How to Build a Client Intake Form That Creates the Case for You
Intake forms that end up as PDFs in an inbox are data entry deferred. Here is how to design one whose answers become the fields of the matter, with nothing retyped.
The traditional intake form is a document the client fills in, sends back, and someone in the office copies into the system. Every retyped field is a chance for an error and a reason the form is out of date by the time anyone looks at it. The better design starts from the other end: decide what the matter's record needs to contain, and make the form ask exactly that.
Start from the record, not the form
List the fields a new matter of this kind must have before work can begin: the parties and their roles, the addresses, the key dates, the choices that determine which path the matter takes (residential or commercial; employee or contractor; new tenancy or renewal). That list is the form. Everything the form asks should land in a field; anything that does not land in a field should not be asked at intake.
Ask in the order the record is built
Identity first (who are you, who else is involved), then the matter (what is it about, which type), then the specifics that depend on the type (shown only when relevant), then documents (upload the lease, the ID, the letter you received), then consent and signature. Conditional sections keep the form short: a guarantor section appears only if there is a guarantor.
Typed fields, not free text
Dates as dates, choices as choices, money as money, people as contacts. A free-text box for "which service?" produces fifteen spellings of the same thing; a choice list produces one. Reserve one free-text field — "anything else we should know" — and nothing more.
Documents at intake
Let the client upload at the point they are asked about the document, straight into the matter's files, encrypted on arrival. A file-request link does this without the document ever sitting in email. Name the upload slot ("Signed lease", "Photo ID") so it is filed under that label.
Consent and signature on the form
Where the intake doubles as an engagement, end with the terms and an e-signature. The signed terms file to the matter with their audit certificate; the matter is opened, populated and engaged in one pass. See what makes a signed PDF legally sound.
What happens after submit
The submission creates the matter from the right template with the fields filled, the contacts created in their roles, the documents attached, and the first tasks generated. A rule notifies the person who owns intake. Nobody retypes anything; the first human touch is a review, not data entry. In Herarx the mechanics are a template with the intake fields, a share audience for the client's view, and automations on creation — described in automations that actually save time.
Reviewing the form quarterly
Look at the last twenty matters. Which fields were always empty at intake and filled later? Remove them from the form. Which were always corrected? The question is unclear; rewrite it. Which "anything else" answers keep saying the same thing? That is a missing field. A form that is reviewed against the records it produces gets shorter and better; one that is not becomes the twelve-page PDF everyone dreads.
