The question from FartSchoolDropout is the right one, and it deserves a clear answer. You do not need to keep the donation forms in the workbook to preserve the data in your inventory sheet. Once the form submits data into your spreadsheet, that data lives in the sheet itself. The form is simply the entry point, a temporary interface. After submission, the form's job is done, and the inventory sheet becomes the permanent record.
Think of the form as a door. People walk through it, and their information arrives in the room, your inventory sheet. You do not need to keep the door inside the room to remember who entered. The names, contact details, and item counts are now rows and columns in your sheet. If you need to revisit a specific donation, you search the inventory sheet, not the form. The form itself can be closed, deleted from view, or stored in a separate folder for your own reference, but it has no bearing on the data already captured. Your inventory sheet is the source of truth.
This is a common point of confusion, and it is understandable. Traditional spreadsheets train us to treat every tab and every input as part of one fragile document. But when you connect a form to a sheet, you are building a small, reliable pipeline. The form is the intake mechanism; the sheet is the archive. You can keep the form in your workbook if you want to reuse it for future donations, but that is a convenience, not a requirement. The data will not vanish if you remove the form.
For a small food pantry, this means your workflow can stay simple. Create the form once, link it to your inventory sheet, and let each submission write directly into the correct cells. When a donor asks for a record of their contribution, you pull it from the inventory sheet, not from a buried form tab. Focus your energy on keeping the inventory sheet clean and organized. The form is just the front door. The real work happens inside.