Book a new patient's first visit from their intake form
A finished intake form books the patient's first visit in Acuity Scheduling and carries their contact details into the appointment.
New submission on your patient intake form
Add a new appointment in Acuity Scheduling using the patient's name, email and phone
One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.
Intake is the slowest part of taking on a new patient. The form collects history, insurance and contact details, and then someone copies the same three lines into the scheduling system by hand. This flow lets the intake form do the booking as well as the collecting.
Small clinics and single-practitioner rooms get the most out of it — dental, chiropractic, optometry, therapy — anywhere the person at the desk is also the person answering the phone. None of the clinical detail has to move; only the fields the appointment actually needs.
Setting it up
- 1
Publish the Patient Intake Form template in formformform and set the Reason for Visit options so they match your Acuity Scheduling appointment types one for one.
- 2
Create the Zap with formformform's "New Submission" trigger pointed at the intake form, then submit a test record so Zapier can see every field.
- 3
Add Acuity Scheduling as the action app and choose "Add New Appointment".
- 4
Map Full Name into Acuity's separate first and last name fields using a Formatter step that splits on the first space, with a fallback for single-word entries.
- 5
Drive the appointment type from Reason for Visit, so a check-up, a consultation and a follow-up each land in the right column of the day sheet.
- 6
Pick the datetime. The intake form does not ask when the patient wants to come in, so aim the Zap at your standing new-patient slot and let a Formatter step work out the next one.
- 7
Send Date of Birth and Insurance Provider into the appointment notes for cover checks at the desk, and leave the clinical history in formformform responses.
- 8
Run one test submission, confirm the appointment shows on the correct Acuity Scheduling calendar, then turn the Zap on.
What maps where
Using the Patient Intake Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.
| Form field | Acuity Scheduling |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Split into the client first and last name on the Acuity Scheduling appointment |
| Email Address | Client email, used for Acuity Scheduling's confirmation and reminders |
| Phone Number | Client phone on the appointment record |
| Reason for Visit | Selects the Acuity Scheduling appointment type |
| Date of Birth | Appointment notes, so the desk can match the patient to their record |
| Insurance Provider | Appointment notes, for cover checks ahead of the visit |
Variations worth knowing
Some practices want a human to confirm a first visit. Swap the action to "Block Off Time" so the intake reserves the slot on the practitioner's calendar with the patient's name in the notes, and the desk converts it once they have called back.
Use Date of Birth in a Zapier paths step and route anyone under eighteen to the paediatric calendar and appointment type in Acuity Scheduling. One form serves both groups, and the day sheet stays sorted without a second intake link to maintain.
If something isn't arriving
Acuity keeps first and last name apart. Add a Formatter step that splits Full Name on the first space, feed segment one into first name and segment two into last name, and set a default so a single-word entry does not blank the last name field.
Acuity truncates very long note values. Map only what the front desk needs — reason, date of birth, insurer — and leave Current Medications, Known Allergies and Previous Surgeries or Hospitalizations in formformform responses, where the clinician reads them before the visit.
Frequently asked questions
Do the clinical answers get copied into Acuity Scheduling?
Only the fields you map. Everything else stays in formformform responses, where you can filter, search and export it. Map the minimum the front desk needs to run the appointment, and leave medical history where it was collected.
Can the patient upload a referral letter or insurance card?
Yes. Add a File Upload field to the intake form and the patient attaches the referral letter or a picture of their insurance card as they fill it in, up to 2 MB per file. The file arrives with the rest of their answers in formformform, where the desk previews or downloads it from the submission. An Acuity Scheduling appointment has nowhere to hang a document, so what you map across is a short line in the notes saying a letter came in, and whoever is at the desk opens the submission to read it. A scanned letter clears 2 MB comfortably; a full-resolution scan, or a folder of records from a previous practice, does not — so keep a URL field beside the upload for those and map that link into the notes as well. On an encrypted intake form the uploaded bytes leave the patient's browser as PGP ciphertext and only decrypt in yours, which is why an encrypted intake is read in formformform rather than mapped out to a calendar.
What if the standing new-patient slot is already taken?
Acuity Scheduling rejects the appointment rather than double-booking, and the Zap logs the error. Turn on Zapier's autoreplay and add a notification step so the desk sees the failed booking and rings the patient back the same day.
Related automations
- Book consultation calls from your enquiry form
Every consultation request becomes an appointment in Acuity Scheduling, filed under the service type the prospect asked about.
- Book the kickoff call as soon as onboarding is done
The onboarding form a new client fills in books their kickoff session in Acuity Scheduling, with no scheduling email thread.
- Create a discount code when someone refers a friend
Every referral submission creates a coupon code in Acuity Scheduling so the discount is waiting at the client's next booking.
- Reserve a site visit slot when a quote request comes in
Quote requests reserve time on the right Acuity Scheduling calendar so two site visits never overlap.
- Turn class signups into bookings on the right calendar
Each registration is added to the right class or appointment type in Acuity Scheduling, keeping headcounts accurate as signups arrive.
- Add service appointments to the dispatch calendar
A booking arrives and lands on the dispatch calendar with the address as a map pin and the job in the title.
Build the form first
The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.
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