Kerdora helps you collect a household's financial information, turn it into planning analysis, and deliver clear Guides and follow-through. Your first useful outcome is not a perfectly complete database. It is one reviewed client file with accurate source data, a planning conclusion you understand, and a Guide you are comfortable sharing.
This article gives you the recommended order for reaching that outcome.
1. Use the practice Home page
After signing in, Home is the practice-level starting point. It shows work due across clients, recently active households, upcoming client dates, and the practice watchlist. The shortcuts at the top take you to Guide templates, model portfolios, and your advisor invite link.
Choose New client from Home when you are ready to create a household. Clients remains the full client list, while Home is the day-to-day practice dashboard.
New advisor accounts also include a setup guide for six firm-level steps:
Add your logo and colors.
Review model portfolios.
Review document folders.
Review Change categories.
Review Guide templates.
Create your first real client.
The seeded sample household does not count as your first real client. You can mark review steps complete after checking the corresponding settings. Your progress is saved if you dismiss the setup guide.
2. Review What's New when you are returning to Kerdora
Existing advisors can use What's New to orient themselves to the rebuilt platform. Open your profile menu and select What's New. If Kerdora shows the welcome card automatically, select See what's new.
The walkthrough covers Retirement, Visualize, the command bar, the new interface, Practice Home, Financials, Investment Research, Dora Search, Dora Guides, Client Onboarding, and mobile and tablet use. Use the chapter rail, Back, and Next to move through it. The left and right arrow keys also move between chapters. Some chapters include an action such as Choose a client that takes you into the related feature.
Closing, leaving through a chapter action, or completing the current walkthrough keeps it from reopening on every page load. You can reopen it manually from the profile menu. What's New is an orientation tour; use the Help Center for the detailed steps required to complete a task.
3. Explore the sample household
Open the seeded sample client before entering real data. It shows how the major parts of a completed file connect:
Office is the advisor-only command center. Its header views are Home, Notes, Plan Cleanup, and Tasks.
Profile stores Household, Accounts, Cash Flow, and Insurance information.
Documents stores uploaded files and extracted data awaiting review.
Financials turns client data into client-ready financial summaries.
Planning contains Goals, Spending, Investments, Insurance, Taxes, Estate, Business, and Changes.
Visualize provides presentation views of the plan.
Guides is where you assemble and manage client-facing deliverables.
Dora is the client-aware assistant for questions, analysis, and proposed work.
Plan Setup is a temporary guided setup destination. It disappears from the sidebar after setup is completed.
Clients do not see Office, Financials, the advisor's full Planning workspace, Visualize, Guides editing, or Dora conversations. Their portal has Overview, Profile, Documents, Tasks, Spending, and Investments. You decide what planning conclusions to share through a delivered Guide.
4. Configure the firm basics
Open your user menu and review the advisor settings before delivering a client Guide. Confirm:
advisor and firm name;
logo and primary color;
disclosures for client-facing output;
calendar link, when used;
model portfolios;
document folder templates;
Change categories; and
Guide templates.
You do not need to redesign every default before starting. Confirm that the defaults are usable, then refine them after you have worked through a real household.
5. Create a real client
From practice Home, choose New client. Enter the Household Name and choose Create. Kerdora creates the client and opens Plan Setup.
Plan Setup has four phases:
Document intake — upload source documents and use extraction when appropriate.
Client profile — review Household, People, 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, Changes, Tasks, the Guide, and client invitations.
You can leave and return without completing all four phases. Plan Setup remains available as a temporary sidebar item until you complete setup. When you mark setup complete, it disappears from navigation, but the underlying information remains available in Profile, Planning, Guides, and the other permanent workspaces.
6. Review extracted information before planning
Extraction reduces data entry; it does not replace advisor review. For every proposed record:
Compare it with the source document.
Confirm owner, account type, amount, and frequency.
Resolve duplicates against existing records.
Apply only the information you want saved.
Correct the Profile record when the source data is wrong.
Planning results depend on Profile data. An income entered with the wrong frequency or an account assigned to the wrong owner can affect several downstream views.
7. Turn the facts into a plan
Use Planning → Goals to define what the household is funding and to review current assets, required assets, current monthly contributions, and target contributions. Use Goal Mapping to allocate balances and savings intentionally. Then review the other relevant planning areas rather than completing every module by habit.
Use Office Home and Plan Cleanup to identify missing or inconsistent plan data. Review Observations under Changes for planning findings that may deserve action. An Observation is not automatically a recommendation; decide whether it should become a Change.
8. Create follow-through and client output
A Change records a planning recommendation or decision. A Task records the work someone needs to complete. Connect them when a recommendation requires follow-through.
Build a Guide after the source data and conclusions are reviewed. Include only the components the client needs, add advisor explanation, preview the result, and confirm client visibility before delivery. A Guide should explain the conclusion and next action, not merely display every available chart.
What a successful first client looks like
Before inviting the client or delivering a Guide, confirm that:
household members and ownership are correct;
major accounts, liabilities, income, spending, and insurance are reviewed;
Goal assignments do not double-count dollars;
planning assumptions match the client conversation;
Observations have been reviewed rather than blindly accepted;
Changes and Tasks have clear owners;
the Guide is previewed from the client's perspective; and
portal access is created only for the correct household members.
If a result looks wrong, trace it back through the source record, amount frequency, ownership, and assignment before overriding the planning output.