Where intake form submissions go after a client submits
When a client fills out your published intake form and clicks Submit, they see a "Thanks - your form was submitted." confirmation, and the submission is saved with every answer they gave. Each submission also creates a task in your Service Requests folder so someone on your team can act on it.
A brand-new website request comes in with no property or customer attached, because the public form does not know which account it belongs to. It starts on your Service Requests entry status (Pending by default). Essential checks the submitted customer name and property address against your existing records. High-confidence matches are highlighted in green. Similar names or addresses with small differences, such as abbreviations, business suffixes, or minor typing mistakes, appear as amber Possible match suggestions.
Opening the request shows the full set of answers exactly as the client filled them in, rendered against the form they submitted. Customer and property answers carry a green, amber, or neutral match indicator. Use the external-link icon to inspect a matching Essential customer or property in a new tab without losing your place in the task. The corresponding action sits at the bottom of Request details instead of in a separate matching panel. If the property already exists, select Attach Existing Property. For a possible match, compare the submitted details with the suggested record before selecting Attach Possible Match. Essential never attaches a possible match automatically, and Create New Customer Instead remains available when the suggested customer is not the same account.
When no customer matches, select Create New Customer. When a customer matches but its property does not, select Create New Property. Both actions open the full form and prefill the submitted customer, address, and contact name, email, primary and secondary phones, phone types, and extensions. Review the details, choose the contact's roles, and complete any other required information or custom fields before saving. Saving creates the records, attaches the property to the request, and returns you to the task. Once a property is attached, Create New Contact opens the full contact form with the same contact details prefilled.
And because Image Upload fields are display-only, any photos a client tries to attach there will not arrive with the submission.
You do not have to watch the folder to catch new leads. Every submission notifies your back office team in Essential automatically, and on the Notifications tab of the Intake Form settings page you can also have each submission emailed to a shared inbox.
A few things to keep in mind. Submissions are only accepted against a published version of the form, so saving a draft is not enough to start collecting requests, you must publish. Publishing the form creates its Service Requests statuses automatically, so the workflow is ready before the first request arrives.
New leads reach your team the moment they arrive: they appear in the Service Requests folder and raise an in-app notification for every back office user. Add a shared-inbox email copy on the Notifications tab if you want one as well.
Where to find it: The Service Requests folder in your task list; open a request to see the submitted answers and resolve its customer and property.
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