Articles on: Forms

Send an Intake Form to a client

Plans: Pro and Agency.


An Intake Form is a stand-alone form you send to a client whenever you need something from them: a brief, details that are missing, or a questionnaire between two projects. Unlike a Request Form or an Order Form, it is not tied to a request type or a service. You build and send Intake Forms in Forms.


Build the form and send it


  1. Open Forms and select Create form.
  2. Select Add new form field for each question. In the field's settings, type the Label, and turn on This field is required for every question the client must answer. If the client should pick from a list, use a Choices or Dropdown field and add the answers with Add new item.
  3. If some questions only apply to certain answers, add rules on the Form logic tab to show or hide them, so each client sees only what applies to them. See Show or hide form fields with form logic.
  4. In Form settings, set the logo, the button colours, the text on the submit button and the background.
  5. Publish the form. A form that is still in Draft cannot be filled in.
  6. Select Share on the form's row and choose a client or a client team. If everyone at one company should get the form, choose their team. See Put clients into a team.
  7. The answers appear on the Responses tab.


The form builder: Add new form field (2), the Form logic tab (3) and Share (6). The form is already published.


Form settings (4) set the buttons, the submit button label and the background. The preview on the left shows the result.


Share sends the form to the clients or client teams you choose (6). Copy URL copies its link.


See who has answered


When you share a form, the client gets the Form shared with you notification. See Every notification your clients can get.


Each time a form is sent, a new row appears on the Shares tab. Its Status shows New until the client has filled in the form, and Completed after that.


Decide who can answer, and how often


Three settings in Form settings › General settings decide who can fill in the form:


  • Form URL is the form's own address. Select Copy to copy it.
  • Unregistered users can submit lets people without an account fill in the form from its link. When it is off, only clients who are signed in can.
  • Unique user can submit is Unlimited times or Only once. With Only once, each person can answer one time.


Sharing a form with Share sends it to the clients you choose and notifies them. Copying the link only gives you the address, and nobody is notified until you send it yourself.


If a client answered an Only once form by mistake, delete their answer on the Responses tab, in the ⋯ menu of the response. The form then waits for them again, and they can fill it in once more. Deleting a response cannot be undone. Clients cannot edit their answers after they send them.


Choose what happens after the client sends the form


Under Form submission, choose one of two endings:


  • Thank you page: a page with a Title, a Content text, an optional Image of up to 10 MB, and an optional button with a Button URL and a Button label. Leave the URL empty if you do not want a button.
  • Redirect to URL: the client goes straight to a page you choose, such as a page on your website.


Changing a form that is already shared


When you save a published form, clients who have not filled it in yet see the new version the next time they open it. Answers that were already sent keep the questions as they were, so renaming or removing a field does not change old responses.


Send the form automatically from a request type


A request type can send an Intake Form for you, so nobody has to remember to ask for the brief. On the type's Automations tab, add the Send intake form action to one of the five triggers:


  • the request is created
  • someone is assigned
  • the status changes
  • the state changes
  • the request is archived


See Automate a request type.


A form sent by an automation shows the system bot, under the name you gave it, in the Shared by column of the Shares tab. So if a client received a form that nobody on your team remembers sending, this column tells you where it came from. See Name the system bot and set your help links.


Intake, Request and Order Forms


Zendo has three kinds of form, and the difference is when the client fills them in:


  • A Request Form belongs to a request type and is filled in when the client submits a request of that type. See Build a Request Form.
  • An Order Form belongs to a service and is filled in at checkout. See Add an Order Form to a service.
  • An Intake Form is filled in whenever you send it.


Intake Forms and Request Forms are built in the same builder, which supports form logic. Order Forms have a simpler builder of their own.


You can also put an Intake Form on your own website. See Embed a form on your own website.



Updated on: 09/11/2026

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