Onboard a new client without missing the details that come back to bite you
The gaps in a bad onboarding never show up on day one — they show up three weeks in, as a missed deadline or a stakeholder nobody looped in. This template closes those gaps up front.
Overview
This is a working template for the first two weeks of a client relationship — what to capture before the kickoff call, an agenda for the call itself, and a structure for setting expectations through the first two weeks. It's built around the details that actually get missed: who the real decision-maker is versus who's on the call, where the assets live, and what 'done' means to the client versus what it means to you.
Why it matters
Most onboarding problems aren't caused by a bad kickoff call — they're caused by information that never got captured at all. A billing contact who isn't the person you've been emailing. A brand asset that lives in someone's personal Dropbox. A deadline the client considers fixed that your team is treating as a target. Capturing this on day one, in one place tied to the client record, means it doesn't depend on someone's memory three months later.
Who should use it
- Agencies onboarding a new client and want a repeatable process instead of starting from scratch each time
- Account managers who've been burned by a detail that surfaced too late — a missed stakeholder, a hard deadline nobody flagged
- Teams standardizing onboarding across multiple account managers so quality doesn't depend on who's running it
How to use it
- 1
Fill in the intake section before the kickoff call
Get stakeholders, billing contact, and asset locations from your main point of contact before the call — it makes the call itself shorter and more useful.
- 2
Run the kickoff call off the agenda
Use the agenda to confirm what you already captured and surface anything that changed, rather than gathering everything live.
- 3
Attach the finished template to the client record
Once it's filled in, it becomes the reference for anyone on the team who works with that client later — not a one-time form you fill out and forget.
What's inside
Stakeholders & decision-makers
Billing contact & invoicing details
Assets & access needed
Goals & success criteria
Hard deadlines & fixed dates
Kickoff call agenda
First two weeks: what happens when
Get it free
- A pre-call intake section (stakeholders, billing contact, assets and access, goals, hard deadlines)
- A structured kickoff-call agenda with suggested timing
- A first-two-weeks expectation-setting plan (what happens when, and who owns it)
- A short list of questions that surface hidden stakeholders and deadlines
Common questions
Who should fill this out — the account manager or the client?
The account manager fills it in, using information gathered from the client's main point of contact before the kickoff call. The client shouldn't be handed a form — the call is where you confirm what you've already captured.
What if the client doesn't know their own hard deadlines yet?
That's common, and worth flagging explicitly on the call rather than assuming there aren't any. Note it as 'not yet defined' and put a follow-up date on getting it confirmed, rather than leaving the field blank.
Does this replace a project kickoff checklist?
No — this template is about the client relationship (stakeholders, expectations, access). A project kickoff checklist covers the work itself. Most agencies use both, in sequence.
How is this different from just taking notes on the first call?
Notes are unstructured and easy to lose. This template forces you to capture specific fields — like the actual decision-maker versus who's on the call — that get skipped when you're just typing what's said.
Run the rest of your agency from one place
This resource is free. Sarion is where the day-to-day client work happens next.