Assemble a client intake packet: merge, fill, sign, protect

A client intake packet is the set of forms a new client needs to complete before work begins, delivered as one document instead of a scattered email thread. Before you open any tool, gather every PDF the packet needs into one folder and name the files so they sort into the order you want the client to read them — the engagement agreement, the intake questionnaire, any disclosures, and a payment or ACH authorization are a common core. Building the file list first turns the merge step later into a single clean pass rather than a guessing game.

Decide two things now. First, the reading order, because that is the order you will arrange the forms in when you merge them. Second, which pages actually need fields filled and signed versus which are read-only references the client only needs to see — that tells you where the editor work will concentrate later.

Keep the source forms exactly where they are. Nothing in this workflow overwrites an original: every tool downloads a new file, so a mistake at any stage costs you a re-run, never the source.

Open the Merge tool at /tools/merge-pdf and add every form in the packet. Merge combines multiple PDFs into a single document, and the order you arrange the files in is the order the client will read — so drop them in following the sequence you settled on in the previous step. This is the moment the packet stops being a folder of attachments and becomes one file you can number, protect, and send as a unit.

Merging first, before any filling, is the choice that makes the rest of this workflow simple. A single packet means one editor session for the fields, one page-number pass, and one password, instead of repeating each of those chores across four separate files. If you are following the fill-then-assemble path instead, you still merge here — just with completed forms rather than blank ones.

Download the merged packet. The individual source forms are untouched; what you now hold is a fresh combined PDF, and that file becomes the input to the next step.

A freshly merged packet is rarely perfectly presentable. Open it in the Organize tool at /tools/organize-pdf, where you can reorder, duplicate, and remove pages. Drop any redundant cover sheets or blank trailing pages that rode along with the source forms, pull a mis-sequenced page into its correct spot, and duplicate a page only if the packet genuinely needs a second copy of it.

If any page arrived sideways — a form built in landscape, or a page that was scanned rotated — fix its orientation in the Rotate tool at /tools/rotate-pdf, which rotates single pages or the whole file. A packet that a client has to keep turning their head or their screen to read starts the relationship on the wrong foot, and it is a two-minute fix here.

The goal of this step is a packet that reads top to bottom in the right order with every page upright, before a single field goes on it. Download the cleaned packet — this is the version you will actually fill and sign.

Now switch surfaces. Upload the cleaned packet at /editor, where the whole document stays visible in the canvas while you work. Run the AI field scan: it reads the packet and suggests likely fields — text, number, checkmark or cross, date-style, and signature targets — as editable layers across the pages. Treat the suggestions as a first draft. Move, resize, restyle, duplicate, or delete each one, and add manual fields wherever the scan missed a blank. If a page comes back noisy, you can clear only the AI fields without disturbing the work you have done by hand.

Fill the values once the boxes sit where they belong: names, dates, amounts, and the check or cross marks the forms ask for. Keep to the export-safe built-in fonts — Helvetica, Times Roman, and Courier — so the finished packet renders predictably for whoever opens it. Then place the signature: draw or replace your mark inside the canvas and set it on each signature line the packet contains, whether that is one line or one on every form.

A word on what the signature is. These are practical visual fill-and-sign marks for forms and records, not certificate-based or cryptographic digital signatures, so do not present the packet as a compliance-grade e-signature instrument. When the pages read correctly, export the finished packet — download or print — and keep the pre-fill packet from the previous step untouched. This export is the filled, signed document the last two steps will finish.

Take the exported, filled packet back to /tools, this time to the Page numbers tool at /tools/page-numbers. It stamps numbers onto the pages with controls for position and style, so you can place them in a corner that does not collide with the content you just added and match their look to the document.

Do this after the editor pass, not before. Page numbers added now count the final, assembled page set, so they stay correct — whereas numbering before you organized or filled the packet risks a count that no longer matches the pages. Numbered pages also make the packet easy to talk about: you can ask a client to initial page four or check the disclosure on page six, and a returned packet is easy to confirm as complete.

Download the numbered packet. One tool remains before it is ready to send.

Intake packets carry exactly the information that should not travel unprotected — legal names, addresses, dates of birth, and often bank or payment details. Open the Protect tool at /tools/protect-pdf and add an AES-256 password to the numbered packet. From that point the file cannot be opened without it.

Send the password through a different channel than the packet itself — a text message or a phone call, not the same email that carries the file — so that intercepting one does not hand over the other. Keep the honest limits in view: the password protects the file, but PDF Studio is not a secure document vault, and the companion Unlock tool at /tools/unlock-pdf removes only a password you already know rather than recovering a forgotten one. If you set the password, record it somewhere you trust before you close the tab.

Run the final check before anything leaves your machine. Download the protected packet, open it locally, and confirm it prompts for the password, opens with it, and reads correctly from the first page to the last — the merge order, the filled fields, the signature, and the page numbers all intact. That one open-and-read pass is the difference between sending a finished packet and sending a surprise. When it checks out, send the packet and share the password separately.