ParrotNotes

Free Client Intake Form Template

Pick your business type (contractor or home services, consultant or agency, real estate, or any service) and the form fills with questions that fit. Edit, add, remove and reorder them, choose short answers, long answers, boxes to tick or Yes / No, and add your business name and a privacy note. Then print it, save it as a PDF to send, or copy the questions into your online form.

What the client intake form covers

  • Contact details

    Name, phone, email, address or company, how they want to be contacted and the best time to reach them, so the first callback goes to the right number at the right time.

  • The job or project

    What they need and why now. Contractors get the job type, the description, the site, property type, access and photos; consultants get goals, the problem, what success looks like and who decides; agents get buy or sell, area, home type and must-haves.

  • Budget

    A range to tick instead of an open number, which most people find easier to answer. The ranges are examples: change them to your prices.

  • Timeline

    How urgent it is, when they want to start, or the date it is needed by, so you can tell straight away whether you can take it.

  • How they found you

    Search, referral, social media, review sites, your sign or van, or repeat customer, plus who referred them so you can say thank you.

  • Privacy note and signature

    An editable note on what you do with the answers, and a signature and date line for forms filled in on paper.

How to use a client intake form

Send the form, or a link to your online version of it, as soon as a new client gets in touch, and ask them to fill it in before the first call or visit. Or keep it in front of you and fill it in yourself while you talk: the questions keep the call on track and nothing gets forgotten.

Keep it short. Every question should change what you do next: whether you take the job, what you quote, who you send, when. Mark only the answers you cannot work without as required. The presets ask more than most businesses need, so remove the questions that would not change what you do.

After the intake, the answers become your estimate or proposal, your job notes and the first entry in whatever you track clients in. Copy the questions as text to paste them into an email or the online form builder you already use.

Ready to price the job? Turn the answers into an estimate template.

Tracking new clients through to a sale? Add them to the CRM template.

Intake form, contact list, CRM, estimate

Client intake form
This page: the questions a new client answers before or during the first conversation, about who they are, what they need, budget and timing.
Contact list
Names and numbers for many people in one table. The contact list template is for that; it does not ask about a job.
CRM
Where each client or deal moves through stages after the intake, with next steps and values.
Estimate or quote
The price you send once you know the job. The intake answers are what it is based on.

Tips for an intake form people finish

  • Ask for ranges, not numbers

    "$5,000 to $15,000" is easier to tick than "What is your budget?" is to answer, and it still tells you whether the job fits.

  • Ask for photos

    For trades work, a photo of the leak, the panel or the roof often answers more than three questions, and it tells you what to bring.

  • Put the must-knows first

    Contact details and the job come first, so a half-finished form is still useful. Nice-to-haves go at the end.

  • Say what you do with the answers

    A short privacy note at the bottom builds trust. Write what you actually do, and check what your local privacy law asks you to tell people.

More on the first conversation with a client: what a discovery call is, discovery questions in sales.

Taking the intake on a call?

Tell the client you are recording, record the call in ParrotNotes, and you get a transcript and a summary of their answers as notes, so you can listen instead of writing while they talk and copy the answers into this form afterwards.

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Client intake form questions