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Intake Forms

Digital intake lets clients complete paperwork through the client portal before their first session — questionnaires, consent forms, baseline measures, demographics, even a card on file. This guide covers preparing your packet, sending it, tracking it, and where everything lands when it comes back.

Prerequisite

Intake emails carry portal links, so your practice's portal URL must be configured first (the New Patient form points you there if it isn't yet).

Preparing your intake packet​

Set up what your practice sends at Settings → Documents:

The Documents settings page with the Consent Forms, Intake Questionnaires, and Scored Measures tabs

  • Consent Forms — read and signed by clients in the portal. The standard set ships built in (system forms can't be deleted); add your own with New consent form.
  • Intake Questionnaires — the forms clients fill out before a first session. Add custom ones with New intake questionnaire. This tab also holds the Demographics form card — a system form that writes answers straight to the client's chart; Edit lets you choose which fields appear and which are required (legal name and email always are).
  • Scored Measures — the measure library (PHQ-9, GAD-7, and more). Measures you enable here become sendable in intakes; see Scored measures.

The Enabled switch on each row is what "in the packet" means: enabled documents come pre-checked every time you send an intake, so a well-tended Documents page makes sending a two-click affair.

Sending intake to a client​

Four ways in, same wizard: check Start intake workflow when creating the client; use ⋮ → Start Intake Workflow on the Clients page; use New → Send Intake on the client's profile; or click Send Intake on the empty Portal Documents card. (Accepting a new client request also lands you in this wizard on the new client's chart — nothing is assigned until you choose.)

  1. Select Documents — your enabled packet comes pre-checked, in four sections: Questionnaires, Consent Forms, Scored Measures (each measure with a frequency — once, or recurring on a schedule), and Demographics & Credit Card (the demographics form plus "Request credit card on file", which asks the client to add a payment method after their forms). Preview any document with the eye icon.
  2. Customize Email — the welcome email, with placeholders for client, clinician, and practice details filled per send. Save template as default keeps your wording for next time.
  3. Review & Send — a summary, plus the Client Portal Account card: the wizard detects whether the client already has portal access and adjusts — "This client already has portal access — they'll get a sign-in link, not a new account." Click Send Intake.

Step 1 of the intake wizard with document sections and pre-checked packet

The client gets one email; everything you assigned waits in their portal.

Minors, couples, and families​

The same flow adapts to who actually does the paperwork:

  • Minors — the wizard starts by asking who receives what: every guardian with an email is included by default (that's deliberate — guardians sign consents for children), the minor themselves only if they have their own email. Each recipient then gets their own document selection and their own email.
  • Couples & families — one step per member, each with their own document selection; a minor member's paperwork routes to their guardian's email. See Couples & family therapy.

Sharing more documents later​

New → Share Documents on the profile is the same wizard in share mode — for the mid-treatment consent update or a one-off form. Differences from intake: nothing is pre-checked, already-sent pending items are locked so you can't double-send, and no portal account is created unless you switch it on.

Tracking intake status​

  • The client profile's Portal Documents card shows progress per category (Forms, Consents, Assessments) with a completed/total count — expand Show details for item-by-item status, and look for "All documents completed."

    The Portal Documents card tracking intake completion

  • The client's Files tab badges anything still pending; the row menu's Send reminder emails the client about their unfinished items (automatic pre-appointment nudges are the Incomplete document reminders switch — see Reminders).

  • You get an email when a client finishes the last of their assigned intake forms — no need to poll the chart.

  • If the card warns that some forms "could not be assigned when it was sent," re-send the intake to retry — already-completed items stay completed.

Where the finished paperwork lands​

  • Every completed form appears on the client's Files tab — click through to read the responses.
  • Demographics answers write back automatically to the client's chart: profile fields, an emergency contact, and insurance details if provided. Only answered fields are written — blanks never erase what's already there.
  • Scored measures are scored on submission and charted on the Measures tab.
  • Consent forms carry an electronic signature record — signer name plus the date and time, captured when the client signs in the portal. The exact text of the form as it read at signing is frozen onto the record, so editing a consent template later never changes what a past signature says.

FAQ​

Can I control the order clients see their forms? No — assigned items appear together in the portal. If sequence matters clinically, send in two batches.

Can I take back a form I sent? Delete its pending row on the Files tab; for a recurring measure, use End recurrence. There's no un-send for something already completed.

Is the prescreener part of intake? No — the prescreener screens prospective clients on the public booking page, before they exist as clients. Intake forms go to clients you've already created.

The client says they never got the email. Check their spam folder first, then re-run Send Intake (or Resend Invitation on the Portal tab if it's the portal account email they're missing).