Intake forms

Intake forms let you ask new clients the questions that matter to your practice - in your own words, before you first meet. Build a form once, then send it as part of client onboarding or on its own at any time. Answers land on the client’s record, ready to read or export.

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Building a form

Head to Forms in the sidebar and click New form. Give the form a title, and optionally a short description your client sees at the top. Click Add question to add each question. You choose the question type and fill everything in - the question itself, optional help text, and whether an answer is required - in one go:

• Short text - a single line, for names or brief answers
• Long text - a larger box for fuller answers
• Checkboxes - pick any number of options
• Single choice - pick exactly one option
• Dropdown - pick one option from a list
• Date - a date picker
• Yes / No - two simple buttons
• Scale - a row of tappable numbers, from 0 or 1 up to 10, with optional labels at each end (for example “Not at all” to “Very much”)

Reorder questions by dragging them, or with the arrows on each row. The preview beside the editor shows exactly what your client will see as you build.

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Publishing and versions

A new form starts as a draft. Drafts can be edited freely and deleted, but can’t be sent. When you’re happy, click Publish - the form becomes sendable. You can keep editing a published form. Each save creates a new version, and every response stays attached to the version the client was actually sent. Editing a form never changes the questions on a form someone is part-way through, and old responses always read back against the questions the client saw.

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Setting a default form

Open a published form and turn on Automatically send to new clients. From then on, the add-client form pre-selects it for every new client - you can still swap it for a different form, or turn it off, per client. Only one form can be the default at a time. Turning it on for one form turns it off for any other.

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Sending a form

There are two ways a form reaches a client.

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With a new client

When adding a client, turn on Send an intake form and choose the form (your default is pre-selected if you’ve set one). What happens next depends on onboarding:

• With onboarding - the form becomes a step inside the client’s onboarding: they sign your agreement, complete the intake, and see the confirmation. One link, one sitting.
• With Skip onboarding turned on - the form is emailed to the client as its own link instead.

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Any time after

• From a client’s profile, open the Documents tab and click Send form in the Intake forms section.
• From Forms, click Send on any published form and choose the client.

If a client has already completed a form, Bloom checks before sending it again - a repeat send starts a fresh response, and their earlier answers are kept. Handy if you re-run the same check-in each year.

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What your client sees

The client gets one calm page with your name and practice at the top - no account, no login. They complete the form in one sitting, and their in-progress answers are saved in their browser as a safety net, so an accidental tab close doesn’t lose anything.

• Emailed form links are valid for 7 days. If a link expires, the client sees a gentle note and you can resend a fresh one - from the client’s profile or the form’s responses list.
• Once submitted, answers can’t be edited. If something needs correcting, send the form again for a fresh response.

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Reading responses

Responses appear in two places:

• On the client’s profile, under Documents → Intake forms - every form sent to that client with its status.
• On the form, via Responses - everyone the form has been sent to, with statuses and dates.

Each response shows a status: Sent, Viewed (the client opened the link), Completed, or Expired. Open a completed response to read the answers exactly as your client wrote them, question by question. Need a copy for your records? Open a completed response and click Download PDF - a tidy document on your practice letterhead with the client’s name, the form title, and when it was completed. When a client completes a form, it shows in your dashboard activity feed, and you’ll get an email if you have notifications turned on in Settings.