What is a cleaning client intake form?
A cleaning client intake form is the one document that turns a lead into a client you can clean for without phoning them back: who they are, where and what the home is, how to get in, who and what lives there, what they care about, and their signature on how you work. It is filled once, before or at the first visit, and updated when something changes.
It does three jobs at once:
- Quoting. Beds, baths, square feet, condition and add-ons are the inputs to your price. Our guide on cleaning leads lists the five qualifying questions; the intake form is where their answers get written down.
- Operations. Access, alarm, pets, parking and “don’t touch” items are what the cleaner needs on their phone at 8:55 am.
- Protection. Signed policies on cancellations, entry, breakage, photos and texting are what you reach for when something goes wrong.
A new client form for a cleaning business is not a contract, though the two travel together. The form captures facts; the agreement sets terms. The free cleaning contract template covers the terms, and this guide covers the facts.
Which fields should a cleaning service intake form collect?
Collect five blocks of information: contact and billing, the home, access, people and pets, and preferences. Mark the fields you need before you can quote as required and leave the rest for the walk-through.
| Block | Field | Why you need it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact and billing | Full name, mobile, email | Quotes, reminders, receipts | Quote call |
| Service address, and billing address if different | Routing; landlords and adult children often pay for someone else’s home | Quote call | |
| Preferred contact method and quiet hours | Some clients want texts, some never want a call at work | Quote call | |
| How they found you | Tells you which marketing works | Quote call | |
| Payment method on file, who to invoice | Card on file ends chasing; invoiced clients need a name | Before first visit | |
| The home | Bedrooms, bathrooms (full and half), approximate square feet, floors or levels | The base of the price and the time estimate | Quote call |
| Last professional clean, and condition in their words | Decides whether the first visit is a deep clean | Quote call | |
| Floor types and delicate finishes (marble, unsealed wood, brass) | Which products the cleaner brings and which they leave in the van | Walk-through | |
| Rooms to skip, items not to touch, areas off limits | Home offices, a collection, a locked room | Walk-through | |
| Where supplies and the vacuum live if using the client’s | Saves ten minutes per visit | Walk-through | |
| Access | How the cleaner gets in: client home, key, lockbox, smart lock, garage code, concierge | The first thing the cleaner needs | Before first visit |
| Alarm: location, arm and disarm codes, monitoring company phrase | A tripped alarm costs a client | Before first visit, on the form only | |
| Parking: where, permits, time limits | Tickets and towing in dense areas | Before first visit | |
| Lock-up instructions: which doors, lights, thermostat | Different every home; written beats remembered | Walk-through | |
| People and pets | Who will be home; children; anyone working from home | Noise, vacuum timing, which rooms first | Quote call |
| Pets: type, name, where they stay during the visit, door rules | Escapes and bites are the two worst visits a cleaner can have | Quote call | |
| Allergies and sensitivities (fragrance, bleach, latex) | Changes products and gloves | Quote call | |
| Preferences | Top three priorities (“the glass shower,” “the kitchen floor”) | Where the cleaner spends the spare ten minutes | Walk-through |
| Products: ours, yours, or specific brands; anything not to use | Safety and surfaces | Walk-through | |
| Frequency, preferred day and time window | Recurring schedule | Quote call | |
| Add-ons wanted regularly or occasionally | Inside oven, fridge, laundry, windows | Quote call |
Keep the quote-call fields to about ten so the call stays under fifteen minutes. The walk-through fields are better asked while standing in the home, and some clients will not answer the alarm question until they have met you.
How do you handle pets, alarms and keys on the form?
Treat pets, alarms and keys as the three fields that can end a client relationship in one visit. Each gets its own box on the form, a written rule on your side, and a place to live that is not a text thread.
Pets
- Type, name, temperament in the client’s words, and where the pet will be during the visit (crated, in the yard, a closed room, free).
- Door rules: “the cat bolts; keep the front door closed” is the single most useful line on the form.
