Client Intake Form Template: What to Ask, What to Leave Out, and How to Build It Free

Open the onboarding templateDownload the intake question planner (PDF)

What an intake form is for

An intake form does one job: it gets the facts you need before the first meeting, so the meeting is spent on the work rather than on spelling an email address. Everything on the form should pass one test: will you act on this answer before or at that first meeting? If not, it belongs in a later conversation or nowhere.

The test matters because every extra field costs completions. Baymard Institute's checkout research found the average checkout asks for 11.3 form fields when 8 would do. An intake form is not a checkout, but the lesson carries over: most forms ask for more than they need, and each question you cut is one fewer reason to leave the form half done.

The four intake templates and who they suit

The builder's "Intake & onboarding" group has four templates. The video shows the template screen; here is what each contains.

• New client onboarding is three short pages: contact details (name, email, phone, company, website, address), then the project (main goals, important dates, preferred contact method), then final details with a terms tick box. It suits agencies, consultants, photographers, trades and most service businesses.
• Health & wellness intake asks for date of birth and an emergency contact, then on a second page asks about medication and allergies. "Please list your medication" appears only after a yes, and the same for allergies. It ends with a confirmation tick box and a drawn signature. It suits massage therapists, personal trainers, estheticians and similar practices; read the privacy section below first.
• Coaching intake asks for the three-month goal, readiness to change on a 1–10 scale, the biggest obstacle, previous coaching, and whether to meet online or in person.
• Creative project brief asks what is being made, who it is for, the one thing it must say, a reference link, deadline, budget and a file upload for logos and photos.

Start from the closest one rather than from blank. Deleting a question takes one key press; remembering to ask for an emergency contact does not.

What never belongs on an intake form

Some information should not travel through a general-purpose form at all.

• Card or bank details. Take payment through a payment link or an invoice instead. Our Stripe payment link tutorial shows a setup that also tells you who paid.
• Government ID numbers, unless a law requires you to collect them.
• Passwords to the client's accounts. Ask them to add you as a user instead.
• Protected health information, if HIPAA applies to you. The US Department of Health and Human Services explains which businesses are covered entities; broadly, health care providers that bill electronically, health plans and clearinghouses. A covered entity needs a form tool that will sign a business associate agreement. fynl.io makes no HIPAA claim, so if you are a covered entity, use a tool that does for anything medical.

If you are not covered, still ask only what you need, and say in the form's intro why you ask. The health template's intro does this: "Your answers are kept private."

Step by step: build and send your intake form

1. Pick the closest template

Open the free form builder; the template gallery has search and group chips, and each card lists its questions so you can compare before choosing.

2. Cut the questions

Go down the form with the "act on it before the first meeting" test. Select a question and press Del to remove it; ⌘Z brings it back. Mark the questions you truly need as required: Nielsen Norman Group's guidance on required fields is to mark every required one, because people skip instructions.

3. Arrange the pages

Pages are tabs above the canvas: "+ Page" adds one, and you can drop a question onto a tab to move it there. Contact details go first, so even an abandoned form tells you who started it; consent and signature go last.

4. Add follow-ups instead of extra questions

Where a detail only matters after a yes, set the detail question to "Only when…" the earlier answer is Yes, as the health template does for medication and allergies. The conditional logic guide covers this in depth.

5. Publish and send ahead

Publish with your email, then send the form's link from your own email or booking confirmation at least a day before the first appointment. Each answer appears in Results; open it to see a side panel with every answer and the drawn signature, and use PDF or Print to keep a copy in the client's file.

After the answers arrive

An intake form only saves time if someone reads it before the meeting. Three habits make that happen:

• Read it the day before. Open the answer from Results and note the one thing you want to ask about. Five minutes here saves the first fifteen of the meeting.
• Chase the unfinished ones. Every page a client completes is saved as an "Unfinished" answer, so the Unfinished chip in Results shows who started but did not send. A short personal nudge usually gets it finished.
• Prune the form every few months. If a question is skipped or answered "n/a" by most clients, delete it. The Summary tab shows, per question, how people answered.

On the free plan new answers show in the dashboard and the notification bell rather than by email, so make checking the bell part of your morning. If intake is the first step of a longer sales process, the leads and pipeline tools in the paid portal pick up from here.

Questions people also ask

Sources

• Baymard Institute — Checkout flow average form fields
• Nielsen Norman Group — Marking required fields in forms
• HHS — Covered entities and business associates