How to Create Consent Forms

PracticeQ offers several options for creating and editing Consent Forms.

Consent Forms are useful for things like company policies, payment agreements, and consent for treatment agreements. Consent forms attach to your intake questionnaires so that clients can sign off on them while completing the other questions as part of the intake package.

Watch the video or follow the instructions below.

Note: This guide refers to our standard consent forms. We also offer a Native PDF option that allows you to use your own PDF form and simply add fields directly to it. Read more about that in the article Native PDF Consent Forms.

1. Get Started

When you first create a new consent form, you are presented with a blank box. If you are familiar with creating intake questionnaires and/or treatment notes, this will be very different. Consent forms are meant to be more text-based with less client input.

Click My Forms and scroll down to the Consent Forms section.
Click Create New.
Enter a Form Name.
Select Rich Text Template and click Continue.

Below you will see the initial screen, which consists of the form name, settings, and the content box:

2. Consent Form Settings

There are various settings that you can enable or disable on your consent forms.

Enable e-Signature: This option will add an e-signature field to the bottom of the consent form that your client will have to sign off on before submitting the intake package. This will be required by default. Clicking on the Customize link allows you to choose who signs the form (i.e. Client, Patient, Guardian, etc.) and gives you space to add a note to it as well. Note: For each of these e-signatures, the system will add Signature after the custom Signee Title, so you do not need to add this yourself.
Enable Provider e-Signature: This is a secondary e-signature option that is not displayed to your clients. Instead, it is only shown on the backend of the PracticeQ system for practitioners. You would use this in cases where a practitioner needs to also sign off on a specific consent form. Note: Only those who log in to PracticeQ as a practitioner and have access to the specific client who submitted the form will be able to sign these types of e-signatures. Learn more about this in the article Provider Signature in Consent Forms.
Enable Assistant e-Signature (Witness): This is another secondary e-signature option that is not displayed to your clients. It is only shown in the backend of the PracticeQ system for assistants. You would use this in cases where an assistant in your office needs to sign off on a specific consent form as a witness. Note: Only those who log in to PracticeQ as an assistant and have access to manage the specific client who submitted the form will be able to sign these types of e-signatures. Learn more about this in the article Adding Witness or Assistant Signatures.
Make Signature Optional: This option applies to the Enable e-Signature option described above. By default, when you enable that signature setting, clients will be forced to sign the form before they can submit the intake package. If you want to make their signature optional, check this box.
Disable Form Header: If you have a custom header set up for your intake forms but want to disable them on your consent forms, enable this option. This is also useful if you want to add a custom consent form to the top of your intake questionnaire to serve as a "header."
Access Control → Don't share this form with other practitioners: This option is for accounts with multiple practitioners. With these types of accounts, if the main administrator creates a form it is automatically shared across the "team". Enable this option to prevent this specific form from being shared across the account.
Access Control → Prevent practitioners from changing this form: As above, this option is for accounts with multiple practitioners. If you would like this form to be used by other practitioners on your "team", but do not want them to be able to make modifications to the form, enable this option.

3. Add Form Content

The Form Content box starts out as a large empty box with no existing text, and a black toolbar at the top. This is where you will enter the text that your clients will see when they access the consent form in your intake package. The various functions and how they work are described below:

HTML View: This option will toggle the editor from Visual mode to HTML mode. Use this if you need to add HTML or other types of code into your consent forms. Note: Not all code forms are accepted.
Format: Use this option to style text using various presets. This is a great tool to use for styling titles; the Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 and Heading 4 options are best used for that.
Bold: Highlight text and click this option to have it display as bold.
Italic: Highlight text and click this option to have it display in italics.
Underline: Highlight text and click this option to underline it.
Strikethrough: Highlight text and click this option to display it with a line through it.
Lists: This option will create an unordered (bullet) or ordered (numbered) list. You can use the "Indent" and "Outdent" options to create or remove sub-lists within a main list.
Image: Use this option to add an image to your form.
Table: Use this option to add a customizable table to your form. A table is used to display data in rows and columns. Many practices use it to line up columns of text or numbers. After adding a table, options will appear that allow you to add/remove rows and columns as needed.
Link: Highlight text and click this option to add a hyperlink to another website. In the Insert List pop-up, one important setting is Open link in new tab. You will generally want to enable this. If you do not, when a client clicks the link you have created, it will load in the same browser window that your form is in, taking the client away from your form.
Line: This option inserts a horizontal rule line into your form. These are sometimes used to break up text into sections, or to emphasize an important part of the document.
Align: This option allows you to change the alignment of text or images on your form. To use it, click the text or image that you want to align, select the option, and then choose the alignment you want. Your options are Align Left, Align Center, and Align Right. Please note that we are aware of an issue with this feature in the editor. If you setup alignment and then hit "backspace" or "delete" on your keyboard the alignment will all revert back to left. Because of this, we recommend only setting the alignment of elements at the end of creating a consent form.
Text Color: Highlight text and click this option to change the color of your text, or to add a highlight behind text.
Size: Highlight text and click this option to edit font size. If you want to revert back to the default font size, scroll to the bottom of the font size list and select Remove Font Size. Note: If you are creating a section title, refer to the Format option described above, as those presets generally work better for this purpose.
Add Credit Card Form: This option is for use only if you have an integrated payment method (PracticeQ Payments/Square/Stripe) in your account for bookings and invoicing. Use this to insert a credit card information capture box to your form that will ask for all of the client's pertinent credit card details. The credit card information entered will be stored in the client's profile. Read more on this in the following article: Capture Credit Cards with Consent Forms.
Additional Signature: Use this option to add additional signatures to your forms that are displayed to your clients. One use case for this would be if you need to add a Parent/Guardian signature in addition to the client's. When you click this option, you will designate who the signee is, set a note for the signature, and make it required or not. If the signature is set as required, the client will not be able to submit the form without signing off on this signature section. Learn more about this in the article Add Multiple Signatures to Consent Forms.
Insert Field: This option adds fields to your form that ask for input from the client, such as a box for them to enter their name or birth date. You can add check boxes in cases with the client needs to select multiple items from a list of options, or radio buttons in cases where the client only needs to select one item from a list of options. One of the more useful tools here is the ability to add an Initials box. These are small boxes used to have clients initial certain sections of a form, instead of just signing the bottom. They are displayed with an arrow on the left or right (your choice) and can be required or not. Learn more about this in the article Insert Input Fields/Forms Into a Consent Form.
Insert Form: This option is used to add a form section inside of your consent form, which allows you to setup various questions for your client to answer. This is similar to inserting a field, though there are more layout options to keep things in line. Note: Once you have completed adding form fields and have the layout set, you cannot modify it at a later time. Learn more about this in the article Insert Input Fields/Forms Into a Consent Form.
Fullscreen: This option enlarges the form content editor to take up your entire browser window for a larger view of what you are creating and editing.
Placeholders: Placeholders allow you to enter variables into a consent form that are populated with client data. Learn more about this in the article Placeholders in Consent Forms.

4. Send Consent Forms to Clients

Once you have completed your consent forms, you will want to start using them either as part of an intake package or by sending them directly to clients. Below are links to articles that will explain how to perform these actions:

We are happy to make edits on your behalf; our team will even convert your paper forms into digital ones for small fee! Contact us at hello@intakeq.com for more information!