Client intake forms: questions and an onboarding checklist

This guide is for freelancers, agencies, consultants and other service businesses working with an accepted client. It includes 12 questions to adapt, a welcome-email example and a checklist for the handoff into delivery. The client intake template provides a working starting point.

Separate the enquiry, intake and onboarding

A person asking whether you can help needs a different form from someone who has already chosen to work with you. Sending an extensive onboarding questionnaire too early asks them to do work before you have established the fit.

For enquiries, the quote request template may be a better fit. For a defined creative or consulting project, start with the project brief. The intake form should support the stage you are actually at rather than trying to replace every document in the relationship.

Asana’s onboarding process guidance  (opens in a new tab) illustrates the work around a form: internal preparation, welcome materials, responsibility and implementation planning. Those tasks still need an owner when you collect the answers in a different tool.

Twelve client intake questions to adapt

Choose questions that change how you will prepare or deliver the work. NN/G’s question-writing guidance  (opens in a new tab) recommends leaving out information you do not need or can already obtain. If the client gave you their address during the enquiry, do not require it again simply because a template has an address block.

Contact and responsibility

1. What name and email should we use for project communication?

   Use separate name and email fields. Require the email if it is your agreed contact channel. Ask for a phone number only when you will use it.

2. What is your role in this project or organisation?

   Short text, optional when you already know. It helps distinguish the person doing the work from a sponsor or approver.

3. Who else needs to be involved in decisions or feedback?

   Optional text. Start with roles and responsibilities; gather additional people’s contact details through the agreed introduction process when needed.

Goals and current situation

4. What is the main outcome you want from working together?

   Long text. Encourage one primary outcome so you can discuss priorities when the client lists several.

5. What would you be able to do differently if this work succeeds?

   Optional long text. A concrete description gives you something to confirm at kickoff without demanding a numeric target the client cannot provide.

6. How do you handle this today, and what is getting in the way?

   Long text about the current process. If the answer becomes too broad, ask about a recent example in the first meeting.

History and constraints

7. What have you already tried, and what should we know about it?

   Optional long text. This can surface previous work to preserve and approaches the client does not want repeated.

8. Is there a date this work needs to support?

   An optional date plus context, such as an event or internal review. A requested date is not a delivery commitment until you have agreed it.

9. What constraints should we plan around?

   Optional text with examples relevant to your service: available staff, a platform you must retain or an approval window. Reconfirm a previously discussed budget instead of asking for a new one without context.

Preparation and next steps

10. Which existing materials would help us prepare?

    Optional links or uploads for material the client can share, such as an existing brief or public site. Ask for only what you need. Arrange account access through the service’s invitation process rather than collecting passwords in a form.

11. How would you prefer to meet and receive updates?

    Offer the channels you actually support, with room to mention a practical requirement. A preference is useful context, not an automatic appointment booking.

12. What should we clarify before our first meeting?

    Optional open text. This gives the client a place for a concern that your earlier fields did not anticipate.

This is a menu of questions, not a requirement to ask all 12. Contact details, a primary goal and one preparation question may be enough for a straightforward first session. Jotform’s intake guide  (opens in a new tab) also distinguishes goals, background and logistics; the wording above is our own set for this service-business workflow.

Build a form that matches the conversation

Group related questions with short explanations. In whatayarn, use text blocks for context and page breaks when a longer form has a genuine change of topic. Do not make every open answer required; people may not know the answer yet.

The existing starter below gathers contact details, goals, previous attempts and meeting preferences across pages. Its questions are not identical to the 12 above. Customise or remove the readiness scale if it does not help you prepare for your service.

The preview does not save answers. You can build and preview before signing up; publishing and collecting real client responses require an account. See the form-block guide for available question types.

whatayarn’s conditional logic is coming soon, so do not promise automatic routes for different client types. Use a shorter shared questionnaire, make irrelevant questions optional, or create genuinely different forms when the services need different information. For uploading material, check your account’s storage allowance before requesting large files.

Send a welcome email with a clear next step

Here is an original example for a fictional design studio:

Subject: A few details before our first meeting

Hi Alex,

We’re looking forward to working on the website refresh. Before our kickoff on [date], could you complete [the intake form]? It asks about your goals, current site and anything we should review in advance. You can leave optional questions blank if you’re not sure yet.

I’ll read the answers before the meeting and send an agenda. If the form repeats something you’ve already sent, point me to it rather than writing it again.

Thanks, Sam

Replace the project, timing and promise with your actual plan. Explain who reads the answers and how to contact them. This message is a draft to send through your own email process; whatayarn does not automatically send this onboarding sequence.

You can share the published link directly. Check it as a respondent before sending, and distinguish the editor’s Preview from the live form: a live submission creates a real response.

Review the answers before kickoff

A completed form is the start of preparation. Read it for decisions, unanswered essentials and assumptions to confirm. Here is a constructed handoff for the fictional studio:

These answers do not automatically expand the agreed scope or establish a deadline. Use them to identify the conversation you need to have. Record the outcome separately once you have agreed it.

In whatayarn, Responses lets you open each submission, read answers and download submitted files. A CSV export can support a manual handoff to a project tracker. Integrations are coming soon, so avoid designing the process around an automatic CRM sync that is not available.

A practical client onboarding checklist

1. Review the accepted work internally. Confirm the point of contact, service and any existing commitments before sending another questionnaire.
2. Send the welcome and intake link. Explain what to complete, what can wait and what you will do with the answers.
3. Read the response. Follow up on missing essentials without requiring the client to repeat the whole form.
4. Prepare the kickoff agenda. Bring the goals, key constraints and open decisions into one conversation.
5. Confirm responsibilities and the first milestone. Name who provides materials, who approves work and who communicates progress.
6. Send the agreed next actions. Separate confirmed decisions from suggestions that still need agreement.
7. Check the onboarding experience. After the first milestone, ask what was clear and what was missing. Use our customer feedback questions to keep that request focused.

If onboarding stalls, inspect the handoff rather than adding more questions by default. Is someone waiting for a reply, a file, an access invitation or a decision? One named action may be more useful than another required form field.