Help Guide
A step-by-step walkthrough for getting your first client onboarded through ClientOnboard. Suitable for accounting firms, field service companies, consultancies, and any team with a repeatable client intake process.
Register your firm
Visit the Register page and complete the registration form:
- ›Organisation Name — your practice or business name (e.g. Smith & Associates, ABC Field Services)
- ›Email — your billing / admin email address
- ›Plan — Starter, Pro, or Enterprise
- ›Workflow Template — pick an industry preset or start blank
Remainder of this month free. No invoice is raised for the month you register in. Your first subscription invoice arrives on the 1st of the following month.
Configure platform settings (Super Admin)
The Super Admin controls platform-wide settings. Before you receive invoices, the super admin should configure:
These settings are managed at Super Admin → Settings.
Add your team members
Your organisation uses three roles:
Manages the organisation, adds clients, configures settings, views all onboardings.
Leads onboardings and oversees tasks. Receives notifications for all client activity. Can be renamed “Manager” or “Coordinator” mentally if it fits better.
Completes assigned tasks. Only sees tasks assigned to them.
Users can be added from your dashboard once logged in. Each user gets a unique email login.
Add a client
Navigate to Clients → Add Client and fill in:
- ›Client name, company registration number, VAT number (where applicable)
- ›Contact details (phone, email, physical address)
- ›Engagement type — describe the service being rendered (e.g. Monthly Retainer, Project, Annual Review)
- ›System or platform used (e.g. Xero, Pastel, Sage)
- ›Allocated team lead — receives notifications for all activity on this client
- ›Group (optional) — for organising clients by sector, region, or team
Start an onboarding
On the client detail page, click “Start Onboarding”. The system will:
You can specify who prepared the onboarding (the responsible accountant) and the start date.
Work through tasks
Open the onboarding checklist. Tasks are grouped by phase. Each task shows:
- ›The task description and the phase it belongs to
- ›Who it is assigned to (role or named staff member)
- ›Current status: Pending / Complete / Rejected
- ›A progress badge per phase showing how many tasks are done (e.g. 3/5)
Click Complete to mark a task done. If the task has an input field (e.g. “PAYE Number”), you must enter a value before the task can be completed.
Configure your workflow
Your workflow is the sequence of tasks that must be completed for every client onboarding. ClientOnboard models this as a directed graph: each task has one or more next steps that follow it, and one or more preceding tasks that lead into it. This lets the system know the intended order of work for every client.
Define what comes next. Flow connections wire tasks together into a continuous sequence from start to finish. The diagram shows these as dark gray solid arrows.
Define what must be done first. Dependencies are enforcement rules — a hard block prevents completion; a soft block warns. Shown as red (hard) and dashed gray (soft) arrows.
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Go to Templates → Edit any task. The edit form includes a Next steps panel — a checklist of all other tasks in your workflow.
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Tick the tasks that follow this one. For example: “Quote sent” flows to “1 week follow-up”. A task can flow to multiple tasks (branching) and multiple tasks can flow into the same task (merging).
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Save, then open the Workflow Diagram. The diagram renders your connected graph — every task should be reachable from the first task with no isolated islands.
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Add a new task mid-workflow. Use the Position dropdown on the create form to insert the task after an existing one. Then edit both the preceding task (add the new task as a next step) and the new task (add the old next task as its next step).
Avoid cycles. Your workflow must be a directed acyclic graph — do not create a loop where task A flows to B, B to C, and C back to A. The system does not enforce this automatically yet, so verify your diagram after making changes.
Flow vs. dependency — when to use each. Use flow connections to tell the system the intended sequence. Use dependencies for enforcement when a task must genuinely be blocked until another is complete (e.g. you cannot load a SARS profile without the income tax number). Not every flow connection needs a corresponding dependency — only add blocking rules where a team member could genuinely not proceed.
Task dependencies & blocking
Some tasks depend on earlier tasks being completed first. The system enforces this with two levels:
The task is locked. The Complete button is replaced with a grey Blocked badge. You cannot complete this task until all hard-block prerequisites are done.
The task can be completed, but a recommended predecessor is still pending. Highlighted in amber — clicking Complete asks you to confirm before proceeding.
Example: You cannot fully process payslips without a PAYE number from SARS. “Open on SimplePay” is soft-blocked on “PAYE number” — you will be asked to confirm if you attempt to proceed before the PAYE number is captured.
Your personal dashboard
The Dashboard is your personal work queue. It shows every pending task assigned to you across all active client onboardings in one place — no need to open each client file separately.
For each task the dashboard shows:
- ›The task name, client name, and phase
- ›A lock icon if the task is hard-blocked (cannot proceed yet)
- ›An amber warning if soft-block prerequisites are pending, with the specific prerequisite shown as a chip
- ›An input field directly on the card for tasks that require a value
- ›A Complete button to mark the task done without opening the full checklist
- ›A View checklist → link to see the full onboarding context
A Completed Today section at the bottom lists every task you have finished today, with the time and any captured input value.
Input fields on the dashboard: If a task requires a value (such as a registration number), the Complete button will not work until you have typed a value into the input field on the card.
Comments and input fields
Some tasks have an input field (e.g. for a registration number, reference, date, or any custom value your process requires). Enter the value when completing the task — it is stored on the checklist and appears in the audit trail.
Any team member can add a comment to any task. Comments are visible on the task and in the history timeline. The assigned user and the allocated team lead both receive a notification when a comment is added.
Rejecting a task
If a task was completed incorrectly, use the Reject button. The rejection modal lets you:
- ›Select a rejection reason from the dropdown (e.g. “Incorrect information”, “Document missing”)
- ›Add free-text notes explaining the issue
- ›Optionally return to a prior task (e.g. if supporting documents need re-collection)
The rejected task reverts to Pending. The assigned user receives a notification. All rejections are recorded in the audit trail with the reason and actor.
Notifications
ClientOnboard sends in-app notifications (visible in your notification bell) for:
Click any notification to go directly to the relevant task or onboarding.
Viewing history
Every onboarding has a History view (click “View History” on the onboarding page). This is a chronological audit trail of every event — completions, comments, rejections, input changes — with the actor and timestamp.
Use the history view to answer: “Who did what and when?” when reviewing a client file, during a handover, or in a quality check.
Subscription & billing
Your monthly subscription invoice is raised automatically on the 1st of each month. To view and pay your invoices:
- ›Go to Subscription in your tenant portal at
yoursubdomain.clientonboard.co.za/subscription - ›View all invoices: draft, sent, paid, and cancelled
- ›Click “Pay Now” on any outstanding invoice to be redirected to PayFast for secure payment
- ›Once PayFast confirms payment, the invoice is automatically marked as paid
All invoice amounts include VAT at the applicable rate. The invoice shows both the ex-VAT subtotal and VAT amount separately.
Note: The invoice PDF can be downloaded from each invoice’s detail page in the Super Admin portal. Tenant-facing download will be added in a future update.