Every New Customer Starts
With the Same Hour of Setup.
A customer signs, and someone sends the welcome email, creates their records in three systems, requests their documents, chases the missing ones and schedules the kickoff. It is the same checklist every time, and a step gets missed when things are busy. We automate the checklist so your people spend that first week on the customer, not on setup.
Signs This Is Costing You
A checklist in someone’s head
Onboarding depends on one person remembering every step, and it varies when someone else covers.
Chasing documents
Staff send reminder after reminder for forms, signatures or files a new customer has not provided yet.
Slow first impressions
Days pass between a signed agreement and the customer hearing what happens next.
Records created three times
The same new customer is set up by hand in the CRM, the billing system and the project or service tool.
Growth creates a queue
A good sales month becomes an onboarding backlog, and new customers wait.
No view of who is stuck
Nobody can see at a glance which new customers are waiting on what.
What It Actually Costs
Setup time is only part of it. A slow or uneven start is when customers are most likely to lose confidence. This illustration counts only the staff time.
- 2 people
- doing the work
- 75 minutes
- each time
- 6 times a week
- across everyone
- $48 an hour
- loaded cost per person
About 8 hours a week, or $16,560 to $18,720 a year
Try It With Your Own Numbers
Wages plus taxes and benefits. $40 is a common starting point.
Estimated annual cost of this work
$9,200 to $10,400
About 260 hours a year
An estimate from the numbers you entered, not a quote and not a promise of savings. Automation rarely removes every minute of a task.
Show Us This WorkflowHow We Automate It
Automation handles the steps that never change, so the human parts of onboarding, like the kickoff conversation, happen sooner.
Write the checklist down
We turn the onboarding steps into an explicit list, including the ones people do without thinking, and agree what triggers each one.
Start from the signature
A signed agreement or a paid first invoice creates the customer records and sends the welcome message with clear next steps.
Collect what is missing
Document and information requests go out automatically, with polite reminders that stop the moment the item arrives.
Show what is stuck
Staff see every new customer’s progress in one place, and anything waiting too long is flagged to the person responsible.
Before and After
An illustration of a common workflow, not a client project.
A bookkeeping firm signs a new client, then an assistant creates the client in the practice software, sends a welcome email with a document list, adds a follow-up reminder to their calendar and sets up a shared folder.
The signed engagement creates the client, the folder and the welcome email automatically. The client gets an upload link and reminders for anything still missing, and the assistant sees a list of clients who are complete and ready for their first meeting.
Is Onboarding Ready to Automate?
A good candidate
- The steps are mostly the same for every customer
- New customers arrive every week
- Records are created in more than one system
- Missing information regularly delays the start
Probably not worth it yet
- Each customer needs a completely different setup
- A few new customers arrive each year
- The onboarding steps are still changing
- The first steps must be done in person
Typical Starting Points
Work is priced by scope, not by the hour. You get a written scope with a fixed price before anything starts, and larger builds are split into milestones. The ranges below show where engagements typically start.
See Starting Prices
| Engagement | When it fits | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| Automation Opportunity Review | You know the workflow hurts, but not yet what, if anything, to build: one workflow reviewed, with the smallest worthwhile fix in a written action plan. | $495 fixed fee |
| Quick Win Automation | One tightly bounded problem with a clear finish line. | From $1,500 |
| Core Automation or Integration Build | Workflows and system connections the business runs on, priced in a written scope. | From $5,000 |
| Operations Automation Partnership | After a build: monitoring, maintenance, vendor and API changes, and small improvements. | From $750 / month |
Hosting, domains, licenses, subscriptions, and processing fees stay in accounts you own and are billed to you directly by each vendor whenever practical. Where we must place an approved charge on your behalf, that amount is collected before we incur it.
After the Build
Every build ends with documentation and a handoff, so your team can run it. If you would rather not, a monthly partnership covers monitoring, vendor and API changes, and small improvements under its own written agreement.
See Partnership LevelsServices and Decisions Behind This
Before You Ask
- Will onboarding feel impersonal?
- It should feel faster and more consistent. The messages are written in your voice, and automation frees your staff for the conversations that actually need a person.
- Can different customers get different steps?
- Yes. Rules can branch on the service purchased or the type of customer. Very different processes are sometimes better kept separate, which the review helps decide.
- What about sensitive documents?
- Collection uses secure upload into accounts you control rather than email attachments where practical, and access is limited to the people who need it.
- Do we need new software?
- Usually not. Onboarding automation typically connects your existing CRM, billing, e-signature and file storage. A small portal is only suggested when customers need to see their own progress.
- Where do we start?
- With the checklist as it runs today. The Automation Opportunity Review puts it in writing, estimates what it costs and recommends what to automate first.
Figures on this page are illustrations based on the stated inputs, not client results, and are not a promise of savings. We do not guarantee any particular business, time-saving or technical outcome. This page is a summary for convenience; our Terms of Service govern.
Full terms: Terms of Service
What Happens After a Customer Says Yes?
Walk us through the steps from signature to first real work. We will tell you which ones should run on their own.