How clients fill intake forms

Intake forms let your clients and prospective clients send you information without you having to chase emails or re-key answers. A client opens a link, fills out the form in their browser, and submits it. Esqase captures the answers and (for lead-intake forms) turns the submission into a new lead with a matching contact, so the information lands in your dashboard ready to work.

This page is written from the firm's point of view: it explains what your clients see and do, and how you set each form up so that experience works.

There are two kinds of intake link your firm can send:

• A public lead-intake form with a reusable web address. Anyone you give the link to (or who finds it on your website) can open it, and every submission spins up a brand-new lead.
• A one-time form you send to a specific client. The link points at a single submission, and you can protect it so only the intended client can open it.

Before you begin

• You build forms in the firm dashboard under Forms. To create or edit a form you need a role that includes the right access for forms. If your role does not include Create or Edit access for forms, you will not see the buttons to build, send, or change them. See Building forms and Roles and permissions.
• For a public lead-intake form to work, your firm needs a username (set on your firm profile) and the form needs the Lead intake form setting turned on with a Public link. See Public lead-intake forms.
• Clients do not need an Esqase account to fill a form. They just need the link (and, for protected links, the password or sign-in email).

What your clients see when filling a form

No matter which kind of link a client opens, the experience is the same clean, single-purpose page. There is no Esqase sidebar, no login wall (unless you protect the link), and nothing for the client to learn.

Here is what a client encounters:

• A centered form with the questions you placed in the builder, in the order you arranged them. Each question shows its label, any helper text you added, and a red asterisk (*) on required fields.
• If you split the form across multiple pages, the client sees one page at a time with Back and Next buttons to move between them, and a Submit button on the final page.
• Questions you set up to appear only in certain cases stay hidden until the client's earlier answers trigger them.
• A Submit button (it briefly reads Submitting... while the form is sent).
• After submitting, a confirmation page with the title and message you wrote, plus a Return home button.

How the firm sets it up

You design every part of that experience in the form builder:

1. In the sidebar, click Forms.
2. Open an existing form, or click New form to create one.
3. In the builder, drag question and layout elements from the palette onto the canvas, then click any element to edit its label, helper text, required flag, validation, and visibility rules in the properties panel.
4. Use the Form settings panel (shown when no element is selected) to set the form name, the Confirmation message shown after submit, whether the form is a Lead intake form, and whether it is Available to all members of the firm.
5. Click Save.

For the full builder walkthrough, see Building forms and The form builder in depth.

Filling out and submitting a public lead-intake form

A public lead-intake form lives at a reusable web address built from your firm username and the form's public link, for example your-firm/new-client-intake. You can share this link by email, put it on your website, or add it to a "Get started" button. Anyone who opens it can fill it out, and every submission creates a fresh lead.

What the client does:

1. The client opens the public link in any browser. The form loads immediately, with no sign-in step.
2. They answer the questions. A public lead-intake form always requires a Name field plus an Email or Phone field, because those answers become the new lead's contact details.
3. If the form has more than one page, they click Next to advance (and Back to return). Esqase checks the current page's required and validation rules before letting them move on.
4. On the final page they click Submit. The button shows Submitting... while the answers are sent.
5. They land on your confirmation page.

How you set it up:

1. Build the form as above, making sure it includes a Name field and at least one of Email or Phone.
2. In Form settings, turn on Lead intake form.
3. Fill in the Public link field. This is the last part of the web address. If you leave it blank, Esqase suggests one based on the form name.
4. Optionally choose a Workflow to attach to each new lead (see "How a submission becomes a lead" below).
5. Click Save. From the builder you can click Copy link to grab the public address and share it.

Opening and submitting a form your firm sent (the one-time link)

Sometimes you want a specific client to fill a specific form, tied to a lead or matter you already have. For this you create a form request. Esqase generates a one-time link pointing at a single submission, so the answers attach to that one client rather than creating a new lead from scratch.

