01 / Agency field notes
Transfer the decisions, not the whole sales inbox
Begin with a concise handoff from the person who sold the work. Capture the client's intended outcome, the accepted deliverables, the fee and billing model, the schedule assumptions and the people who can approve decisions. Link the final agreement so the delivery lead can resolve detail without relying on recollection.
Include commitments made during negotiation, such as a staged rollout or a specific reporting cadence. Distinguish promises from suggestions that were never accepted. A large collection of email threads is evidence, but it is not a usable brief. The handoff should tell the team what to do next and where the authoritative terms live.
02 / Agency field notes
Create a readiness list with named owners
List the dependencies that could prevent the first delivery milestone: account access, existing assets, approved content, technical constraints and a decision-maker's availability. Give each item an owner, due date where meaningful and an observable completion check.
Access requested is different from access verified. A folder shared with the wrong address is not ready. Ask the person who will use an account to confirm they can perform the necessary action with the appropriate role. Use the platform's access controls and your credential manager; do not collect passwords in a project brief or a public intake form.
| Dependency | Accountable person | Ready when |
|---|---|---|
| Brand assets | Client brand owner | Current files are accessible and version is confirmed |
| Website access | Client administrator | Named delivery user can access the required environment |
| Content | Client content lead | Agreed first milestone content is reviewed and available |
| Approval contact | Client sponsor | One person can consolidate feedback and confirm decisions |
| Delivery plan | Agency project lead | First milestone has owners, inputs and a review date |
03 / Agency field notes
Design the intake for the next decision
An intake form should collect information that changes the plan. Ask about the audience, current problem, relevant constraints and required inputs. Avoid asking the client to repeat details already agreed during sales unless you need confirmation.
Group questions so the right person can answer them. A sponsor may know the business priority but not the hosting configuration. Give technical questions to the administrator and approval questions to the person responsible for acceptance. Review the responses, resolve contradictions and follow up on missing information before the team starts work.
04 / Agency field notes
Build one working project and check client visibility
Turn the brief into reviewable tasks with accountable owners. Prepare the first milestone in enough detail to start work, then keep later planning proportionate to what is known. Tie the commercial assumptions to the project so time and cost can be reviewed against the same accepted scope.
Before inviting the client, inspect the information they will see. Flowboard provides client-facing access to selected work, but sharing still requires a deliberate setup. Use a sample client account to check the actual experience, including files and approval requests. Internal cost discussions and draft debate should not enter a client-facing update by accident.
05 / Agency field notes
Use kickoff to settle open decisions
Circulate the working brief before the kickoff. Use the meeting to confirm the outcome, clarify responsibilities and resolve the items that block progress. Walking through every tool feature is less useful than showing the client where the next review appears and how to respond.
For an illustrative website engagement, the first week might require access verification on day one, content confirmation on day two and a structure review on day five. These are planning examples, not promised durations. If content is not ready, agree the consequence before the team commits to an unchanged design review date.
Confirm the shared brief
Check the selected scope, success criteria and current agreement version.
Resolve readiness gaps
Identify missing inputs and name the person who will provide or verify them.
Demonstrate one client action
Show where the next deliverable appears and how feedback will be consolidated.
Confirm the first checkpoint
State what will be reviewed, who attends and which dependencies must be complete.
06 / Agency field notes
Follow the first handoff all the way through
The first client review is a useful test of onboarding. Did the right person receive the request? Could they open the file? Did feedback arrive in a form the team could act on? Did someone record the final decision?
Fix the specific friction before the next milestone. A short reminder or a clearer request may solve more than another training meeting. Record approval and its version next to the work. If the client responds outside the portal, carry the decision back into the project so the team has a consistent record.
07 / Agency field notes
Make onboarding a maintained process
At the end of the first delivery cycle, review which inputs were late, which questions were unclear and which access checks were missing. Update the checklist with a concrete improvement. Keep the reusable process separate from the private information gathered for any one client.
Automation can assist with repetitive handoffs, but test it with realistic sample data before relying on it. A won deal triggering a workflow does not by itself prove that scope, permissions and dependencies are correct. Assign a human owner for readiness and keep a visible route for exceptions.
THE PRACTICAL DETAILS
Questions, answered.
Should onboarding start before the proposal is accepted?
You can prepare internally, but distinguish preparation from authorised delivery. Confirm the accepted agreement and any required commercial prerequisites before committing resources under the assumption that the project is ready.
How many questions should an intake form contain?
Enough to make the next decisions, with clear ownership for specialist answers. Remove questions already answered reliably and avoid collecting information simply because a template includes a field.
Should clients see the whole internal project?
Only share the information useful and appropriate for their role. Review the client experience with a test account and make the next action easy to find. A portal does not remove the need to check permissions.
Can automation replace the onboarding checklist?
It can perform defined actions after supported triggers, but it cannot establish that the client's answers are accurate or that access really works. Keep a responsible person and a completion check for each important dependency.
What if a client misses the first input deadline?
Explain which work depends on the missing input and agree the revised plan. Continue independent work where sensible, but do not quietly preserve an impossible delivery date or invent approval.