- Your rule, printed: cleaners do not let pets out, do not clean up animal waste beyond a litter box or a small accident, and will leave and call if an animal is aggressive.
Alarms
- Panel location, disarm code, arm code if different, the monitoring company’s verbal password, and what to do if it trips.
- Ask whether the client can issue a cleaner-specific code; many systems allow it, and it ends the argument about who disarmed what.
- Codes go on the form and into the client record, never in a text message or a group chat, and they are removed from a cleaner’s view the day that cleaner leaves.
Keys and lockboxes
- Key tag number only (never the address on the tag), who holds it, where it is stored, and a sign-out line for each visit.
- Lockbox or smart lock: code, location, and a note that the client may change it any time and should tell you before the next visit.
- Your rule, printed: keys are not copied, not left in vehicles overnight, and returned within a set number of days when service ends.
Put a one-line entry authorization on the form: the client authorizes your company to enter the home at scheduled times using the access method above. It is not a substitute for insurance or a bond; our guides on cleaning business insurance and the janitorial bond cover what protects you if a key is lost or something is missing.
Which consents and policies should the client sign?
Six items, each with a tick box and one signature at the bottom: consent to text and email, the cancellation and lockout policy, the breakage policy, the entry authorization, the photo policy and the satisfaction or re-clean promise. One page, plain words.
- Text and email consent. The FCC’s consumer guide on robocalls and texts says its rules ban texts sent to a mobile phone with an autodialer unless the owner gave consent, that commercial texts require written consent while informational texts may rest on oral consent, and that the recipient can opt out at any time in any reasonable manner. Appointment reminders are informational, promotions are commercial; get written consent for both on the form and honor every “STOP.”
- Cancellation and lockout. How much notice, what a late cancellation costs, what happens when the cleaner cannot get in. The free cleaning cancellation policy template gives you the wording.
- Breakage and damage. What you cover, how to report it, that pre-existing damage noted on the first visit is excluded, and that fragile items the client wants untouched should be on the “do not touch” list.
- Entry authorization. As above, with the access method named.
- Photos. Cleaners photograph finished rooms for quality control; the photos are not shared publicly without separate written permission.
- Re-clean promise. Report a miss within 24 hours and you return free. It is the policy most clients remember.
If the client supplies the products, add a line: the client confirms the products are in their original labeled containers. Labels and safety data sheets are the heart of OSHA’s hazard communication standard, and your cleaners should know what is in the bottle they are asked to use. A cleaner may decline an unlabeled product; say so on the form.
None of this is legal advice. Consumer-protection, texting and data rules vary by state, and a short review by a local attorney of your one-page policy sheet is money well spent.
The intake form template, section by section
Lay the form out as one page for the quote call and one for the walk-through, with the policies and signature on the back. Below is the full layout; copy it into a document, a PDF form or your booking software.
Page 1: quote call
- Client name, mobile, email, preferred contact, quiet hours
- Service address; billing name and address if different; how they found you
- Bedrooms, full baths, half baths, approx. square feet, levels
- Last professional clean (date), condition (1 spotless to 5 neglected), clutter (low, medium, high)
- People at home during visits; children; pets (type, name, where during visit, door rules)
- Allergies and sensitivities
- Frequency (weekly, biweekly, every 4 weeks, one-time), preferred day and window, start date
- Add-ons: inside oven, inside fridge, interior windows, laundry, linen change, other
- Quoted price: first visit, recurring; quote date; valid until
Page 2: walk-through
- Access method; key tag number; lockbox or smart lock code; garage code; concierge name
- Alarm: panel location, disarm, arm, verbal password, what to do if tripped
- Parking instructions
- Floor types by room; delicate finishes; products not to use; client-supplied products (yes/no, where kept)
- Rooms to skip; do-not-touch items; off-limits areas
- Top three priorities; known problem areas (hard water, pet hair, grease)
- Lock-up: doors, lights, thermostat, pet back where
- Pre-existing damage noted (with photos taken)
Back: policies and signature
- Tick boxes for text and email consent (reminders; promotions), cancellation and lockout, breakage, entry authorization, photos, re-clean promise
- Client-supplied products in labeled containers (if applicable)
- Signature, printed name, date; your company name and contact
The checklist the cleaner uses on the visit is a separate document built from page 2; make it with the free cleaning checklist template and add the priorities and do-not-touch items as named lines.
