New client onboarding is the only part of your service that every client experiences identically, and it is usually the part nobody owns. The proposal was written by one person, the work will be done by another, and the fortnight in between belongs to whoever notices. This page sets out what that fortnight has to achieve, what the client is experiencing while it happens, and how to size the work so the next one is not run from memory.
What the fortnight has to achieve
Three things, in order. The client has to hand over what you need to work, which is documents, access and answers. Your side has to be set up, which is accounts, folders, permissions and whoever is doing the work knowing what they are doing. And both sides have to agree what happens first, because the single most common onboarding failure is a client who thinks work has started and a team that thinks it is still waiting.
What the client is experiencing
Silence, mostly, punctuated by requests. They have just committed money and the first thing that happens is homework. Every day of quiet after a signature costs you goodwill you spent months earning, which is why a short status note on a fixed day beats a perfect process that communicates nothing until it is finished.
Sizing it so it repeats
Count the steps, count the documents, multiply by the clients you take a month, and you have the workload in hours rather than in impressions. The free worksheet on this site does it and also returns the onboardings in flight at any moment, which is the number that tells you when one person stops being enough.
The handover from sales
Whatever was promised during the sale is now an onboarding obligation, and it is rarely written down. A one page handover, what was sold, what was promised beyond it, who the contact is, removes most of the surprises that turn a fortnight into a month.
Questions people ask about new client onboarding
How long should new client onboarding take?
Your firm decides that, and the promise matters more than the number: pick a window you can hold and count backwards. The worksheet returns how many days each step gets inside whatever window you choose.
Who should own it?
One named person per client, even in a firm where several people do the work. Onboarding fails from diffusion far more often than from incompetence.
What is the first thing to fix?
Usually the document list. Most firms request more than they need at the start, and every unnecessary request is another thing that can go unreturned and stall everything behind it.