A client onboarding stack with one doorway and no scavenger hunt

1. Define one commercial start event

Use a single observable trigger such as “agreement executed and required initial payment confirmed.” Contract, tax, payment, refund, and retention duties depend on the business and jurisdiction. The onboarding workflow should receive a status—never card details, passwords, or a copied signature pretending to settle legal terms.

2. Keep one client index

Create or update one company, primary contact, and won deal or onboarding record in the CRM already used. HubSpot listed Customer Platform Free at $0 per month for up to two users. Keep fields small: internal owner, service, start date, target kickoff, intake status, access status, and next action.

The CRM is the index—who the client is, what began, and where the active project home lives. Do not force it to become the delivery workspace unless it already supports that work cleanly.

3. Use one structured intake

Tally publishes forms and submissions under fair-use rules on its free plan, including conditional logic and file uploads. One post-sale form can ask for decisions instead of autobiography:

• the observable engagement outcome and explicit exclusions;
• the approver and people who should only be informed;
• fixed dates and why they cannot move;
• locations of current materials; and
• dependencies likely to block the first milestone.

Do not request passwords or production credentials through a general form. Ask for access with the platform's user-invite mechanism or an approved credential-sharing process. Collect only necessary data and restrict responses.

Tally Pro was displayed at €20 per month when checked. Currency and checkout totals can vary by location. Upgrade only when a specific paid boundary—such as branding removal or a listed analytics integration—has measurable value.

4. Publish one kickoff event

Calendly Free published one event type and one connected calendar, enough for a single kickoff format. State duration, required attendees, agenda, and the prerequisite: “Submit the intake at least two business days before kickoff.”

Calendly Standard was listed at $10 per seat per month with annual billing. Upgrade for an actual need such as multiple event types, calendars, reminders, payments, or an integration—not to make the stack look complete.

5. Create one restricted project home

Use the file system already approved for the business and share only the client-facing folder:

00 Start Here — scope, owners, milestones, decisions, next action
01 Client Inputs — approved source materials
02 Working — drafts ready for collaboration
03 Approved — accepted deliverables
99 Archive — superseded items retained for a stated reason

Review permissions at close. Name files so the accepted version is unambiguous. Do not make a recording the sole record of a decision; update the start-here document and send a short recap.

The handoff sequence

1. Trigger: commercial start is confirmed.
2. Within one business day: create the record and folder; send one welcome message with intake, kickoff, project-home, owner, and response expectation.
3. Before kickoff: review the intake and mark unresolved blockers. Never send “we reviewed it” unless someone did.
4. During kickoff: confirm outcome, scope, decision-maker, milestones, communication route, and first client action.
5. After kickoff: update the record, next action, and decision log.

Upgrade only at a broken handoff

• Upgrade forms when conditional intake or branding is measurably blocked.
• Upgrade scheduling for multiple events, reminders, pooled calendars, or booking payments.
• Add project management when work has interdependent owners and dates a start-here page cannot represent.
• Add a portal when repeated deliverables, permissions, or concurrent clients make folders unreliable.
• Add chat only after response expectations and decision capture are defined.