What to Put on a Coaching Intake Form (With a Template)
A good intake form does three jobs at once. It saves you the first session's worth of basic questions, it gets the client thinking before they arrive, and it sets the tone that this is a real, professional engagement. A bad one is a wall of fields that nobody finishes, or a thin two liner that leaves you flying blind into the first call.
This guide walks through what belongs on a coaching intake form, what to leave off, and how to time it so it actually gets completed. There is a copy and paste template at the end you can adapt today.
When to send it
Timing matters more than people expect. Send the intake too early, before the prospect has decided to work with you, and you are asking for real effort from someone who is still deciding. Send it too late, after the first paid session, and you have wasted that session on questions a form could have answered.
The sweet spot is right after the fit is confirmed and before the first full session. Practically, that means: discovery call happens, you both agree it is a match, and the intake goes out as part of onboarding, ideally alongside the coaching agreement. The client is committed, motivated, and has not started yet, which is exactly when they will give you thoughtful answers.
The best version of this is automatic. When you mark a new client as active, the intake and the agreement send themselves, the client completes them on their own time, and a full record lands back with you before session one. That is how CoachTide's intake is designed to work, so onboarding is one link instead of a manual chase, but the timing principle holds no matter what tool you use.
What to include
Think in sections. A form that flows from logistics to depth feels considered; a random pile of fields feels like a chore. Here are the sections worth having, with the reasoning for each.
Contact and logistics. The basics you need to actually run the relationship: full name, preferred name, email, phone, time zone, and the best way to reach them. Time zone in particular saves a surprising amount of scheduling pain.
Background and context. A few questions that orient you to who this person is and what they are carrying. Their role or work, what is prompting them to seek coaching now, and what is going on around them that matters. You are not running a clinical history; you are getting enough context to not waste the first session on basics.
Goals and outcomes. The heart of the form. What do they want to be different? How will they know coaching worked? What does success look like in six months? These questions do double duty: they inform you, and they make the client articulate something they may not have put into words yet. That articulation is itself the start of the work.
Coaching history and readiness. Have they been coached before, and how was it? What tends to get in their way when they try to change something? How do they respond to being challenged? This tells you how to coach them, not just what to coach them on.
Preferences and how to work together. How do they like to communicate? What helps them do their best thinking? Is there anything about how they process or focus that would help you coach them better? That last one, asked openly, lets a neurodivergent client or anyone with specific needs tell you what works for them, without having to disclose more than they want to. It signals that you build the work around the person.
Logistics and commitments. Session frequency and length you agreed on, how scheduling and cancellations work, and how they will pay. Setting expectations here prevents the awkward conversations later.
Consent and permissions. This is the section coaches most often skip and most need. If you record sessions, use AI note taking, or communicate by text, get explicit consent for each, and keep a record of it. For ICF coaches this is not optional polish: your Code of Ethics holds you responsible for clear agreements about how information is handled and for protecting client data through the tools you use (Standards 2.2, 2.4, and 2.5). A form that captures consent at onboarding, and a system that remembers it, is how you meet that obligation cleanly. (CoachTide tracks recording, AI, text, and email consent on each file and shows it before every session for exactly this reason.)
What to leave off
Restraint is part of the craft. Every field you add lowers completion, so cut anything that is not earning its place.
- Anything you will not use. If an answer would not change how you coach, it does not belong on the form.
- Clinical or diagnostic questions. You are a coach, not a therapist. Detailed mental health history is outside your scope and can create liability. If something clinical is relevant, the client will raise it.
- Sensitive data you do not need. Do not collect more personal or financial detail than the relationship requires. The less you hold, the less you have to protect.
- Duplicate questions. If your booking step or agreement already captured it, do not ask again. Repetition reads as disorganized.
A focused form that respects the client's time gets finished. A long one gets abandoned halfway, which is worse than no form at all.
A coaching intake form template
Adapt this freely. Trim sections you do not need and reword in your own voice.
COACHING INTAKE FORM
Section 1: Contact and logistics
- Full name
- Preferred name / pronouns
- Email
- Phone
- Time zone
- Best way to reach you (email / phone / text)
Section 2: About you
- What do you do? (role, work, or how you spend your days)
- What is prompting you to seek coaching now?
- Is there anything going on around you right now that feels relevant?
Section 3: Goals and outcomes
- What do you most want to be different as a result of our work?
- How will you know coaching has worked? What will be different?
- Where would you like to be six months from now?
Section 4: How you work
- Have you worked with a coach before? If so, what was helpful or unhelpful?
- What tends to get in your way when you try to change something?
- How do you like to be challenged or held accountable?
- Anything about how you think, focus, or process that would help me coach you well?
Section 5: Logistics
- Session frequency and length we agreed on
- How you will pay (and billing contact, if different)
- Anything you need from me to make scheduling work for you
Section 6: Consent
- I consent to sessions being recorded (yes / no)
- I consent to AI assisted note taking (yes / no)
- I consent to be contacted by text for scheduling (yes / no)
- I have read and agree to the coaching agreement (yes / no)
Make it onboard the client for you
A form is only as good as the system around it. A PDF you email and then re key by hand is better than nothing, but it still leaves you doing data entry and chasing signatures. The version that actually saves time is the one where the form is part of onboarding: it sends itself when you take a client on, the client completes it and signs the agreement digitally, and a complete client record builds itself from their answers, no copying, no chasing, no re keying.
That is the whole idea behind how booking and onboarding work in CoachTide: one link turns a new client into a full record, with intake answers, signed agreement, and consent all captured and filed, before your first session together. The form does the onboarding so you do not have to.
Whatever you build it in, the goal is the same. Ask the few things that change how you coach, capture consent properly, respect the client's time, and let the answers arrive before the first session rather than during it. Get that right and your intake form stops being paperwork and starts being the first, quiet move of the coaching itself.
CoachTide turns one booking link into a complete client record, intake, agreement, and consent included, then runs your sessions, invoices, and ICF hours from the same place, with client data private by design. Request beta access while we are in private beta.