Intake forms

An intake form is a longer form clients fill in on its own page, from a link, after they book — never on the booking page. It is for what you need before a first session: a new client's background and goals, a readiness check, the areas to avoid in a massage. The booking form's questions stay what they are, a few short questions asked at every booking (see The booking form, questions and waivers); an intake form can run to dozens of questions with sections, dates and numbers, and it keeps booking quick.

Building a form

Open Settings → Forms & waivers; intake forms are the second part, under the waivers. New intake form starts Blank or from a starter form — Health history, Fitness readiness or Massage intake. The starter forms are written for Schedulign as a starting point: change any question before a client sees it. A copy of a starter form you already have is named "Health history 2", and so on.

The builder has the form's name, an introduction shown above the first question, and the questions and sections in order. A section is a heading with a line of help. Each question has:

• Question — what you ask.
• Answer type — one line, multiple lines, email, phone number, number, date, yes or no, a dropdown (pick one), checkboxes (pick several), or a box to check. You can change it at any time.
• Help — a line shown under the question.
• Required — the client can't send the form without an answer.
• Options — for a dropdown or checkboxes, one per row, at least two.

The arrows move a question or a section; ✕ removes it. + Add a question and + Add a section add one at the end. Nothing is saved until Save changes, and when something is missing the sentence beside it says what. Preview shows the form as a client will see it.

Follow-up questions

Yes or no, a dropdown, checkboxes and a box to check can ask for details: check Ask for details when the answer is, choose the answer, and write the details question — "Which medications?" after a yes, for example. The details question shows under its question only when that answer is given, and then it must be answered.

The signature

At the end of the form, choose None, A typed name or A box to check: the client confirms the information is accurate and complete. Whatever you choose, every intake form also asks for the client's consent before it can be sent. Above the box it tells them what the form collects, why, who receives the answers and how to withdraw, and links your privacy policy when you have one (see Health information and your privacy policy).

Your privacy policy

Under the signature, Privacy policy is one policy for all your intake forms: None, A link to your own policy (a page you keep, starting with https://), or Write one here, where Start from the template fills in a policy written for how Schedulign works, in your business's name — read it through and change anything that isn't true for you. Save changes saves it with the form. Every intake form links it beside the consent, and your booking pages link it too.

On each event

In Scheduling, open the event and its Booking form section:

• Intake form — None, one of your forms, or A link to your own form: a form you keep elsewhere, at an https link. The answers to a form kept elsewhere stay with it: Schedulign doesn't receive or store them.
• Send the link — In the confirmation email puts a button in the email clients get once the session is booked (for a request, when you approve it); On the confirmation page puts it on the page shown after booking and on the page clients manage the booking from. Check one, both or neither: with neither, nothing goes out with the booking, and you send the form from the booking or the client's contact page. No client is asked to fill in a form before their session is booked.
• Needed before the session (your own forms only) — when nothing has come in for a booking, the client gets one reminder the day before, and the session is marked Intake needed in Bookings. Schedulign can't see whether a form kept elsewhere was filled in, so a link is never needed.

When a form is your only one, its row in Settings says Added to new events: each event you create starts with it, with both boxes of Send the link checked. Each form counts the events using it: Apply to all events puts it on every event — replacing a link to your own form, after saying on how many — and Remove from all takes it off every event. A form is optional by design: an intro call needs none, so no event is marked for going without one. Delete removes a form from every event; a form clients have sent is kept with their answers.

Where the answers go

Each time a client sends a form, it is kept, dated, on their contact page under Forms, beside their waiver signatures. The booking it came with shows Intake received in Bookings, and its open row lists the form as its own document, apart from the booking's form answers: the form's name and the day it was sent. Opening it shows every answer, the signature and the consent; Print or save as PDF keeps a copy (choose Save as PDF in your browser's print window). Nothing is asked once per client: a returning client can skip a link when nothing has changed, and can send the form again from the same link when something has — every send is kept. A form you edit later never changes what a client already sent.

Answers are encrypted where they are stored, never go into an email, and every opening of a client's answers is recorded with who opened it and when. On a team, a member sees them only with See clients' intake forms, and only for the clients of their own sessions. Delete client data removes the client's forms with the rest of their details.

When a client withdraws their consent

A client can withdraw their consent at any time from the form's own link: under the line that says when they sent it, Withdraw my consent asks first, then deletes every answer they sent through that link, with the record of who opened them. You're emailed — "{client} withdrew their consent to {form}" — the booking shows Consent withdrawn in Bookings, never Intake needed, their contact page lists it under Forms, and no reminder goes to them about that form. Send it again only if they agree to fill it in; sending it again is new consent.

Plans

Intake forms are part of Pro and Teams. On Free, your forms and each event's setting are kept and nothing is sent; a link a client already has still takes the form.

Practices covered by HIPAA

Schedulign isn't HIPAA-compliant and signs no business associate agreements. If your practice is covered by HIPAA, don't collect health information through Schedulign's intake forms: link your own compliant form from the event instead, with A link to your own form. Whether HIPAA allows your practice to schedule through Schedulign is your own decision.

Some states also have laws about health information that other businesses hold — see Health information and your privacy policy.