Overview

Intake forms let you gather client and pet information in a structured way. They are highly customizable; choose what information you need, attach agreements, and connect forms to specific services in online booking or your portal sign up for structured onboarding. This ensures you have everything required before a booking or first visit.

Check out our demo form to get a feel for its functionality!

Best Use Cases for Intake Forms

Intake forms help you move away from paper packets and scattered spreadsheets, putting all client and pet information into one place inside Scritches. They’re especially valuable for:

1. Onboarding new clients before the first booking
   Replace emailed questionnaires or paper contracts by collecting client details, pet profiles, and signed agreements in one digital step.

2. Requiring vaccination records for boarding or daycare
   Ensure compliance by making vaccine uploads a required field, complete with expiration dates, before confirming a booking.

3. Annual refresh of client and pet information
   Send existing clients a pre-filled update form each year to verify addresses, emergency contacts, medications, and care routines, no manual spreadsheet updates needed.

4. Streamlining leads and specialty requests
   Use lightweight forms on your website for inquiries, or create focused forms (like a “New Pet Add-On” or “Training Goals” form) that feed directly into Scritches instead of cluttering email threads.

Creating a Form

Navigate to Intake Forms
In the left sidebar, click Intake Forms, and then click the Settings Tab. You’ll see a list of your existing forms. If this is your first time viewing your forms, you will notice there is already a “New Client Intake” form created for you to build off of.

Create a New Form

• Click Add New Form.

• Enter a clear name (e.g., New Client Onboarding).

• Add a Welcome Message. This is shown at the top of the form, set the tone and guide clients (e.g., “Welcome 👋 Please tell us about yourself and your pets so we can provide the best care.”).

• Toggle Active if you want the form available immediately.

Configuring Intake Form Questions

How default questions work

Default questions are built-in fields that map directly to Client or Pet profiles. When you process a submission, answers to these defaults populate the profile automatically. Some defaults are always required and cannot be removed; others can be hidden or set optional.

Default questions for clients

These appear on every new form and map straight into the client profile:

• Full Name (always required)

• Email Address (required)

• Phone Number (required)

• Address Line 1 (required)

• Address Line 2 (optional)

• City (required)

• State (required)

• Zip Code (required)

• Access Instructions (optional)

• Emergency Contact Name (optional)

• Emergency Contact Relationship (optional)

• Emergency Contact Primary Phone (optional)

• Emergency Contact Secondary Phone (optional)

These defaults are visible by default. You can hide non-essential ones or make them optional to reduce friction.

Default questions for pets

Turn Collect Pet Information on to include pet defaults. They map into each pet’s profile on processing:

• Pet Name (always required)

• Species (always required: Dog, Cat, Other). Allowed species can be configured

• Breed (required)

• Age (required)

• Gender (required)

• Pet Photo (optional)

• Birth Date (optional)

• Is Neutered/Spayed (optional)

• Notes for pet (optional)

• Microchip Number (optional)

• Medications (optional)

• Medical Conditions (optional)

• Food Allergies (optional)

• Vet Name (optional)

• Vet Phone Number (optional)

• Vet Address (optional)

If you disable Collect Pet Information, only client fields are shown. This is useful for lead capture or simple inquiries.

Add custom questions

Custom questions don’t map to fixed profile fields; when processed, their answers are stored as client or pet notes.

Types you can add

• Short Text

• Long Text

• Dropdown

• Radio,

• Checkboxes

• Date, Time, Date & Time

• Vaccine Upload, including file and expiration date (only for pets)

• General File Upload

Scope

• Client: asked once

• Pet: repeats for each pet

Examples

• Client: “How did you hear about us?” (Dropdown), “Upload a picture of front door” (File Upload)

• Pet: “Leash reactivity” (Checkbox), “Last vet visit” (Date)

Requiring Agreements

Attach agreements so clients sign them while completing the form. Signed copies are saved on the client record. If the client is signed into their portal account and has already signed an agreement, they won’t be required to sign it again.

Online Booking Integration

Tie this form to online booking to require it during the booking flow.

• Assign to All Services to make it universal.

• Or assign to specific services like Boarding, Daycare, Training.

• Each service can only have one intake form linked; conflicts are flagged so you can resolve them.

• Pet Info is required to be collected if the form is integrated with online booking

Client experience: If a service has a linked form and the client hasn’t completed it yet, the booking Your Info step is replaced by your intake form. After submitting, they continue with booking as usual.

Pet Parent Portal Integration

Tie this form to Pet Portal Registration to require it during the sign up flow.

• Navigate to your Pet Parent Portal settings page

• Under “Registration Requirements”, set the Required Intake Form to the form you desire.

Client experience: If a client is signing up to the Pet Parent Portal for the first time, they will be redirected to complete the assigned form before they can access their portal. Once completed, they can use the portal as normal. Existing "Active" clients, or clients with a submission on file for this form will not be required to complete it again.

Configuring Allowed Species

Customize which species your intake form accepts to match your business specialization. This is especially useful for cat-only sitting/boarding, dog-exclusive daycare, or multi-species facilities that want to streamline the form experience.

How to configure species

By default, all species are enabled on your form (Dog, Cat, Bird, Fish, Rabbit, and more). To customize:

1. Ensure Collect Pet Information is turned on

2. In the Pet Questions section, locate the Species field

3. Click the edit icon (pencil) next to the Species question

4. In the dialog that appears, click Customize to begin selecting specific species

5. Check the species you want to allow (e.g., only Dog and Cat for a traditional pet care facility)

6. Click Done and save your form

Client experience

Multiple species enabled
When you select 2 or more species, clients will see only those options in the species dropdown. For example, if you only enable Dog, Cat, and Rabbit, those are the only choices shown—no "Other" button appears.

Single species enabled
When you select only one species (e.g., only Cat), the intake form automatically optimizes:

• The species field is hidden entirely

• All pets are automatically set to that species

• "Pet" is replaced with your species name throughout (e.g., "Cat 1 Information" instead of "Pet 1 Information", "Add Additional Cat" instead of "Add Additional Pet")

This creates a more focused, professional experience for specialized businesses.

Best Practices

• Keep forms focused. Ask only what you truly need, too long and clients may drop off, too short and you’ll chase missing info later.

• Test the client experience. Preview your forms to see how they look on desktop and mobile, and make sure instructions are clear and the order of questions makes sense. Try filling it out as a “new client” to catch confusing spots.

• Attach agreements to ensure policies are accepted upfront.

• Use a general intake form for your onboarding, then create specialty forms for unique services.

Next Up

View how to process form submissions at https://help.scritches.io/articles/2507482-processing-intake-form-submissions