How you send it:

1. Open the form you want to send (from the Forms list, or from a lead or matter).
2. Click the option to create a form request (for example Send form or the equivalent action on the form's detail page).
3. In the Create a form request dialog, enter the Contact name of the person who will fill it out.
4. Under How do you want to collect this form?, choose:
   • Send to client to generate a link the client opens and fills out themselves.
   • Fill out manually to enter the answers yourself on the client's behalf.
5. Click Create request. A draft lead and contact are created for this submission, and you get a link to share. See Reviewing form submissions.

What the client does:

1. The client opens the link you sent.
2. If the link is protected, they pass a quick check first (see the next two sections).
3. The form loads with your questions. They answer them, moving through pages with Back and Next if there is more than one.
4. They click Submit. The button reads Submitting... while saving.
5. They land on your confirmation page.

Unlocking a gated form link (request a link, verify, unlock)

When you want to be sure that only the intended client can open a one-time form, the link is gated. The client cannot simply forward it; they have to prove they are the right person. There are two gate styles a client might see, depending on how the link was created.

The email sign-in gate

This is the more common gate. The client proves their identity using the email address your firm has on file for them.

What the client sees, step by step:

1. The client opens the link. Instead of the form, they see an Open your form panel asking for an email address, with the message that the firm will send a secure sign-in link.
2. They type the email the firm has on file and click Email me a sign-in link.
3. Esqase shows a Check your email confirmation. If the email is on the form, a secure sign-in link is sent to that address. (For privacy, Esqase shows the same message whether or not the email matched, so the client never learns which addresses are on file.) They can click Use a different email to start over.
4. The client opens the sign-in link from their email on the same device. Esqase briefly shows Signing you in while it verifies the link, then opens the form.

A few things worth telling clients up front:

• The sign-in link expires after a short time (about 30 minutes). If it expires, they just request a new one from the same panel.
• They must open the sign-in link on the same device and browser where they requested it.
• For everyone's protection, the firm can only send a limited number of sign-in links to a form in a short window. If a client requests too many in quick succession, later requests are quietly throttled; they should wait a few minutes and try again.

The password gate

If the link was protected with a password instead, the client sees a lock screen.

1. The client opens the link and sees an Open your form panel with a single Form password field and the message to enter the password the firm sent them.
2. They type the password and click Unlock.
3. If it matches, the form opens. If not, they see "That password and link do not match" and can try again.

Uploading a file inside a form

If your form includes a File upload question, clients can attach documents (for example an ID, a contract, or a photo) right inside the form.

What the client does:

1. They reach the file question, which shows a dashed drop area reading Drag and drop a file, or click to choose (or Drag and drop up to N files when you allow more than one).
2. They drag a file onto the area, or click it to pick one from their device.
3. Each file uploads on the spot. The client sees a progress percentage while it transfers, then a green check and the file name and size when it finishes.
4. They can remove a file with the small remove (x) button next to it, or add more up to the limit you set.

Size and type limits:

• File types. If you listed accepted file types on the question, the drop area shows an Accepted: line with that list, and the file picker only offers matching files. If a client somehow drops a non-matching file, they see "'filename' is not an accepted file type" and that file is skipped.
• Number of files. If you set a maximum number of files, attempting to add more shows "You can upload at most N file(s)".
• File size. A file that is too large is rejected with "That file is too large to upload." The default ceiling is generous (up to 100 MB per file unless you set a smaller limit on the question), so everyday documents and images upload without trouble.

Troubleshooting

• The upload bar reaches the end but the file shows "Upload failed". Ask the client to try again on a stable connection. Very large files or a dropped connection can interrupt the transfer.
• A file the client picks does not get added. It is likely outside the accepted types or over the size limit. Check the Accepted: line on the question and your size limit.

Conditional questions and validation while filling

Esqase forms react to what the client types, so the form stays short and only asks what is relevant.

Conditional questions

When you build the form you can add visibility rules to any question so it appears, hides, becomes required, or becomes disabled based on another answer. For example, "Show the Other details box only when How did you hear about us? is Other."

From the client's side this is seamless:

• Hidden questions are simply not on the page until an earlier answer reveals them.
• A question that becomes required only when shown gets its red asterisk at that point, and it is only validated while it is visible.
• Hidden questions are not validated and are not submitted, so a client is never blocked by a question they cannot see.

