Client intake form vs onboarding questionnaire
A client intake form collects the information you need before work starts: who the client is, what they need, who makes decisions and what they’ll provide. The terms overlap with onboarding, but it helps to separate two steps:
- Intake happens first, sometimes before the client has signed. It answers: who is this, what do they need and are we the right fit?
- Onboarding happens after signing. It collects the detailed inputs, files and access needed to start the agreed work.
If you combine them, keep intake short and move detailed questions to onboarding. The client onboarding questionnaire and checklist covers that second step.
The core intake questions
The download includes these sections ready to copy into your form tool. Delete anything you don’t need: a short form that gets finished beats a thorough one that doesn’t.
| Section | Questions |
|---|
| Contact details | Name, job title, company, email, phone, preferred contact method, website |
| About the business | What the business does, roughly how many people work there, who its main customers are |
| What you need | What they need help with, what prompted it now, what success looks like in six months, past experience with similar providers |
| Timing and budget | Deadline or key date; budget range |
| People and decisions | Day-to-day contact, final approver, anyone else to keep informed |
| Anything else | How they heard about you; anything to know before you talk |
| Consent and privacy | How you’ll use and store their information, with a link to your privacy policy; consent to be contacted |
Industry versions
Add these questions to the core form for your type of business.
Marketing, design and web agencies
- Do you have brand guidelines? (Logo files, fonts, colours)
- Which channels or platforms are in scope? (Website, social, paid ads, email)
- Who writes the content: you or us?
- Which tools will we need access to? (CMS, analytics, ad accounts)
- Are there competitors or examples you like or dislike?
Consultants
- What decision should this work support?
- Which stakeholders need to be interviewed or kept informed?
- What existing data, reports or documents can you share?
- Are there constraints we should know about? (Budget cycles, regulation, internal priorities)
Accountants and bookkeepers
- Business structure (sole trader, partnership, limited company, etc.)
- Year end and VAT or sales tax registration status
- Services needed (bookkeeping, payroll, year-end accounts, tax returns, advisory)
- Accounting software in use, if any
- Who prepared your accounts previously?
Ask for documents through a secure upload after the client has signed, not as email attachments. If you’re choosing a tool for this, see the guide to the best client portals for accountants.
Law firms
- Names of all parties involved (needed for your conflict check before you take on the matter)
- Type of matter and a brief summary
- Key dates and deadlines (court dates, limitation periods, contract deadlines)
- How the matter arose and the outcome the client is looking for
Law firm intake carries professional obligations around conflicts, identity checks and confidentiality that vary by jurisdiction. Use this list as a starting point and adapt it to your regulator’s requirements. For portals that handle legal client communication, see the best client portals for law firms.
How to get clients to finish it
- Keep the first form under five minutes. Ask only what you need to decide whether to take the work and to prepare for the first call.
- Explain why you’re asking. “We ask about your year end so we can plan deadlines” gets better answers than an unexplained field.
- Mark what’s optional. Clients abandon forms when they think they need answers they don’t have yet.
- Allow “not sure yet”. Guesses lead to bad information.
- Don’t ask for sensitive files in the first form. Collect documents after the client agrees to work with you, through a document request rather than email attachments.
- Never ask for passwords. Ask clients to invite you to tools directly with your own login.
What to do with the answers
- Review before the first call. Use the answers to prepare questions, not to repeat them.
- Note the gaps. Anything unanswered becomes a question for the call or an item for onboarding.
- Confirm the approver. If the day-to-day contact isn’t the decision-maker, agree how approvals will work before the project starts.
- Turn it into an onboarding plan. Once the client signs, convert what you’ve learned into specific requests with owners and dates.
Angelwood is built for that last step. Bring onboarding, document requests and reviewed project updates into one client portal, so clients know what’s needed and your team can see what’s still outstanding before kickoff.
Use it in Word, Google Docs or PDF
Microsoft Word
- Download the Word (.docx) file and open it. If Word opens it in Protected View, select Enable Editing.
- Use Find (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) and search for “[” to jump between the placeholders you need to replace.
- Save a clean copy as a Word template (File → Save As → Word Template) so every new document starts from it.
Google Docs
- Upload the .docx file to Google Drive.
- Right-click it and choose Open with → Google Docs, then File → Save as Google Docs to keep an editable copy.
- Use File → Make a copy for each new client so your master stays clean.
PDF
Fill it in Word or Google Docs, then export it: File → Save As → PDF in Word, or File → Download → PDF document in Google Docs.