Workflow
A client onboarding checklist that runs itself
The client onboarding checklist we use, and how Cedric runs it from one message: folder, client page, intake form, kickoff, welcome email, each send on your yes.
Benjamin Ben HattarThe first week with a new client sets the tone for the next year. It is also a dozen small jobs in six different tools, done by whoever closed the deal, in between other things. Something always slips. Usually it's the intake questions, and you find out at the kickoff that nobody asked for access to their analytics.
A checklist fixes the slipping. Running it is still the chore. So write the checklist once, and let Cedric run it every time a client signs. You get one message in Slack, the work happens across the week, and anything that reaches the client waits for your yes.
- Write your onboarding checklist once and save it as a team skill.
- "Halcyon signed, run onboarding" starts the whole thing from Slack.
- The run lasts days. He waits for the intake form, nudges the quiet ones, and books the kickoff.
- Only the folder starts on its own. Every other write and send waits for a yes, and one "approve all" covers a batch.
A new client signs
One message, the first week.
Hanna Wyss9:14 AM
@Cedric Halcyon signed. Run the onboarding checklist, Priya is our contact.
CedricAPP9:15 AM
Started. The Halcyon folder is in Drive. Four steps wait for your yes: the client page in Notion from your template, the deal marked won in HubSpot, the welcome email to Priya with the intake form link, and sharing the folder with her. For the kickoff, Thursday 10:00 and Friday 14:00 are free for all four of you.
The checklist
This is the version we run. Copy it, cut what you don't do, add what you always forget.
The day they sign. Create a shared folder named after the client, with subfolders for contracts, briefs and deliverables. Create the client page from your template, with the contacts, the scope and the dates from the contract. Mark the deal won in the CRM and log the start date. Draft the welcome email: who their contact is, what happens this week, and the intake form link.
The intake form. Five questions, no more. Their goals for the first 90 days. Who on their side signs off. The tools and accounts you'll need access to. Hard deadlines. Anything that went wrong with the last provider.
The kickoff. Find a slot that suits your whole team, in the week after signing. Invite their contacts once the intake form is back, so the meeting starts from their answers.
Days two to five. Chase the intake form if it's quiet after two days. File the answers on the client page. Share the folder with anyone the client added. Send the kickoff agenda the day before.
Set it up
- 01
Add Cedric to Slack
Install him and invite him to the channel where deals close. You start with 100,000 free credits, about $50 of work, and no card.
- 02
Connect the tools
From the dashboard, connect Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Notion and HubSpot. Leave out the ones you don't use.
- 03
Save the checklist
Paste your version of the list above and add: "From now on, this is how we onboard a client." He saves it as a team skill, listed on the Skills page, so anyone on the team can start it.
- 04
Start it when a client signs
"Halcyon signed, run onboarding. Priya is our contact." He creates the folder straight away and lists the other steps for your yes.
- 05
Watch it in the Action center
The run shows what's done, what waits on the client and what waits on you. You can pause it, or change a step by telling him.
Before you rely on it
Writes ask first. The client page, the CRM update, the welcome email, the folder share and the kickoff invite each wait for a yes in the thread.
A quiet client gets two nudges, then you. If the intake form stays empty, he reminds them, then tells you and parks the run with everything kept.
Contracts and payment stay outside. The checklist starts after the signature. Collecting the first invoice is a separate job.
FAQ
A shared folder, a client record with contacts and scope, the CRM update, a welcome email, an intake form with a handful of questions, and a kickoff booked once the answers are in. The list above has the details.
No. The form is a private page at a link only they have. Their answers come back into the run, and the next step starts on its own.
Yes. Save one skill per kind of client, say "retainer onboarding" and "project onboarding", and name the one you want when you start.
On the client onboarding page, and in workflows that wait for how a run holds over days.
Free to start, no card.