Kerdora is a financial planning platform that helps you gather client data, analyze it across planning modules, and deliver personalized Guides to your clients. When you first log in, you'll land on the Clients page — this is your home base. At the top you'll see a setup checklist that walks you through your first steps, and below it the pre-built sample client you can explore.
Here's what to do first to get the most out of Kerdora right away.
Your Setup Checklist
New accounts start with a setup checklist card at the top of the Clients page. It tracks six steps:
Logo & colors — brand the app and your client-facing outputs.
Model portfolios — review the starter target portfolios and shape them to your allocations.
Document folders — review the folder templates your client files will use.
Changes to be made — review your firm's change categories.
Guide templates — look over the guide templates you'll deliver from.
Your first client — create a real client (the sample client doesn't count).
Click a step and Kerdora takes you to the right page, with a banner up top to mark the step Done once you've reviewed it. The checklist card also has a Schedule onboarding call button — grab a time and we'll walk through setup with you.
When everything's checked off, the card dismisses itself. Want it gone sooner? Use Hide setup guide — your progress is saved either way.
The checklist mirrors the steps below, so use whichever you prefer.
Step 1: Explore the Sample Client
Every new account comes with a sample client called the Simpson Household. Click into it to see what a fully built-out client file looks like. You'll see how data is organized across the different sections in the left sidebar:
Office — Your advisor-only command center: Home, Plan Setup, Notes, and Tasks. Clients never see any of it. See the Office article for details.
Profile — Where all client data is stored: Household, Accounts, Cash Flow, and Insurance.
Documents — Where uploaded client documents are stored.
Planning — The planning modules where you analyze client data: Goals, Spending, Investments, Insurance, Taxes, Estate, Business, and Changes.
Guides — This is where your client's Guide lives. It's the deliverable you'll share with clients, showing them a clear picture of their financial life and what to do next. (The client portal calls their view of it "Overview.")
Dora — The AI assistant for questions, summaries, and drafting.
The top-right bar of any client page also has a few quick-access icons — a Notebook for Notes, a Check-square (with an overdue badge) for Tasks, and a Plus for adding a Change.
Poking around the Simpson Household is the fastest way to understand how everything fits together before you start building your own client files.
Step 2: Set Up Your Firm Branding
Before you start working with real clients, head to Settings. Click your profile icon in the top-right corner to open the user menu, then select Advisor Settings. From there you can:
Add your firm name and advisor name
Upload your logo (it will appear in the top-left corner of the app and on PDF reports)
Choose a primary color to customize the look of the app
Add any disclosures that should appear on reports
Add a calendar link (e.g., your Calendly URL) so clients can book meetings with you
This takes just a couple of minutes and makes the platform feel like yours right away. (You can also set your logo and color straight from the setup checklist's Logo & colors step.)
Step 3: Add Your First Client
On the Clients page, click the "Add new client" button in the top-right corner. Enter a Household Name (for example, "John and Katie Smith") and click Create.
You'll land on Plan Setup — a guided flow for building out the client's file, in four phases:
Document intake — upload whatever you already have (PDFs, spreadsheets, screenshots) and click Extract with Dora. The Extractor pulls out accounts, income, insurance, and household details automatically.
Client profile — review the extracted data (or enter it by hand) across Household, Assets, Liabilities, Income, Expenses, and Insurance policies.
Planning setup — set up Goals, goal assignments, target portfolios, insurance planning, and estate planning.
Review & output — review observations, add Changes, assign Tasks, prep the Guide, and optionally invite the client to their portal.
You don't have to finish in one sitting — Plan Setup lives under Office > Plan Setup in the client sidebar, so you can come back any time. See Adding Your First Client for the full walkthrough.
Step 4: Review Goals and Identify Changes
Once your client's data is in, go to Planning in the left sidebar and click Goals. This is where Kerdora analyzes the client's financial position using the Retirement, Education, and Liquidity goal calculators. Goals is the most important planning feature — spend some time here to understand how assumptions drive the results.
As you review the client's plan, you'll identify Changes to Be Made — action items the client needs to take. You can add these throughout the platform wherever you spot them, and the full list lives under Planning > Changes. The Office > Home view also surfaces a running list of flagged gaps and opportunities you can convert into Changes.
Step 5: Build and Customize a Guide
Go to Guides in the left sidebar. This is where you build the client's Guide — the main deliverable you'll share with them. Guides are fully customizable pages that help clients understand their financial life and know what to do next.
You can customize what appears on each Guide, reorder sections, and create templates to reuse across clients. When you're ready, you can share the Guide with your client through the Client Portal.
What Success Looks Like
By the end of your first session, you should have:
Explored the Simpson Household sample client
Added your logo and customized your colors
Created at least one real client using the Extractor
Reviewed Goals and added a few Changes to Be Made
Customized a Guide
By the end of your first week, aim to have completed a full client file — data entry, planning review, and a polished Guide delivered to a real client.
If you get stuck at any point, reach out through the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the app, or use the Schedule onboarding call button on your setup checklist. We're here to help.