Health questionnaire, treatment consent and deposit in one link sent with the appointment confirmation. The client arrives signed and paid, and you have already read her answers.
Send one permanent link over WhatsApp, and each new client completes her health questionnaire, signs treatment consent and pays a deposit from her phone. After the facial she confirms she read her aftercare. Everything is sealed and filed.
A new client lies down on your treatment bed. The music is on, the warm towel is ready, and you hand her a clipboard. She fills it out half-reclined, without her glasses, ticking "no" down the page so she can get to the good part. That is not even the risky part.
The risky part comes two weeks later, when she messages you that her skin is irritated, and you try to remember whether you ever asked about the retinoid cream she uses every night. The form is somewhere in a binder. And the aftercare instructions? You said them out loud while she was standing at the door with her phone in her hand.
This guide is for estheticians who work alone or with one assistant, in a small studio, a home treatment room or a private practice. It is not about a single form. It covers the whole client journey: the questionnaire before the appointment, treatment consent, the deposit that protects your time, reminders, the treatment summary and home-care routine, and the client file that holds it all for years.
On the bed, your client wants a facial, not paperwork. She is rushed, cannot remember medication names, and ticks "no" to move on. A questionnaire completed at home a day or two before the appointment gets more accurate answers and gives you time to prepare.
Think about the moment the form usually gets signed. Your client arrived after work, maybe a few minutes late, parking was hard, and she feels her hour shrinking. She will skim. She will not dig through her bag for the name of the cream her dermatologist prescribed, and she will not remember the peel she had somewhere else three weeks ago.
There is a professional problem too. If an answer should change the treatment, such as a sensitivity to an ingredient or a recent procedure that is still healing, you find out when she is already lying in front of you. Now you must decide on the spot: change the plan, swap products, or postpone. None of those feel good with her hair already pulled back.
When the questionnaire arrives the day before, everything flips:
, from the couch, with her products within reach.
, and if something raises a flag, you have time to call, ask and adjust.
, without five minutes of writing at the door.
A clean form arriving with the booking confirmation tells her she chose someone who takes her skin seriously.
Allergies and sensitivities (including to cosmetic ingredients), medications and especially isotretinoin and retinoids, pregnancy and breastfeeding, active skin conditions, recent peels, laser or sun exposure, and a separate photo consent. Check the final wording with your professional association and your insurer.
a form a client completes before treatment to share information about her skin, her health, and the products and procedures that may affect whether a treatment suits her. It is not a medical diagnosis and does not replace medical advice; it helps the esthetician decide whether and how to treat, and documents that the information was provided.
To be clear up front: we are not doctors, and nothing here replaces your professional training. This is a general framework for building an organized questionnaire. The specific questions for each treatment, and what you do with each answer, come from your training, your professional association's guidance and your insurer's requirements.
A good facial questionnaire usually covers:
, plus parent or guardian details for a minor.
to medications, latex, fragrance and, above all, cosmetic ingredients. Ask explicitly about past reactions to products or treatments.
regular medications, supplements, and specifically isotretinoin (often known by the brand name Roaccutane or Accutane) and topical retinoids, including when she stopped. These affect suitability for peels, waxing, microneedling and more. How long to wait after stopping is a question for professional guidelines and, when in doubt, the client's own doctor.
, as a direct, separate question.
inflamed acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, active or recurring cold sores in the area, open wounds, burns, and a tendency to pigmentation or scarring.
peels, laser, microneedling, injectables, waxing or hair removal in the area, and significant sun or tanning-bed exposure. Ask "when", not just "whether".
diabetes, clotting issues, autoimmune conditions, epilepsy, or anything else she thinks you should know.
a separate checkbox for before-and-after photos, clearly distinguishing her client file from Instagram use.
that the information is accurate and complete, that she will update you if anything changes, and a date.
Two rules make a questionnaire work: every "yes" opens a follow-up field, and the language stays plain. A digital form enforces both with required fields and conditional follow-ups, so an incomplete form simply cannot be submitted. If you work in medical aesthetics with injectables or laser, our page for clinics and medical practices goes deeper into that side.
It describes the specific treatment, what the client may feel afterwards, that results are not guaranteed, and the instructions she commits to follow. It documents that the explanation happened and that she agreed, which is exactly what is missing when a complaint surfaces later.
a document in which the client confirms she received an explanation of the proposed treatment, the sensations and effects that may follow, and the instructions she should follow, and that she chooses to proceed. It does not replace your conversation with her; it records that the conversation took place.
The questionnaire and the consent flow in opposite directions: in one she tells you, in the other you tell her and she confirms she understood. Write a version per treatment family, because a classic facial, a chemical peel and microneedling are different worlds. A peel consent explains that redness, tingling and flaking are an expected part of the process. A microneedling consent explains that the treatment creates controlled micro-injury, that redness and sensitivity are expected, and that it is usually a series.