You set these rules per element in the builder; see The form builder in depth.

Validation while filling

Esqase checks answers as the client moves through the form, not just at the end:

• Required fields. A required question that is left blank is flagged. On a multi-page form, the client cannot click Next until the current page's required questions are answered.
• Format checks. Email and website questions check for a valid address or URL. Number, length, and pattern rules you added are checked too, using the error message you wrote (or a sensible default).
• Clear, in-line errors. Invalid fields are highlighted, and a banner at the top reads "Please fix the highlighted fields before continuing" (or "...before submitting" on the last page). When the client clicks Submit, Esqase jumps them to the first page that has an error so they can fix it.
• Correcting a field clears its error right away.

The submission confirmation page (your custom header and description)

After a client submits, they see a confirmation page so they know the form went through. You control exactly what it says.

What the client sees:

• A success checkmark.
• A title (your "header") and a message (your "description") that you wrote.
• A Return home button.

How you set it up:

1. In the builder, open Form settings (deselect any element if a question is selected).
2. Under Confirmation message, fill in:
   • Title. The big header, for example "Thank you!" This is what shows in bold on the confirmation page.
   • Message. The supporting text, for example "We received your information and will be in touch within one business day." Line breaks are preserved.
3. Click Save.

If you leave these blank, Esqase falls back to a default title of "Thank you!" and a default message of "Your response has been submitted."

Re-submitting vs single submission

Whether a client can submit a form more than once depends on the kind of link.

• Public lead-intake forms always accept multiple submissions. The same reusable link is designed to be filled out by many people (or by the same person twice), and each submission becomes its own separate lead.
• One-time links you send to a client are single-submission by default. After the client submits, reopening the link takes them to the confirmation page instead of a blank form, so they cannot accidentally submit twice or change their answers.

If you want a one-time form to be re-fillable (for example a status update the same client returns to), turn on the "allow multiple submissions" option for that form in the builder before you send it. With that on, reopening the link shows the form again.

How a submission becomes a lead and auto-tags lead sources

Lead-intake submissions are not just stored answers; they create real work items in your dashboard so your team can pick them up.

When a client submits a public lead-intake form, Esqase automatically:

1. Creates a new lead in your intake pipeline, placed in your default starting lead stage, with a readable lead number.
2. Creates a contact for that lead from the form's Name field and the Email or Phone answers. Email is used as the primary way to reach the contact when both are provided.
3. Records the submitted answers against the lead so your team can review everything the client entered. See Reviewing form submissions.
4. Tags the lead's source. Two lead sources are recorded automatically: a general Form source, plus a source named after the specific form. Esqase reuses existing sources of those names if you already have them, so your reporting stays clean instead of filling up with duplicates. See Lead sources.
5. Attaches a workflow, if you assigned one. If you chose a Workflow on the form, every step of that workflow is copied onto the new lead as pending items. Esqase does not run those steps automatically; it queues them so your team can run them from the lead's Workflow section when ready. See Workflows and the builder.

For one-time links you send, the lead and contact are created up front when you make the form request (as a draft), and the client's submission fills in the answers. You then review and, when appropriate, convert it. See Converting a lead to a matter.

Common questions

• Do clients need an Esqase login to fill a form? No. Public links open straight to the form. Protected one-time links only ask the client to confirm an email or password, not to create an account.
• Can the same person submit a public form twice? Yes. Public lead-intake forms always allow it, and each submission becomes a separate lead. De-duplicate in your dashboard if needed.
• A client says the form will not accept their submission. For public forms, confirm the form is published and the lead intake settings (the Public link and a Name plus Email or Phone field) are complete. See Public lead-intake forms.
• A client cannot get past the gate. For the email gate, confirm the contact's email on file matches what they are entering, and that they open the emailed link on the same device. For the password gate, re-send the exact password. Links and codes expire, so a fresh request often resolves it.

Related

• Building forms
• The form builder in depth
• Public lead-intake forms
• Reviewing form submissions
• Managing leads
• Lead sources