Which other cleaning business forms do you need, and which are free?
Beyond the intake form, a small cleaning company runs on about eight documents: an estimate, a service agreement, a cancellation policy, a per-visit checklist, an invoice, a price list, a job description and a schedule. All eight have free templates on this site.
| Form | When you use it | Free version |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate or quote | After the quote call, before the first visit | Cleaning estimate template |
| Service agreement | Signed with the intake form for recurring clients | Cleaning contract template |
| Cancellation policy | On the back of the intake form and on the website | Cancellation policy template |
| Per-visit checklist | Every visit, signed by the cleaner, checked by the inspector | Checklist maker |
| Invoice | After each visit for invoiced clients | Cleaning invoice template |
| Price list | Website, quote call, booking page | House cleaning price list |
| Job description | Hiring | House cleaner job description |
| Schedule | Weekly routes per cleaner | Cleaning schedule template |
Give each form a version date in the footer. When the cancellation policy changes, clients who signed the old one are still on the old one until they sign again, and the date tells you who that is.
How should you store intake forms and client records?
Store the form with the client’s record, limit who can see the access and alarm fields, keep the signed policy sheet as long as you keep the client’s invoices, and delete codes and keys the day service ends.
- One record per client. Paper in a locked file, or a client record in your software. Not a shared spreadsheet, not photos of forms in a group chat.
- Need-to-know access. The cleaner assigned to the home sees the access notes; the cleaner who was reassigned last month does not.
- Never in text messages. Alarm codes, lockbox codes and garage codes travel on the form and in the record, never in SMS, where they sit on phones forever.
- Keep the signed sheet. The IRS says business transactions generate supporting documents (sales slips, invoices, receipts) that you need to keep with your records; the signed agreement and intake form are the paperwork behind every invoice to that client, so keep them for the same period as the invoices. Ask your accountant how long that is for your situation.
- Review yearly. Reconfirm access, pets and priorities with the client once a year; homes change, dogs arrive, alarms get replaced.
- Delete on exit. When a client leaves, return the key, remove codes from the record, and keep only what the invoices need.
Every state has a breach-notification law, and some have data-security rules, that can apply to small businesses holding customer information; check your state, and keep the form lean so there is less to protect.
Paper, PDF or software: which intake form should you use?
A paper or PDF form is fine for a solo cleaner who sees every home. Once a second cleaner visits a home you have never been to, the form has to be on their phone, attached to that visit, or it is not doing its job.
| Option | Good for | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Paper form in a folder | Solo owner-operator | Updates, second cleaner, lost folder |
| Fillable PDF or online form (Google Forms, Jotform) | Collecting answers before the walk-through | Answers sit in a spreadsheet; cleaners still call for the alarm code |
| Booking and scheduling software with a client record | Two or more cleaners, recurring clients | Only if the fields are on the client record and show on each visit |
Broombook is booking, scheduling and reminders software for recurring service businesses, and its client record holds the intake fields directly: beds, baths, square feet, access notes, alarm codes and pets on each home, notes with reminders for the things that change (“new lockbox code from March”), and policies clients sign from their own link. The booking page collects the quote-call fields when a client books online, each visit carries the home’s checklist and access notes to the assigned cleaner’s phone, and reminders go out before every visit with the client’s link to move or skip it. The cleaning business CRM page shows the client record, and features lists what is included.
Whichever you pick, the test is the same: can a cleaner who has never been to the home open the visit and know how to get in, what the dog is called, which products to leave in the van and what the client cares about most? If yes, the intake form is working.