01 / Free agency template
Define what ready means
Onboarding is complete when the team can start the agreed work with the necessary inputs, permissions and decisions. Use the kickoff to resolve missing inputs and assign the remaining setup tasks. Start by identifying the first deliverable and the conditions required to produce it.
The checklist is organized around those conditions. Assign a person to resolve each item and distinguish requested, received, verified and blocked states. This prevents a request email from being counted as completed access or an uploaded document from being treated as an approved brief.
02 / Free agency template
Confirm the accepted commercial context
Record the accepted proposal version, billing model, agreed fee or rate reference, payment schedule and the people responsible for commercial decisions. The onboarding document should point to the agreement instead of restating legal terms inconsistently.
Confirm who can approve work and who can authorize a scope change. They may be different people. Explain the communication route and expected review cadence so the client knows how decisions will reach the delivery team.
03 / Free agency template
Gather access without collecting credentials in the checklist
List the systems needed for the first phase and request the narrow access appropriate to the work. Use the platform's invitation or role mechanism where available. Store credential references in an approved manager rather than pasting passwords, recovery codes or tokens into this document.
After receiving an invitation, verify the actual task your team needs to perform. A successful sign-in may still leave the wrong account, property or project selected. Record the verified scope and the person who owns access recovery. That gives the lead a usable readiness record.
04 / Free agency template
Prepare the first delivery stage
Collect the brief, existing assets, brand guidance, current constraints and any material the client must approve before work begins. Assign owners and due dates to missing items. If an input changes the timeline, record that dependency rather than allowing the schedule to imply it is already resolved.
For an illustrative website project, the first stage may require approved service descriptions, analytics access and a named content approver. Social account access may be irrelevant. Adapt the checklist to the agreed work instead of requesting every possible account from every client.
05 / Free agency template
Make the kickoff a decision meeting
Send the working brief and open questions ahead of the meeting. Use the call to confirm outcomes, responsibilities, review windows and unresolved dependencies. Record decisions and next actions while they are specific enough for someone else to execute.
Afterward, share a concise record of what was agreed. Create the first project tasks and confirm that the client can use the intended portal or communication route. Do not bury an important blocker in general meeting notes when it needs a named owner and date.
06 / Free agency template
Close the loop with a readiness review
The template ends with an explicit ready-to-start check. The lead confirms that the first tasks are owned, necessary access has been verified and the client understands the next request. Remaining non-blocking items stay visible instead of disappearing because onboarding was marked complete.
Schedule the first delivery review when the project starts. That review checks whether the setup survives real work: contributors can find context, time is assigned correctly and the client receives understandable requests. Reuse improvements in the next onboarding rather than rebuilding the checklist from memory.
THE PRACTICAL DETAILS
Questions, answered.
Does every client need the same checklist?+
No. Keep the readiness structure, then remove irrelevant systems and add the inputs required for the actual first phase.
Where should passwords go?+
Use an approved credential manager or platform invitation. The checklist should hold a reference and an owner, not secret values.
What if access is still missing after kickoff?+
Keep the item blocked with a named owner and explain the dependent work. A meeting does not turn missing access into a completed requirement.
Who signs off onboarding?+
The project lead should confirm delivery readiness, with commercial and client owners resolving the decisions assigned to them.
