Intake Forms

Intakes are questionnaires you send to clients: the new-client information sheet, the property details form. The client fills it in from any device; the answers land on the matter as structured data instead of a voicemail and three sticky notes.

Sending an Intake

From the matter’s Intakes section, click Add Intake, pick a published template, and choose which of the matter’s contacts to send it to. Each contact gets an email (“You have a questionnaire to complete”) with a personal link. Contacts without an email address are skipped, and Laminar tells you how many.

The sent email is logged on the matter as an interaction, so the record shows what was requested and when.

What the Client Experiences

The form opens in the client portal as a stepped questionnaire: one section at a time, progress shown, validation inline. They can stop and continue later; their progress keeps. On finish they see a thank-you, and you see the answers.

Tracking and Reading Responses

The matter’s Intakes list shows each questionnaire with its status and progress (“6 of 9 steps answered”), who it was sent to, and when. Click through to Intake responses to read every answer, with who answered and when.

Statuses run Not started, In progress, Filled (everything answered but not yet attached to a matter), and Complete (answered and on a matter). Forms you send from a matter go straight to Complete when finished; the Filled state mostly appears for forms clients started on their own, waiting for you to link them to a matter.

Old questionnaires can be archived to keep the list clean; nothing is deleted.

Building Intake Templates

Templates are built by your firm’s authors (or provided by Laminar; canonical templates can be cloned into an editable firm copy). A template is a sequence of steps, each holding fields: text, email, phone, number, currency, date, single or multiple choice, yes/no, address. Fields can be required and validated.

Logic jumps make forms feel shorter than they are: “if Buying with a spouse = No, skip the spouse section.” The client only ever sees the questions that apply to them.

Like document templates, intakes are published with versions. A client mid-questionnaire keeps the version they started; republishing never rewrites a form under someone’s feet.

Tips

Send the intake with the engagement letter. The earlier the client fills it in, the earlier the matter has real data, and the less your team retypes from phone calls.

Keep forms short and use logic jumps. Every question you don’t need is a question the client might abandon the form over.

Check the contact’s email first. The send silently skips contacts without one; the primary email on the contact is where it goes.