Understanding Intake Forms

What is an Intake Form?

An Intake Form is a mirror version of a main (parent) form that is intended to be sent to someone else for completion.

While the parent form is in the Smarter Drafter Form Library and can used by form fillers to generate documents, an Intake Form can be sent outside of the organisation, to someone without a Smarter Drafter license, where they can answer the questionnaire and submit the form back to the sender for completion.

When to use an Intake Form

An Intake Form is useful where the required data needs to be extracted from someone else, particularly if there is a large amount of information to capture. Rather than having a consultation, or completing a form manually, a recipient can answer the questions online and submit the completed Intake Form back to the sender, providing accurate spelling of names, dates and other important information.

Intake Forms are commonly used for:

• New client details: Contact information and personal details
• Estate planning details: Details of several parties, correct spelling, addresses and dates
• Family law details: Extensive relationship information, family history and asset/liability details
• Matter details: Brief description of matter, key dates and relevant parties

How does an Intake Form work?

A link is first sent to the recipient, giving them access to fill in the questionnaire and submit their responses back to the sender. When the recipient has submitted their responses, the sender is notified and they can then pick up the Intake Form and continue the submission through to document generation.

When an Intake Form is created, it is initially a replica of the parent form. The builder can then adjust the Intake Form version to hide questions that the recipient doesn’t need to see/answer. When the recipient submits the Intake Form, the sender can then access that submission and any hidden questions will now be revealed so that they can be answered, finalising the questionnaire. The form can then be submitted for document generation without having to rekey any of the information.

How do I create an Intake Form?

To learn how to create an intake form, see 'How to Create an Intake Form'