Private-Practice Intake-Day Checklist
The first session goes smoother when the paperwork is done before the client sits down. This is the running list I built these templates around — what to have signed, set up, and on file so the clinical hour stays clinical. Adapt it to your state's requirements and your own informed-consent language.
Before the first session
- Informed consent / disclosure statement signed and on file
- Practice policies acknowledged (cancellation, fees, communication)
- Release of information forms ready if coordinating care
- Telehealth consent on file if seeing them virtually
- Emergency contact + safety plan template within reach
Billing & money set up
- Fee agreement signed (or sliding-scale terms documented)
- Card on file / payment method confirmed
- Superbill template ready if they self-submit to insurance
- No-show / late-cancel fee policy acknowledged in writing
Clinical intake ready
- Intake / biopsychosocial form completed before or at session 1
- Presenting-concern and history prompts on hand
- Risk-screening questions you ask everyone, every intake
- A blank SOAP / progress-note template open for the same day
Same-day documentation
- Write the intake note the day of — not "later this week"
- Set the next appointment before they leave
- File consents in the client record immediately
- Diagnosis + treatment-plan skeleton drafted while it's fresh
How to use it
- Documentation done same-day is documentation that's accurate. The gap is where detail dies.
- If a form isn't signed before session 1, it slips for weeks. Front-load it.
- Your future self in an audit only has what's in the record. Write for that reader.