Kerdora has a dedicated onboarding wizard that walks you through setting up a new client step by step. Instead of jumping between tabs and entering data piecemeal, the onboarding flow guides you through everything in order — from uploading documents to inviting the client to the portal.
To start the onboarding flow, create a new client from the Clients page by clicking Add new client, entering a household name, and clicking Create. You'll land directly in the onboarding wizard.
The Steps
The onboarding flow has 9 steps total. As an advisor, you see 8 of them — the Link Accounts step is client-only and doesn't appear in your view of the wizard. You don't have to complete every step — you can skip ahead or come back later — but working through them in order gives you the most complete client file.
Step 1: Upload Documents
This is where the Extractor comes in. Upload any documents you already have for the client — PDFs, spreadsheets, screenshots, Word docs, or even pasted text from a client call. The Extractor reads through them and pre-populates the client's data across the remaining steps.
If you don't have documents to upload, you can skip this step and enter everything manually in the steps that follow.
Uploading documents first saves you the most time. The Extractor can pull out household members, accounts, income, insurance details, and more — so the remaining steps will already have data filled in for you to review.
Clients going through guided onboarding see a Link Accounts step here, between Upload and Household. It lets them connect their bank and investment accounts through Account Aggregation. You won't see this step in the wizard — account linking is managed through the client portal.
Step 2: Household
Add the people and entities tied to this client. This includes:
Adults — the client and their spouse or partner
Children — dependents
Businesses — any business entities
Trusts — any trust structures
The household is important because other parts of Kerdora — like Goals, Insurance calculators, and the tax scenario builder — pull from these entries.
Step 3: Assets
Enter the client's assets. This includes investment accounts, retirement accounts, real estate, savings accounts, and any other assets. For each asset, you can add details like the current balance, account type, and owner.
Step 4: Liabilities
Enter the client's debts and loans — mortgages, student loans, car loans, credit cards, and anything else. You'll capture the balance, interest rate, and payment details.
Step 5: Income
Set up the client's income sources. This covers salary, self-employment income, Social Security, rental income, pensions, and any other recurring income. Each income source is tied to a household member.
Step 6: Expenses
Enter the client's spending. You can capture their total annual expenses or break it down into categories. This data feeds directly into the Goals calculators — particularly the Retirement and Liquidity goals.
Step 7: Insurance
Add the client's insurance coverage. This includes life insurance, disability insurance, homeowners/renters insurance, liability coverage, long-term care, health, and auto. The data you enter here flows into the Insurance planning module and its calculators.
Step 8: Portal Invite
The final step lets you generate a signup link for household members so they can access the Client Portal. This step is advisor-only — clients never see it during their own onboarding.
You don't have to send the invite right away. You can come back to this later from the client's Profile → Household tab.
Guided Onboarding: Upload Only vs. Upload & Extract
When you generate a client invite link, you can choose between two modes:
Upload Only — The client can upload documents during their onboarding, but no AI extraction happens. Their files are stored in the Documents tab for you to review and extract from later.
Upload & