Client Intake Form Template

You are a client relations and operations specialist with extensive experience designing intake processes for professional service firms. You have built onboarding systems for consulting practices, law firms, healthcare providers, financial advisors, marketing agencies, design studios, and coaching businesses. Your intake forms are known for collecting exactly the right amount of information without overwhelming new clients, resulting in faster project starts and fewer miscommunications during the first weeks of an engagement.

I need you to create a client intake form for [BUSINESS_NAME], which operates as a [BUSINESS_TYPE:select:Consulting,Legal,Healthcare,Financial Advisory,Marketing Agency,Design,Coaching,Therapy,General] practice.

The services we offer include:

[SERVICE_OFFERINGS]

This intake form is being created for the purpose of [INTAKE_PURPOSE:select:New Client,New Project,Consultation Request,Service Inquiry] onboarding.

The specific information we need to collect from every new client includes:

[REQUIRED_INFORMATION]

Our industry or practice has the following compliance, regulatory, or legal requirements that the form must address:

[COMPLIANCE_REQUIREMENTS]

Any specific preferences about the form structure, tone, or branding guidelines:

[FORM_PREFERENCES?]

Internal workflow details such as who reviews the completed form, how it gets routed, and what triggers the next step in onboarding:

[INTERNAL_WORKFLOW?]

The typical client profile or target audience for this intake form is:

[CLIENT_PROFILE?]

Create a complete, professional client intake form with the following structure:

1. Form Header and Introduction - Start with a welcoming introduction that explains the purpose of the form, estimated completion time, and how the information will be used. Include the business name, a brief service description, and a confidentiality note. The tone should be warm and professional, putting new clients at ease while setting onboarding expectations.

2. Client Contact Information - Design fields for full legal name, preferred name, company name, job title, phone number with preferred contact times, email, mailing address, and preferred communication method. For business clients, add company size, industry, and website fields. Format each field with the label, field type such as text, dropdown, checkbox, or date picker, and validation requirements.

3. Referral and Discovery - Include questions about how the client found your business, whether they were referred by someone specific, and what prompted them to reach out now. These fields help track marketing effectiveness and give context about the client's urgency or motivation.

4. Service Requirements and Goals - Create questions that uncover what the client needs, including primary objectives, the problem they want help with, what they have tried, and what success looks like. Tailor questions to the selected business type. For consulting, ask about organizational challenges. For legal, ask about the nature of the matter. For healthcare, ask about symptoms and history. For marketing, ask about brand presence and target audience.

5. Budget and Timeline - Include fields for budget range or expectations, preferred start date, hard deadlines, and availability for meetings or sessions. Use range selectors for budget to reduce friction. Include a question about billing preferences, whether monthly, per project, or retainer.

6. Previous Experience - Ask whether the client has worked with a similar provider before, what their experience was like, what worked well, and what they would change. This section reveals expectations and potential concerns before they become problems during the engagement.

7. Compliance and Consent Section - Based on the compliance requirements provided, generate appropriate fields for data privacy acknowledgment, terms of service acceptance, HIPAA authorization for healthcare, conflict of interest disclosure for legal, or financial disclosure agreements for advisory. Include clear language explaining what the client is agreeing to and provide space for electronic signature.

8. Additional Information - Provide an open-ended section where clients can share anything else they think is relevant. Include a field for special accommodations or accessibility needs not covered above. Add a question asking the client to rank their top three priorities for the engagement.

9. Internal Processing Section - Create a section marked for internal use only with fields for receiving staff member, date received, assigned team member, initial assessment notes, follow-up actions, and target date for first contact. This section should not be visible to the client.

10. Form Completion Instructions - End with clear next steps explaining what happens after the client submits the form, the expected response time, who will be reaching out, and how to contact the office with questions in the meantime.

Format the form with clear section headings, field labels in bold, and field type annotations in brackets after each label. Include brief helper text under complex fields explaining what kind of information to provide. Group related fields logically so the form flows from basic information to detailed questions. Keep the language accessible and free of internal jargon.

The total form should contain 25-40 fields depending on business type and compliance requirements. Each field should earn its place by collecting information that directly supports onboarding or is required for compliance.