What is an Intake Form? | Create Custom Forms

This article was first published in February 2018 and was updated in November 2024.

We define intake as adding critical information about a new client, employee, vendor, etc., to your organization as part of an onboarding.

An intake form collects all the information an organization or department needs to properly assess and route an individual or request through a business process. A client intake form template is essential for ensuring consistency across service-based businesses and can be integrated with CRM systems to streamline the intake process.

Examples include:

• Client Intake: Manage the client intake process to ensure new customers’ information is captured and the onboarding process runs smoothly.

• Project Intake: Capture critical details for new projects, assess if the project is a good fit, and distribute assignments to the correct resources.

• Employee/New Hire Intake: Provide new employees with an efficient onboarding experience and save time getting them productive.

• Vendor Intake: Assess and onboard new vendors, collect important vendor information, and integrate with Finance for billing.

• Patient Intake: Give new patients a better, less stressful experience when completing paperwork and notifying medical staff.

Benefits of Using Intake Forms

Using intake forms can bring numerous benefits to businesses and organizations. By implementing intake forms, organizations can streamline their data collection process, improve the client experience, and ultimately provide better services to their clients. Intake forms are a powerful tool that can transform how businesses interact with their clients, ensuring that all necessary information is captured accurately and efficiently.

Streamlined Data Collection

One of the primary benefits of using intake forms is the ability to standardize the information gathering process. By creating a consistent format for collecting client data, businesses can ensure that they are capturing all the necessary details in a structured manner. This can help reduce errors, improve data accuracy, and make it easier to track tasks and manage orders. With intake forms, businesses can gather essential information quickly and efficiently, leading to a more organized and effective workflow.

Improved Client Experience

In addition to streamlining data collection, intake forms can also enhance the client experience. By gathering essential information upfront, businesses can tailor their approach to better serve each individual client. This can lead to increased client satisfaction, improved relationships, and ultimately, a stronger reputation for the business. An effective intake form can make the onboarding process smoother and more enjoyable for new clients, setting the stage for a positive and productive relationship.

Intake Forms and Processing for Any Business

Intake software provides employees, vendors, and customers with a convenient, user-friendly intake process.

Properly using intake forms and an automated intake process will save your employees time and effort and reduce any accidents caused by human error. Imagine if, while doing data entry by hand, one of your team members mistakenly makes a typo or copies the wrong basic information field when entering a client or potential client. It’s a simple error that anyone can make, but it could cause significant problems or require hours to hunt down the error and fix it afterward. A custom online intake form can avoid mistakes like this and save time and money.

On this page, we’ll review some of the many benefits of intake forms and look at some examples for you and your business.

1. Users can complete user-friendly intake forms, track progress, and receive alerts/reminders via email or on their devices as statuses change.

2. Once forms are submitted, they are routed based on the business rules you set, based on any form fields.

3. All activity related to every request is tracked for complete visibility.

4. Bottlenecks in the process are identified and streamlined for faster turnaround time.

Our form intake software is entirely customizable to your needs, no matter your use case.

Intake Form Description/Summary

The diagram above shows how the system collects, tracks, and routes individual requests to the proper staff for processing.

• Internal and external users have access to an intake portal where they can submit service requests and track the status of their requests.

• They can also take any necessary follow-up actions and provide feedback to staff regarding request fulfillment.

• Portal administrators create request-specific forms that collect all required information to ensure that the system delivers request information in the proper format.

• Administrators also create business rules that route submitted forms as needed.

• Processes can be simple, single-threaded flows from A to B to C or complex, multi-threaded flows that branch off based on logic built into the workflow.

Designing an Effective Intake Form

Designing an effective intake form is crucial for gathering essential information from clients, streamlining the intake process, and providing a positive user experience. A well-designed intake form can help service providers understand client needs, tailor their services, and build stronger relationships with clients. To create an effective intake form, consider the following tips:

• Clarity and Simplicity: Ensure that the form is easy to understand and complete. Avoid using jargon or complex language that might confuse clients.

• Essential Information: Focus on gathering only the necessary information. Too many fields can overwhelm clients and lead to incomplete forms.

• User-Friendly Design: Make the form visually appealing and easy to navigate. Use clear headings, logical sections, and intuitive input fields.

• Mobile Compatibility: Ensure that the form is responsive and works well on mobile devices. Many clients will complete the form on their phones or tablets.

• Feedback Mechanism: Include a way for clients to provide feedback on the form itself. This can help you identify areas for improvement and ensure a better user experience.

By following these guidelines, you can create an effective intake form that meets your business needs and provides a positive experience for your clients.

Additional Intake Features

A request intake form builder provides drag-and-drop tools for developing workflows that follow preset business rules and ensure that requests are assigned to the best person to handle them. You can base assignments on a role, management level, department, or another attribute.

• Alerts can be configured to indicate that a new request has been submitted.

• Intake data can be pushed into existing CRM, ERP, database, or any other system of record.

• HIPAA-compliant online forms can be created to protect patient confidentiality and medical history.

• Also, reminders can be set at preset intervals to ensure that assigned staff promptly handle requests.

• Escalations and task delegations ensure backups are in place in case of inaction or staff vacations.

• The requester can trackthe progress of the request and see who is currently working on it.

• Consent forms can be designed to include e-signatures.

Document and File Intake Form Examples

If your intake process requires collecting documents and files, you can build custom, web-based document collection forms that meet your business needs. Clients, employees, and vendors can review requirements and then attach relevant files to your organization for review, approval, and filing. A document intake form simplifies collecting critical information and ensures documentation requirements are met, streamlining the intake process and reducing turnaround times.

But you’re not limited to documents. Users can attach permissible files to a form—images, videos, spreadsheets, PDFs, schematics, and more. This can be a huge win for law firms, engineering firms, banks, and other paper-intensive organizations.

Intake Form Example Use Case: Client Intake Form

Here’s a helpful intake form example that many businesses will need. The client intake process sets the foundation for the ongoing relationship between the client and the vendor. It is the critical step where project and client information is collected for use throughout a project lifecycle..

In the legal sector, intake forms are essential for collecting comprehensive information about a client’s legal issues, which helps in tailoring services to meet their needs.

The process usually begins when you create a client intake form to be completed by the client or the vendor. The information may include the following:

• Client point of contact details

• Additional client contact information

• Executive sponsor

• Project description/executive summary

• Project start and end dates

• Deliverable confirmation

• Billing information

An intake form, like the one in this example, provides clients and internal teams with a secure method for capturing critical information as part of a client onboarding process.

Nutrient Workflow’s Form Designer

Our Form Designer has been built from the ground up to make it easy for business users to develop great-looking forms quickly. Include complex form logic, line items, or any other form element you need.

• Add images, videos, tables, and links to any form

• Create once, re-use across multiple processes

• Create re-usable “form parts” containing fields or other form objects

• Create responsive, mobile-friendly forms

• Create e-forms for employees, customers, clients, and vendors.

• Employ powerful form logic to show and hide any form element

• Low-code, drag-and-drop design

• Select from a wide variety of field types

• Use CSS to further style form elements

• Use calculations and formulas within any field

• Use flexible, multi-column layouts

• Use javascript natively for advanced form behavior

• Create forms for employees, customers, clients, and vendors.

With our form designer and workflow builder, you can quickly automate any business process, from form approval workflows to incident management and everything in between.

Interested in Automating Your Intake Processes?

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