Every time you bring on a new client, the workflow is the same. Follow these steps and you'll have a fully built-out client file with a Guide ready to deliver. This process works whether you're doing it yourself or handing it off to a staff member.

Step 1: Add the Client

Go to the Clients page and click "Add new client" in the top-right corner. Enter the client's name and email address. Once created, you'll land on the client's Overview page — this is where you'll eventually build their Guide.

Step 2: Upload Documents

Click Documents in the left sidebar. Upload whatever you already have for the client — PDFs, spreadsheets, screenshots, Word documents, or even pasted chat transcripts. The more you upload, the more the Extractor can pull in automatically.

Common files to upload:

Brokerage and retirement account statements
Insurance declarations pages
Tax returns
Pay stubs or income documentation
Net worth spreadsheets
Estate planning documents

You can drag and drop multiple files at once.

Step 3: Add Text Context

On the same Documents page, you'll see a text input field. Use this to add any extra context the Extractor should know — things that aren't in the documents. For example:

"Client is 42, spouse is 39. Two kids ages 8 and 11."
"They rent, no mortgage. Combined income around $180k."
"They have a term life policy through work but no individual coverage."

This helps the Extractor fill in gaps that documents alone might not cover.

Step 4: Run the Extractor

Once your documents are uploaded and any text context is added, the Extractor runs automatically. It reads through everything you've provided, pulls out financial data, and populates the client's profile — accounts, balances, income, insurance, household members, and more.

You don't need to click a button to start it. The Extractor begins processing as soon as documents are uploaded.

Step 5: Review the Extracted Assumptions

Go to the Profile tab to review what the Extractor pulled in. The Profile has four sub-tabs:

Accounts — Investment accounts, bank accounts, retirement accounts, and other assets and liabilities
Cashflow — Income, savings, spending, and debt payments
Insurance — Life, disability, homeowners, liability, and other policies
Household — Adults, children, businesses, and trusts

Walk through each sub-tab and verify the data looks right. Fix anything that's off — wrong balances, missing accounts, incorrect ages. The Extractor is good, but it's not perfect, and this is your chance to clean things up before moving into planning.

Step 6: Work Through the Planning Modules

Click the Planning tab in the left sidebar. This is where you analyze the client's financial picture. Work through the modules that are relevant:

Goals — Set up Retirement, Education, and/or Liquidity goals. Adjust the assumptions (spending need, savings rate, growth rate, etc.) to match the client's situation. The goal calculators will show you where the client stands.
Investments — Review the client's portfolio by asset class, expense ratio, dividend yield, region, and sector. This data populates automatically from the accounts you set up in Profile.
Insurance — Run the calculators for life, disability, homeowners, and liability insurance to see if the client has adequate coverage.
Taxes — Build a tax scenario for the current year using the client's income, filing status, dependents, state, and deductions.
Estate — Use the document completeness checklist to track which estate planning documents the client has in place.

You don't have to do every module for every client — focus on what's relevant to their situation and what you plan to include in their Guide.

Step 7: Identify Changes to Be Made

As you work through the planning modules, you'll spot action items — things the client should do. These go into Changes to Be Made.

To add a change, look for the option to add changes within the planning modules, or navigate to the Changes section. Each change gets a category (e.g., Insurance, Investments, Estate) and a description of what needs to happen.

You can choose whether each change is:

Client-facing — the client sees it in their portal
Internal only — just for your records

Think of this as building the client's to-do list based on your analysis.

Step 8: Build the Guide

Go back to the Overview page (click Overview in the left sidebar). This is where you build the client's Guide — the deliverable they'll see.

The Guide is made up of pages you can turn on or off. Each page pulls from the data and planning work you've already done. Customize which pages to include, reorder them, and add any personal notes or context that will help the client understand their financial picture.

If you've already built Guide templates in your settings, you can apply a template to save time and then customize from there.

Step 9 (Optional): Invite the Client to the Portal

Once the Guide is ready to share, you can invite the client to the Client Portal. To do this, go to the client's Household tab. There are two ways to get there:

Click Profile in the left sidebar, then click Household in the header tabs.
Click the household name at the bottom-left of the sidebar. This takes you straight there.

Find the adult you want to invite and click the Invite button on their card. You'll see two options:

Guided Onboarding — The client walks through a step-by-step setup where they can upload documents, link their financial accounts, and add household members, assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and insurance. If you want them to upload documents as part of this process, you'll also choose a document handling mode:
- Upload Only — Files are stored in the Documents tab for you to review and extract from later.
- AI Extract — The Extractor runs automatically on whatever the client uploads, pulling data into their profile.
Straight to Overview — The client skips onboarding and goes directly to the portal. Use this if you've already built out their data and just want them to see their Guide.

After choosing, click Copy Invite Link. Share that link with your client however you'd like (email, text, etc.). Kerdora doesn't send an email automatically.

From the portal, clients can:

View the Guide pages you've enabled for them
See tasks and Changes to Be Made assigned to them
Update their account balances and cash flow information
Upload documents
Link their accounts through Account Aggregation

You control what the client sees — they only see the Guide pages you've turned on and the changes you've marked as client-facing.

You don't have to invite the client right away. Some advisors prefer to walk through the Guide in a meeting first, then send portal access afterward.

Need the Onboarding Link Later?

You can grab the invite link anytime from an existing client's file. Go to the Household tab (either through Profile → Household or by clicking the household name at the bottom-left of the sidebar), find the adult, and click Invite. Choose your onboarding mode, copy the link, and send it. If you already generated a link before, you can copy it again from the same spot.

Quick Reference Checklist

Add the client from the Clients page
Upload documents to the Documents tab
Add text context for anything not in the documents
Let the Extractor process everything
Review and clean up data in the Profile tab (Accounts, Cashflow, Insurance, Household)
Work through relevant Planning modules (Goals, Investments, Insurance, Taxes, Estate)
Add Changes to Be Made as you identify action items
Build and customize the Guide on the Overview page
Invite the client to the portal when ready