Create an Intake service for first-time travel visits

Build a short Intake appointment type and set it to run automatically before a new client's first travel visit, so your practitioner meets them before doing the real session.

Prerequisites

• Feature: Appointments must be enabled in Settings → Features.

• Role: Owner or Manager

Create a short appointment type for the Intake

Go to Appointments → Appointment Types → "+ Create New Type". Give it a clear name like "Initial Consultation", a short duration (commonly 15 minutes), and a price (often $0, but you can charge for it).

Mark it as an Intake

Turn on "This service is an intake". This is what makes the type selectable as the intake step for another service. An Intake service can't itself have a first-visit Intake prepended — that option is hidden once this is checked.

Save

Click Create. The Intake now exists as its own appointment type, and also appears in the "First-visit intake" dropdown on any travel visit service.

Attach it to your travel visit service

Open the travel visit service you want to protect with an Intake, turn on "First-visit intake", and choose this Intake from the dropdown — see "Require a card and screen new clients for a travel visit service" for the full setting.

What a new client sees when booking

A new client booking the travel service is shown times where the Intake plus the full session fit back to back — booking creates two appointments: the Intake, then the main session right after it. Only the main session has Check in / Check out (see "Check in and out of a home visit"); the Intake is a scheduling placeholder in front of it.

Cancelling

If the main session is cancelled — by the client or by you — the linked Intake is cancelled with it automatically. There's never an orphaned Intake left on the calendar.

Tips

• "New client" means this client has never completed a travel visit at your studio before — not "never booked anything." Once they've completed one travel visit, later travel bookings (with any practitioner) skip the Intake.
• One Intake service can be reused across multiple travel visit services — you don't need a separate Intake for every service.
• Keep the Intake short. It's meant as a brief in-person check before the real session, not a billable service on its own, though you can price it if that fits how you work.
• You can still edit or deactivate an Intake service like any other appointment type — just pick a replacement on any travel service that points to it first.