# New-client onboarding

Version: 1.0.0

Start the relationship with clear scope, ownership, access, and a first milestone.

## Purpose

Turn an accepted engagement into an organized start, with the client and delivery team agreeing what happens next.

## Prerequisites

- An accepted scope and the agreement or payment status required by your existing business process.
- A named delivery owner and an approved location for the client checklist and project documents.
- A list of only the information, assets, and access needed for the first milestone, plus a secure collection method.

## Responsible roles

- **Sales owner:** Transfers approved scope, promises, open questions, and start conditions.
- **Onboarding owner:** Coordinates the checklist, client communication, and first milestone.
- **Client contact:** Confirms the point of contact, supplies required inputs, and approves decisions.
- **Delivery lead:** Accepts readiness and resolves blockers before work starts.

## Steps

1. **Check the start conditions.** Confirm approved scope, delivery commitments, and any agreement or payment prerequisites using authoritative business systems. Mark unknown conditions as pending.
2. **Name the working contacts.** Introduce the onboarding owner and backup. Confirm who on the client side can answer questions and approve work.
3. **Send one prioritized request list.** List the information and assets needed for the first milestone, who provides them, and by when. Explain the approved secure method for access; never ask for passwords in ordinary messages.
4. **Agree the kickoff and first milestone.** Confirm the initial deliverable, scope boundaries, expected review date, and communication cadence. Record dependencies that can change the schedule.
5. **Review readiness and resolve gaps.** Check each required item as received and usable, pending, or not applicable with a reason. Assign an owner and due time to each blocker rather than assuming a missing item is optional.
6. **Accept the start and close onboarding.** The delivery lead explicitly accepts the handoff. Tell the client what happens next, link the agreed plan, and retain the checklist in the approved project system.

## Exceptions

- Missing client input requires an agreed revised next step; do not silently promise the original date.
- New scope goes through change approval before delivery work begins.
- A change of client contact requires reconfirming approval authority and contact preferences.
- Unusable or excessive access should be corrected through the approved access process, not copied into the checklist.

## Example messages

Adapt placeholders to your approved business process. These are examples for review, not messages sent by MagicAiFlow.

### Welcome and next steps

> Welcome, [first name]. I'm [name], your onboarding contact. Our first milestone is [deliverable]. Please review [approved checklist location] for the items needed by [date]. We will confirm the start once those items are ready.

### Pending item

> We're waiting on [required item] before [next step]. Could you confirm who can provide it and a realistic date? I'll update the plan with you if that changes the milestone.

## Measurement checklist

- Count onboardings with a named owner, agreed first milestone, and explicit delivery acceptance.
- Measure time from accepted engagement to ready-to-start, keeping client waiting time and internal waiting time separate where known.
- Review missing or unusable input, access delays, and repeated requests.
- Record first-milestone completion and client confirmation; a sent welcome email is not completed onboarding.

## Related guides

- [Sale-to-delivery handoff](https://www.magicaiflow.com/resources/workflows/sale-to-delivery-handoff)
- [Appointment reminders and no-show recovery](https://www.magicaiflow.com/resources/workflows/appointment-reminders-no-show-recovery)

## Next step

[Explore the business checks](https://www.magicaiflow.com/resources/business-checks). Public guides are free; private findings require sign-in. Checks evaluate supplied information, not independently verified business records, and do not send messages or change customer systems.

[Handoff Failure Checklist](https://www.magicaiflow.com/Handoff-Failure-Checklist) is a separate detailed assessment with its own historical results.

[Prompt Library](https://www.magicaiflow.com/dashboard/prompts) and [SOP Library](https://www.magicaiflow.com/dashboard/sops) use existing sign-in and access rules.