Every consent should also say that results vary and are not guaranteed, that the client provided complete information, that she had the chance to ask questions, and that she received home-care instructions and will follow them.
What does it protect you from? The most common scenario in the treatment room: a client experiences an expected effect, like flaking after a peel, and genuinely does not remember being told. She is not lying; she heard it with her eyes closed and a mask on her face. A signed, dated document that names flaking and redness turns a tense conversation into a factual one. No form removes professional responsibility, and this is not legal advice; review your wording with your association, your insurer and, if needed, a lawyer.
Attach your cancellation policy and the deposit to the same flow in which the client is already signing. With okdoc's Sign & Pay she reads the policy, signs and pays on one screen, and you never have to ask for money out loud.
an amount the client pays in advance to reserve a slot in your schedule. Paired with a written cancellation policy, it sets out in advance what happens if the appointment is cancelled or missed, so both sides know the rules before anything goes wrong.
Every esthetician knows the sinking feeling of a no-show morning: an empty hour you turned someone else away for, products you prepared, sometimes a special trip to the studio. Most estheticians still do not take deposits, not because they do not want to, but because asking feels uncomfortable and chasing "I will transfer it later" is another job nobody asked for.
The fix is to take the request out of the conversation and put it into the process. At the end of the questionnaire and consent, your cancellation policy appears in a few clear lines. The client ticks that she read and agrees, signs, and immediately, on the same screen, enters a card and pays the deposit. You keep one document with the questionnaire, consent, policy, signature and payment, all time-stamped.
It works because she is already mid-flow with her phone in hand, so payment feels like finishing the booking rather than a personal request from you. And when someone does cancel late, you are not inventing a rule on the spot; you are pointing to a policy she read and signed. Write it in your own voice, not like a phone company's terms, and check anything you are unsure about with an advisor.
Save the flow as a template with a permanent direct link, and publish it wherever clients meet you: your Instagram bio, a WhatsApp Business quick reply, and your booking confirmation. Every client who opens it gets her own fresh copy.
Most estheticians do not get clients through a website. They get them through Instagram, a WhatsApp recommendation, and a DM that starts with "Hi, how much is a facial?". So the form should live there too:
"New client? Your pre-treatment form is here", next to your booking link.
a saved message with the link inside. A new client books, two taps, and the questionnaire is on her phone.
"See you Wednesday. Before you come, please fill in a short form and sign here, it takes a few minutes on your phone."
for anyone who arrives without completing it, so she scans and fills it on her own phone, not on the bed.
No app, no account, no password: the link opens in the phone's browser, she fills, signs with her finger, and submits. Note that every form signed through the link counts as one document toward your monthly quota, just like a document you send manually. Plan details are on the pricing page.
Okdoc's document board shows whether each document was sent, opened or signed, and even who is inside a document right now. Automatic reminders go to anyone who has not finished, and you can resend the link over WhatsApp in one tap.
With paper, you find out a client skipped the form when she walks in. With a bare WhatsApp link, you see two blue ticks and have no idea whether she opened the form, started, or got stuck. In okdoc every document has a clear status, plus a live view of who is in the document now, which saves you pointless "did you get it?" messages to a client who is filling it in at that very moment.
Most clients do not refuse; they open the message between two other things and forget. Automatic reminders keep going until the document is signed; they are available on the CLOSE plan and up, and on every plan you can resend manually. The night before a workday, one look at the board shows who of tomorrow's clients has signed, who opened and stopped, and who has not touched it yet.
Many post-treatment complaints are about what happened at home, not in your treatment room. When she receives a written treatment summary and aftercare routine and confirms she read it, you have a clear record of what was said, and she has something to go back to.
You give aftercare as she is getting dressed and looking for her keys: "No retinol, no direct sun for a while, just the moisturizer I gave you." Two days later she cannot remember whether you said three days or a week. A week later comes the message: "My skin is red and flaking, is that normal?". Maybe it is expected. Maybe she restarted her retinoids on day two. Without a record, it is your word against hers. With one, it is a conversation about facts.
A good treatment summary covers what was done and the main products used, what to expect in the coming days, the home-care routine (what to apply and avoid, for how long, sun protection, makeup, heat, exercise), when to contact you and when to seek medical attention, and the recommended next step. Send it as a short document with one checkbox, "I have read and understood my home-care instructions", and a signature. It lands in her file with a date and time.
To be careful: the instructions are part of your professional work and their content comes from your training. okdoc does not write treatment recommendations, does not analyze skin and does not give medical advice. It makes sure what you wrote reaches the client, gets read, gets signed and gets kept.
Each client is saved as a contact, and every document she signs is stored as a sealed PDF with a full audit trail. Search her name and see her entire file: questionnaires, consents, deposits and treatment summaries, by date.
the final file produced after signing. It is locked so any later change is detectable, and it carries a chronological record of what happened to the document: when it was sent, opened and signed, and from which device.
