Guides
DJ Client Intake Form: What to Capture and How to Store It
A dj client intake form should capture booking, venue, access, power, pricing and insurance details, with secure storage, access controls and backups.
What to take away
- A DJ client intake form is a sourcing documentit decides which details you have before you price, staff and insure the date.
- Ask about venue, guest count, load-in and power before you quote, because those four answers move the price more than music does.
- Questionnaires that collect a taxpayer identification number should follow the same rules the IRS applies to any payer collecting a W-9.
- Keep signed forms for at least three years, matching the recordkeeping window the IRS expects for business records.
- Store intake forms in one folder per event, because the form is the document you reach for when a client disputes what was agreed.
A booking workflow that ends at the deposit leaves the operational details unasked. The intake form is where those details get captured, in writing, before the date is locked. Treat it as a sourcing problem: you are gathering material that later decisions depend on.
What to look for in a client questionnaire
A useful intake form asks for facts that change your costs, not preferences that change your setlist. Genre requests matter, but they rarely decide whether the gig is profitable.
Intake facts that change costs
- Venue address and room name
- Load-in door and freight elevator
- Who controls on-site sound levels
- Nearest outlet and dedicated circuit
- State permit and licensing rules
Start with the venue. Ask for the address, the room name, the load-in door, and whether there is a freight elevator. Ask who controls sound levels on site; a venue manager with a decibel meter can end your night early.
For a booking that may require a permit or license, ask which jurisdiction and issuing office handles it. Record the permit or license name, issuing office, person responsible for applying, status, and deadline, then confirm requirements with that office.
Then ask about power. A single 15-amp circuit will not carry a full rig plus uplighting. Ask where the nearest outlet is and whether the client has confirmed it is dedicated.
Questions for a supplier or venue contact
Some answers come from the client, and some come from the venue. Put both sets on the form so nothing depends on a phone call you cannot document.
Ask the venue contact:
- What are the full venue address, room name, load-in door, and freight-elevator or stair details?
- When can vendors access the room, set up, sound-check, perform, and tear down? What is the curfew?
- Who is the day-of contact, and what phone number should the DJ use?
- Where are the nearest outlets, what circuit serves them, and is an outlet dedicated to the DJ setup?
- Who controls sound levels, how are limits measured, and who can require the volume to be lowered?
- What insurance limits, additional-insured wording, certificate holder, and submission deadline does the venue require?
- Are there approved-vendor rules, permits, union labor, or steward requirements? Who confirms them?
- Where can the DJ park and load equipment, and are there loading fees or restrictions?
Venue contact questions
- Load-in and clear-out times
- House sound system included or billed
- Certificate of insurance limits required
- On-site contact name and mobile
- Curfews, union rules, vendor lists
For Las Vegas bookings, ask the venue whether union labor rules apply and whether a union steward is required; record any labor requirement and added cost in your quote. The rules Las Vegas DJs work under explain how those constraints reach the contract.
Seasonality and availability
Intake volume follows the wedding calendar. Most US wedding work clusters from late spring through early autumn, with a second bump around the winter holidays. If your form arrives in January for a June date, you have time to source staff and equipment. If it arrives three weeks out, you are paying rush rates for everything.
Wedding booking lead time
- JanuaryJune date, time to source staff
- Late spring to early autumnMain wedding peak
- Winter holidaysSecond booking bump
- Three weeks outRush rates on everything
Add a field for the date the client first contacted you. That single timestamp tells you how much lead time you are actually working with, and it lets you compare your booking window year over year. The seasonal demand patterns in the US wedding market give a fuller picture of how those peaks move.
What labels do and do not tell you
A certificate of insurance is the clearest example. The label says the client or venue is insured. It does not tell you the limits, the named insured, or whether your business is covered as an additional insured.
Labels versus facts
Form field
- Certificate of insurance
- Limits, named insured, additional insured
- Deposit received
- Balance due date, cancellation terms
- Venue approved vendor
- Insurance minimums, labor rules, curfew
- Guest count
- Dance floor capacity, power load, staffing
What it does not tell you
- Certificate of insurance
- Deposit received
- Venue approved vendor
- Guest count
What the label suggests
- Certificate of insurance
- Coverage exists
- Deposit received
- Date is confirmed
- Venue approved vendor
- Access granted
- Guest count
- Room size
What it does not tell you
- Certificate of insurance
- Limits, named insured, additional insured status
- Deposit received
- Balance due date, cancellation terms
- Venue approved vendor
- Insurance minimums, labor rules, curfew
- Guest count
- Dance floor capacity, power load, staffing need
Ask for the venue's written insurance requirements and record each required limit, additional-insured wording, certificate holder, and submission deadline. Venue contracts commonly name specific minimums. If your form only records that a certificate exists, you have a label, not a fact.
Storing what you collect
Store every completed intake form in one folder per event, alongside the signed contract and the deposit receipt. Keep them for at least three years, the window the IRS describes for supporting business records in its recordkeeping guidance. Use business storage that encrypts files in transit and at rest, require multifactor authentication, and limit folder access to people who need it. Keep encrypted backups and test that you can restore them. At the end of the retention period, securely delete active and backup copies unless a tax, contract, or legal hold requires keeping them.
Storing intake records
- One folder per event
- File contract and deposit receipt together
- Keep records at least three years
- Store taxpayer IDs separately from notes
- Never leave scanned IDs in shared drives
If you collect a taxpayer identification number from a client or a subcontractor, handle it the way any payer handles a Form W-9. Store it separately from marketing notes, and do not leave scanned IDs in a shared drive.
The consequence of loose storage is specific. When a client claims they never agreed to overtime, the signed form is the document that settles it. Without it, you are arguing from memory.
A form that lives in an email thread is not a record. It is a conversation.
Example: a one-page intake that survives a dispute
Copy-ready intake form fields
- Clientname, organization, email, phone, billing address, and preferred contact method.
- Eventtype, date, venue name and full address, room, estimated guest count, and the date the client first contacted you.
- Schedule and accessvendor access, load-in, setup, sound-check, performance start and end, curfew, teardown, and room-exit times.
- Contactsclient contact, venue contact, day-of contact, and each person's phone and email.
- Services and pricepackage, equipment, lighting or other add-ons, quoted rate, approved changes, deposit amount and receipt date, balance amount and due date, and any invoice or purchase-order requirements.
- Terms to confirm in the separate contractcancellation and refund terms, overtime trigger and rate, and payment deadlines.
- Site logisticsload-in door, elevator or stairs, parking, loading restrictions, outlet location, circuit, dedicated-power confirmation, sound restrictions, and who controls sound levels.
- Compliance and insuranceapproved-vendor status, permit or license name and issuing office if applicable, required insurance limits, additional-insured wording, certificate holder, and submission deadline.
- Planning notesmeal or vendor-meal arrangements, announcements, music preferences, and client requests.
A DJ in Ohio books a corporate party for 180 guests. The form records the venue address, the load-in door, a 10 pm curfew and a venue insurance minimum of $1,000,000. On the night, the venue cuts sound at 9:45 pm. The client asks for a partial refund.
The DJ pulls the form. The curfew field is signed and dated. The refund conversation ends there, and the quote template questions show how those same fields feed the price before the contract goes out.
