Requiring Forms During the Booking Process

In this article:

• Understanding Booking Page Forms
• Requiring Forms for Bookings
• How Clients Experience Required Forms
• Viewing Completed Forms
• Managing Required Forms

Understanding Booking Page Forms

Booking page forms allow you to collect important information from clients when they complete their booking request. When you add forms to your booking page, clients will encounter them as a natural step in the booking flow: they'll select their service, choose a date and time, enter their contact information, complete any required forms, handle payment if needed, and then submit their booking request.

This approach ensures you have the information you need right from the start, making it easier to prepare for new client sessions and reducing back-and-forth communication. You can require up to three forms to be completed as part of the booking process, and we recommend using concise intake forms or shorter forms to keep the experience smooth for your clients.

📍 Note: You can’t use forms that require a practitioner's signature as booking page forms. All other form types you've created with Practice Better's Form Builder are compatible with this feature.

When to Use Booking Page Forms vs. Post-Booking Automations

You have two options for collecting forms from new clients: requiring them during booking or sending them automatically after booking confirmation. Requiring forms at booking means clients complete them before you receive their booking request, which works well for essential intake information you need to evaluate before confirming an appointment. Alternatively, you can set up automations to deliver forms after you've confirmed the booking, which is useful for supplementary paperwork or detailed questionnaires that don't affect your decision to accept the client.

Learn more about Sending Forms Automatically after Bookings and Packages are confirmed →

💡 Tip: Consider the client experience when deciding which forms to require at booking. Short intake forms with essential questions work best during the booking process, while detailed assessments or lengthy questionnaires might be better suited for post-booking delivery through automations.

Requiring Forms for Bookings

1. Go to My Practice > My Services, or My Practice > My Programs.
    
2. Click Edit next to the service or package where you want to require forms.
   For programs, click the More Options menu (3dots) > Edit program info.
   
    
3. Select the Advanced Options tab.
   
   
    
4. In the Bookings Page Forms section, click Add form.
   
    
5. Select the form you want to include in the booking process and click Add. Click the dropdown to access the search or scroll to locate your desired form. 
   
    
6. Repeat steps 4-5 to add additional forms (up to 3 total).
    
7. Click Save Changes near the top right to update your service.
   

How Clients Experience Required Forms

When clients visit your booking page, they'll complete forms as part of a streamlined booking process. After entering their personal and contact information, they'll be prompted to complete any required forms before proceeding to payment (if applicable) and final confirmation.

The system makes this process as smooth as possible for your clients. If you've included a Personal Information question in your form, Practice Better automatically pre-fills this with the contact details they provided in the previous step, saving them time and reducing repetitive data entry.

Required vs. Optional Questions

You have flexibility in how you structure your booking page forms. Forms can contain a mix of required and optional questions, or all questions can be optional. Required questions are marked with an asterisk, and clients won't be able to proceed to the next step until they've completed all required fields. This visual indicator helps clients understand what information is essential before they can complete their booking.

Learn more about Making Form Questions Mandatory →

Form Completion and Progress

When working through booking page forms, clients need to complete all required questions before advancing to the next step. Progress isn't saved between sessions, so clients should plan to complete the entire booking process in one sitting. This ensures all necessary information is captured and associated with their booking request.

📍 Note: Even if a client has previously completed a similar form, they'll need to fill out any required booking page forms again. This ensures you have the most current information for each booking request.

Viewing Completed Forms

Once clients submit their booking requests, you can access their completed forms in different locations depending on your booking workflow.

For Auto-Confirmed Bookings

If you've set up an automation to auto-add new clients or auto-confirm new bookings, completed forms will appear in the Forms & Waivers section of the client's Client File. This keeps all their documentation organized in one central location.

Learn more about automatically adding or inviting new clients →

For Manually Confirmed Bookings

If you manually review and confirm booking requests, you can access completed forms during the review process.

1. Go to My Schedule > My Bookings.
    
2. Click the Review button next to the pending booking request.
    
3. On the booking review page, click View form to preview the completed form.
   

From here, you can review the form, add internal notes for your records, or download it as a PDF for offline access.

Client Access to Completed Forms

Clients can retrieve copies of forms they completed during booking, but only after they've submitted their booking request and have an active Client Portal login. This ensures they have access to their information while maintaining appropriate security measures.

Learn more about Sending a Client Invitation in Practice Better →

Managing Required Forms

Practice Better gives you the flexibility to adjust your required forms as your practice needs evolve.

Updating Form Content

If you need to update the content of a form that's already linked as a booking page form, simply go to My Practice > My Forms and edit the form itself. Your changes will automatically appear in the booking process the next time you save the form — there's no need to unlink and re-add it to your services. This makes it easy to keep your intake questions current without disrupting your booking configuration.

✅ All set: Forms that clients already completed before your updates remain in their client records exactly as submitted, preserving the historical record of what they agreed to or shared at the time of booking.

Removing Forms from the Booking Process

If you decide to remove a form from the booking process, simply edit the service, package, or program and remove the form from the Advanced Options tab. This change only affects future bookings—forms that clients already completed as part of previous booking requests will remain safely stored in their respective client records.

Previewing the Booking Experience

Before making your booking page public or after adding new forms, you can preview exactly what clients will experience during the booking process. This helps you ensure the flow feels smooth and that all forms display correctly.

Learn how to preview your booking page How to Test Your Booking Process →

Customizing Forms for Different Services

Each service, package, and program can have its own set of required booking page forms. This flexibility allows you to collect different information depending on the type of appointment or program. For example, your initial consultation service might require a brief intake form, while a specialized service could include more detailed assessment questions.