---
title: Questionnaires and intake forms
slug: questionnaires-and-intake-forms
category: Client & Pet Management
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/questionnaires-and-intake-forms
audiences: business_owner, manager
updated: 2026-08-20
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Questionnaires and intake forms
Sidebar: **Business Settings → Questionnaires**.

Where an agreement is something the client signs, a questionnaire is something they tell you. Use them for the information you would otherwise gather over the phone: temperament, handling, vet details, what the dog is like with clippers.

## Question types

- **Text** — a short answer
- **Long text** — a paragraph
- **Dropdown**, **radio buttons**, **checkboxes** — pick from your options
- **Yes/no**
- **Date**
- **Number**

Each question can be marked required, given help text, and given placeholder text.

Prefer fixed choices over free text wherever you can. "How does your dog react to a dryer?" as four options gives you answers you can act on; as a paragraph it gives you prose nobody re-reads.

## Turning answers into tags

Answers can map to **pet tags**. A client answering "yes" to "has your dog ever bitten anyone?" can automatically apply a caution flag to the pet.

This is the feature that makes questionnaires worth building. A form sitting in a response record is read once; a tag is on the pet every time anyone opens it. Map the safety-relevant questions and let the rest stay as answers.

## Sending them

Send a questionnaire to a client to complete in their own time, or work through it together at a first appointment. Responses are stored against the client, and against the pet where the questionnaire is about a specific animal.

## Keeping responses current

Responses can expire. Set a validity period on anything asserting a current state — health, medication, behaviour — so a form completed three years ago does not stand as this year's truth. Responses past their date show as needing renewal rather than being silently trusted.

Things that do not change do not need a period.

## Practical advice

- **Keep the new-client form short.** Every question is a chance to abandon it. Ask what you need before the first visit and gather the rest in person.
- **One questionnaire per purpose.** A short intake form and a separate grooming preferences form beat one long form covering both.
- **Write questions you will act on.** If an answer would not change what you do, do not ask.
- **Review the answers before the appointment**, not while the owner is at the counter. The point of asking in advance is being ready.