Estheticians work with clients over years: the regular who comes monthly, the one who returns after a long break, the one who did a series and disappeared. With one contact per client, every new document goes out in a tap without retyping details. Every document is sealed, so you always know exactly which wording she signed, even if you have updated the template since. A returning client does not start from scratch: you open her previous questionnaire and send a short update form asking what has changed.
In most jurisdictions, yes, for routine business documents like questionnaires, consents and cancellation policies. In the EU, the eIDAS regulation provides that a signature cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic; in the US, the federal ESIGN Act recognizes electronic signatures. This is not legal advice, so verify the specifics for your jurisdiction.
What strengthens a signed document is not only the signature but the evidence around it: a sealed file and an audit trail showing when it was sent, opened and signed. Some document types carry special formal requirements, so ask a lawyer about anything unusual. More on the fundamentals in our digital signature overview and the complete digital signature guide.
Health information is sensitive, so collect only what the treatment needs, store it securely and limit who can see it. Whatever privacy framework applies where you work, an organized system makes that far easier than a binder on a shelf.
Estheticians rarely think of themselves as holders of health data, but a questionnaire noting a medication, a pregnancy or a skin condition is exactly that. Look at the reality in many studios: a binder anyone in the room can open, photos of forms in your personal camera roll next to vacation pictures, questionnaires sent as images in a WhatsApp chat forever. okdoc encrypts documents in transit and at rest, limits access to your account and anyone you authorize (and you can remove an assistant's access the day she leaves), and each client sees only her own document. On your side: do not ask what you do not need, keep photo consent separate, and do not keep form photos on your phone.
Esthetician software is usually built around the calendar and booking. okdoc is built around documents: questionnaire, consent, deposit, treatment summary and a sealed archive. It does not book appointments or sync a calendar, so it works alongside whatever booking method you already use.
What okdoc does: generates documents with AI from a plain-language description; turns your existing PDF form into a fillable one by auto-mapping the fields; sends by WhatsApp, email or a permanent link; collects payment with the signature (Sign & Pay); sends automatic reminders; shows live who is in a document; supports multiple signers, for example a teenager in an acne program and her parent; seals every document with an audit trail; keeps contacts; and offers a ready "new client" flow of health questionnaire, consent, deposit and confirmation message (flow availability depends on your plan).
What it does not do: it does not schedule appointments or sync your calendar, it does not analyze skin or give medical advice, and it does not replace legal advice. The combination that works for most estheticians: keep your calendar where it is, and let okdoc handle everything written, signed and paid around the appointment.
Sign up, create a health questionnaire with AI or from your existing form, add consent and your cancellation policy, save it as a template with a direct link, test it on yourself, and paste the link into your WhatsApp quick reply.
1. Sign up at okdoc, no credit card. 2. Build the questionnaire. Describe it to the AI, for example "pre-facial health questionnaire for an esthetician: personal details, allergies and ingredient sensitivities, medications including isotretinoin and retinoids, pregnancy and breastfeeding, active skin conditions, recent treatments and sun exposure, separate photo consent, declaration and signature", or upload the form you already use. Mark critical fields as required and add follow-ups to every "yes". 3. Add consent and your policy, and turn on payment if you want a deposit. 4. Save, link and test. Send the link to yourself and fill it out on your phone as if you were the client. 5. Distribute. Paste the link into a WhatsApp Business quick reply and your Instagram bio.
In week two, add a treatment summary and aftercare template per treatment type, sent at the end of each appointment for read confirmation. You start with 3 free documents a month, no credit card, as part of a three-month free trial. See all plans on the pricing page.
An AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT can turn your quick notes into a draft treatment summary. You review and correct it, then send it through okdoc for the client's confirmation. The AI drafts; you decide.
Be modest about what AI does here. It did not see the treatment or the client's skin, and it should not decide what instructions to give. What it does well is turn a short list of notes into clear, friendly text. Jot a few points after the treatment, paste them into the assistant with a prompt like "turn this into a short, warm treatment summary with home-care steps as a list, and do not add any recommendation I did not write", then read and correct the draft, because everything in it is your professional responsibility. Paste the final text into your okdoc summary template and send it for read confirmation. okdoc's own AI document generation is best for building the templates themselves: a new questionnaire, a series consent or an updated cancellation policy.
The treatment is where you shine. Everything around it, the questionnaire, the consent, the deposit, the reminders and the aftercare, is where details slip, not from lack of professionalism but because it all happens verbally, on the bed, between clients.
When the whole journey moves to one link, clients fill in their forms at home and arrive ready, your hour is protected by a deposit, aftercare arrives in writing and gets confirmed, and every signed document sits in a file you can find in seconds. You get back what matters: time to treat, and peace of mind.
Start now: 3 free documents a month, no credit card. Open your okdoc account, build your first questionnaire, and send it to the next client who books.