 10 minutes, plus a test with the provider.
Free on every plan: Respondent ID capture, the complete link, one response per participant, test mode, CSV.
Pro: Screening and quotas, with their terminate and over-quota links, attention checks, XLSX.
You need: A published Plumeform survey and the provider’s link format.

00THE ROUND TRIP

How the loop works

The provider recruits and pays respondents; Plumeform runs the survey. The respondent ID travels both ways, so the provider can match each person who comes back to the person it sent.

1Provider
Sends the respondent to your survey
Through the link you give them, with its respondent ID filled in.
2Plumeform
Keeps the ID with the response
Saved with the answers, and checked so each respondent answers once.
3Plumeform
Sends them back by status
Complete, terminate or over-quota, with the same ID on the return link.
4Provider
Reconciles and bills
Completes are paid for; terminates and over-quotas set the incidence rate.

CHECKLIST

Ask the provider for

Their respondent ID placeholder. The token their system replaces with each respondent’s ID, often written like [RID] or {rid}.
The three return links. Complete, terminate (screened out) and over-quota (a full quota), and where the respondent ID goes in each.
Any other status they track. Some providers add a quality termination link; see the troubleshooting questions below for how to handle it.
How they test. Most will send a handful of test respondents and confirm each status on their side before launch.

01IN PLUMEFORM

Set up the survey

Open the survey in the builder and go to Settings → Fielding. The examples use [RID] for the provider’s placeholder and panel.example.com for its return links; use the real ones the provider gives you.

Step 1: Build the survey link for the provider

Add the provider’s placeholder to your survey link as a parameter named participantId:

https://plumeform.com/s/YOUR-SLUG?participantId=[RID]

With that name, the ID is saved with every response, used for one response per participant, and keyed into the quality lists. Up to 10 parameters are saved, so you can add the provider’s project or source codes too (&src=[SOURCE]).

Step 2: Paste the complete link

In the After submission card, put the provider’s complete link in REDIRECT ON FINISH, with {participantId} where the respondent ID goes:

https://panel.example.com/return?status=complete&rid={participantId}

Plumeform fills in the ID the respondent arrived with. Turn on Redirect immediately to skip the thank-you screen; off, it shows for 2.5 seconds and then continues.

Step 3: Paste the terminate linkPRO

Screen people out with a logic rule using the screen out action. In the Screening & quotas card, put the provider’s terminate link in SCREEN-OUT REDIRECT:

https://panel.example.com/return?status=terminate&rid={participantId}

Put the screener first, so no one is terminated after real work.

Step 4: Paste the over-quota linkPRO

Add your quotas in the same card. Once there is one, the QUOTA-FULL REDIRECT field appears under them; put the provider’s over-quota link there:

https://panel.example.com/return?status=overquota&rid={participantId}

Step 5: Allow one response per participant

In the Limits card, turn on One response per panel participant. A participantId that already completed or was screened out is turned away before the first question, enforced on the server.

02BEFORE LAUNCH

Test with the provider

Walk every exit yourself, then ask the provider to send a few test respondents and confirm each status registered on their side.

Step 6: Dry-run with test mode

Open the survey with a made-up ID and test=1:

https://plumeform.com/s/YOUR-SLUG?participantId=TEST001&test=1

A test response is stored and flagged, left out of results, exports, quotas and the one-per-participant check, and still sent to the return links, so you can see each one arrive. Use a new ID for each run.

Step 7: Walk every way out

Complete the survey: you should land on the complete link, with your test ID in it.
Answer so you are screened out: the screen-out screen, then the terminate link.
Fill a quota: test runs never count toward a quota, so use a copy of the survey with a quota limit of 1, opened without test=1. The second matching run should land on the over-quota link. Delete the copy after.
Have the provider send test respondents through the real link, and check they see a complete, a terminate and an over-quota for the right IDs.

Reference

Where each link goes

Provider link	Plumeform field	Who goes there
Complete	REDIRECT ON FINISH (After submission)	Everyone who finishes.
Terminate	SCREEN-OUT REDIRECT (Screening & quotas)	Anyone a screen-out rule disqualifies.
Over-quota	QUOTA-FULL REDIRECT (Screening & quotas, under the quotas)	Anyone who qualifies for a quota that is already full. Empty, they go to the terminate link.

Placeholders in a return link

Placeholder	Filled with
`{participantId}`	The ID the respondent arrived with. Any parameter on the survey link works the same way, by its own name.
`{response_id}`	Plumeform’s ID for the response, to match rows in your export.
`{completion_code}`	The code for that exit, when you set one.

Values are URL-encoded, and a placeholder with no value is left empty.

What each plan covers

Feature	Free	Pro
Respondent ID and up to 10 parameters saved with every response	✓	✓
Complete link, with placeholders, and redirect immediately	✓	✓
One response per participant	✓	✓
Test mode (?test=1) and CSV export with the ID columns	✓	✓
Screen-out rules and quotas, with terminate and over-quota links		✓
Attention checks and quality flags, XLSX		✓

Free includes 100 responses a month; Pro, 10,000. Screened-out respondents count toward neither. See pricing.

Providers

Providers that work with Plumeform

Any provider whose links follow the steps above works with Plumeform today. We list providers that have run a test study through Plumeform in which all three links registered.

Are you a panel company or fieldwork agency?

Send us your link format and we will set up a test study together. Once your three links check out, you can be listed here.

Troubleshooting

The provider calls its ID rid, not participantId. Does that matter?

You choose the parameter name on the survey link you give them; their placeholder only fills in the value. Name it participantId and Plumeform uses it for one response per participant and keys the payout and quality lists on it. Any other name (rid, pid, uid) is still saved with every response and can still go back in a return link, but nothing is deduplicated on it.

Do terminated and over-quota respondents count against my responses?

No. Anyone screened out, by a rule or by a full quota, is recorded as screened out: never counted as a response, never against your response cap or monthly limit, and never sent to webhooks or integrations as a completion.

What if I leave the over-quota link empty?

People turned away by a full quota then leave by the terminate (screen-out) link, which is how Plumeform worked before it had an over-quota exit. It suits panels with no over-quota status, such as Prolific; with a provider that has one, it understates your incidence rate.

The provider gave me a fourth link for quality terminations.

Plumeform does not send anyone to a quality link on its own: speeders, straight-liners and failed attention checks are flags for you to review, not automatic exits. Review them on the Quality tab, copy the flagged participant IDs, and send them to the provider in their reconciliation file.

Can I see who left by which exit?

Exports list completed respondents, then screened-out ones marked "screened out", each with the captured IDs. A terminate and an over-quota both show as screened out there, so the provider's own report is the record of which return link each respondent reached.

Prepare your study before fielding

Write the screener

Neutral eligibility questions, and quotas that close themselves.

Block duplicate participants

One response per person, across studies and panels.

Recruiting on Prolific instead?

Its own parameter names, completion codes and payouts.