By hand
The missing field.
A packet goes out. Half of it comes back. Someone retypes it into the folder, notices a blank, and emails again. The work starts late, or it starts on a file that is still wrong.
Client intake
A clean file from day one.
Client intake software, in this build, is the form and the file a new matter gets before anyone starts the work. The customer fills what you asked. Staff review it before it is filed. The system can assemble documents from answers you already approved as fields. It does not give legal advice, medical advice, or tax advice.
Two ways
A PDF in a mailbox, or a file someone has checked.
With the system
Questions, then a review.
The customer gets the questions you wrote. Required fields stay required. When they submit, a person on staff reads the file before it is treated as filed. Documents assemble from those answers.
Status
Built to order.
We build the questions and the file for the desk in front of us. Law firms, vet clinics, and other offices that open a matter can use the same shape. The questions are not shared across those desks.
How it runs
Answers in. A person files.
The questions.
You write what you need on day one: who the customer is, what they want, and the documents you always collect. The form does not add a question because it seems useful.
The draft file.
Answers land in a file the staff can read. Document automation here means the packet is filled from those fields, in the layout you approved. A blank stays blank.
The review.
Nothing is filed, sent to a client as final, or treated as advice until a person has looked. The queue shows what is waiting and who is assigned.
The yes
Staff review before filing.
Not advice.
The form can collect facts. It cannot tell someone what the law is, what a treatment should be, or what they owe in tax. If they ask, the reply is that a person on your team will answer.
The filer.
You name who may mark a file ready. Until that mark, the packet is a draft. A customer can fix an answer. The log keeps the earlier version.
When you should decline.
If the answers show you should not take the work, the file stops. The system does not send a cheerful next step you did not write for that case.
Who it fits
Law firms, clinics, and anyone who opens a file.
Law firms.
A firm can use this for the first packet: who is calling, what the matter is about, and the documents you always want before a lawyer reads it. There is no separate law-firm page. This is the system that fits that intake. The lawyer still decides whether to take the matter.
Vet desks, and others.
Vet and dental can collect the pet or the patient basics before the visit. The industry pages cover the other desks. Medical judgment stays with the clinic.
Reminders are later.
Once a visit exists, appointment reminders can nudge it. The Monday page can count how many files opened. Neither one replaces the review.
The record
You can see what was filed and what waited.
Opened.
Each submission, with the time and the fields that came back. You can tell a complete file from a partial one without opening every PDF.
Waiting on staff.
Files that still need a person. The count is the work of the desk, not a score about the customer.
Sent back.
When you ask the customer to fix something, the request and the new answers are both kept. The filed version is the one a person marked.
Questions
Before a new file files itself.
Can a law firm use this without a law-firm page on the site?
Yes. Intake is the fit: a first packet, the documents you always collect, and a person who reviews the file before it is treated as filed. We did not write a separate industry page for firms. The lawyer still decides whether the firm takes the matter. The form does not.
Does the form give legal, medical, or tax advice?
No. It collects the facts you asked for and assembles the documents you designed. Advice about the law, a diagnosis, a treatment, or a tax position comes from your staff, in their own words, after they have read the file. If a customer types a question the form was not built to answer, that question waits in the staff queue.
What does document automation mean here?
Fields from the form fill a packet you already laid out. A name lands in the name field. A date lands in the date field. The packet does not invent a clause, a diagnosis, or a fee. If a field is empty, the document shows the empty field so a person can catch it before filing.
Who has to review the file?
Someone on your staff, named before you turn it on. Until they mark it, the file is a draft. They can send it back, reject the matter, or file it. The system remembers which of those happened. It does not file a packet because the customer pressed submit.
Is this the same thing as patient intake software?
The words people search are not all the same job. This build is the clean file and the staff review. A vet desk can use it for the basics before a visit. It is not a clinical record, and it is not a promise about how a practice stores medical charts. If the chart system is the question, say that on the plan and we will tell you whether this is the right first job.
The first file
Tell us how a new client gets opened.
A PDF, a front-desk clipboard, or a long email is enough. We will say whether intake is the first build.
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