Client intake form
Everything you need before the first meeting, asked once, in writing, instead of across four emails.
Free. No account, no email address — the PDF downloads straight away.
The client intake form, as an online form
This is the real thing, not a picture of it. Nothing you type here is recorded.
What a client intake form is for
An intake form is the first structured thing a prospective client does with you. Its job is not to be thorough — it is to make the first conversation useful, by getting the facts out of the way before it starts.
The failure mode is a form that asks twenty questions and gets abandoned at question six. The second failure mode is a form so short that the first call is spent establishing what the project even is. The template on this page is aimed between the two: enough that you arrive informed, short enough that people finish it.
Ask about budget, and give ranges
Most people leave budget off an intake form because it feels rude. The result is a discovery call, a proposal, and then the discovery that the number was never going to work — which costs both sides several hours.
Ranges rather than a box solve the awkwardness. Nobody has to name a figure, and "not sure yet" is a legitimate answer that still tells you something: they are early, and the call should be shaped accordingly.
Ask who else decides
The single most useful question on an intake form is who else is involved in the decision. It is the difference between a proposal that goes to one person and a proposal that has to survive a committee, and it changes how you write it.
It also surfaces the person you have not met, early enough to get them on the call.
Ask how they found you
One question, one line, and it is the only field on an intake form that tells you where the next client comes from. Most businesses guess at this, and most guesses are wrong — the referrals people remember are the ones that closed, not the ones that were most common.
Leave it as an open box rather than a list of channels. A list gets you the answer you already expected, because people pick the nearest option; an empty box gets you "Sarah at the dental practice said to call you", which is a name you can thank.
Make it a link, not an attachment
An intake form sent as a PDF attachment gets downloaded, opened in a reader that may or may not let them type, filled in, saved under a new name, and emailed back — and then somebody retypes it into a spreadsheet.
A link removes all of that. They open it on whatever they are holding, answer, and the response arrives structured. If you already have the form as a PDF, this site turns it into that link without you rebuilding it.
Questions people ask
What should a client intake form include?
Contact details, how they found you, what they need in their own words, what success looks like, a budget range, any deadline, and who else is involved in the decision. Anything more detailed belongs on the first call rather than the form.
Should a client intake form ask about budget?
Yes, as ranges rather than a free-text box. It removes the awkwardness of naming a figure while still telling you whether the project is viable, and it saves both sides a discovery call that was never going to work.
How long should an intake form be?
Ten to twelve questions is the practical limit before completion rates fall away. Ask what changes how you run the first meeting; leave everything else for the meeting itself.
Can I turn my existing intake form PDF into an online form?
Yes. Upload the PDF or a photograph of it and the questions are read off the document automatically — you do not rebuild it field by field. You get a link to share and the answers come back as a spreadsheet.
Is this intake form template free?
Yes. The PDF downloads with no account and no email address, and the online version is free to create and share.
Already have your own version of this form?
You do not have to rebuild it. Upload the PDF — or photograph the printed copy — and the questions are read off the document automatically. The wording your organisation already approved stays exactly as it is, and you get a link that collects the answers back as a spreadsheet.
Free to try, no account needed to convert your first document.
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