Collect everything you need to scope a project before the first call. Budget, timeline, project type, description, and supporting files — all in one structured form. No more back-and-forth emails before you even start.
A client intake form is the structured questionnaire an agency, studio, or freelancer sends a prospective client before any real work begins. Its job is to turn a vague "I need a website" enquiry into a scoped brief: who the client is, what they actually want built, roughly what they can spend, and when they need it. The problem it solves is the messy, slow discovery phase where the same five questions get traded over a week of email threads. A good intake form front-loads all of that so your first conversation is about strategy, not logistics.
A well-designed intake form is short but decision-shaping. This template leads with the essentials — client name, email, and an optional company name and phone — then moves straight to the three fields that determine whether a project is even a fit: Project Type (a dropdown covering Website Design, Branding, Development, Marketing Campaign, Consulting, or Other), Estimated Budget as a range, and Desired Timeline. The insight most people miss is that budget is best asked as a range, never an open number field. A prospect who happily picks "$5,000 – $15,000" from a list will often freeze if you make them type a figure, because a typed number feels like a commitment they can be held to. The Project Description field carries a 30-character minimum so you never receive a one-word answer, and the Inspiration / References field surfaces taste faster than any adjective a client could write.
Deploy it as a gate, not a formality. Put the link on your "Work with us" or "Get a quote" page, or embed it directly, and only book discovery calls with people who complete it. The Attachments field accepts briefs, brand guidelines, or reference decks (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, JPG, PNG, ZIP up to 20 MB each), which means you walk into the first call already holding the material most agencies have to chase for a week.
All fields are fully customizable — add, remove, or reorder after opening the template.
This template's Estimated Budget field offers bands from "Under $1,000" to "$50,000+". Ranges get answered far more often than a blank number box because they feel like disclosure, not negotiation. The band also tells you instantly whether a lead matches your minimum engagement, so you can decline politely before investing call time.
The description field ships with a 30-character minimum for a reason: it blocks the "need a website asap" one-liners that tell you nothing. Set your expectations in the placeholder — ask explicitly for goals, target audience, and specific requirements — so serious prospects give you a paragraph you can actually scope from.
Links to sites or brands a client admires reveal expectations that no written description captures — a client who references Apple wants something very different from one who references a local bakery. Keep this field optional but prominent; the ones who fill it in are usually your most engaged leads.
Existing briefs, brand guidelines, and reference decks usually live in a client's Google Drive and take three emails to extract. The Attachments field accepts PDF, DOCX, PPTX, images, and ZIP up to 20 MB, so those files land with the submission. On Formiqa every uploaded file is downloadable straight from your dashboard, so nothing gets lost in a thread.
The intake form only saves time if completing it is a precondition for a call. Publish the form's shareable URL as the single "Book a project" entry point and stop taking meetings from raw email enquiries. Every discovery call then starts with context already in hand, which shortens the call and filters out window-shoppers.
Agency leads go cold fast, so speed of reply matters more than polish. Formiqa sends a per-submission email to your inbox the moment someone completes the form, meaning you can respond to a hot "ASAP" enquiry within the hour instead of discovering it at your next dashboard check.
All 10 fields included. Customize and publish in minutes.
Free contact form template with name, email, phone, and message fields. Fully customizable and embeddable — publish it on any website in minutes, no code required.
Free vendor application form template. Collect company details, services offered, certifications, and supporting documents from potential vendors and suppliers.
Free project brief form template. Collect goals, target audience, budget, timeline, deliverables, and assets from clients or internal teams before project kickoff.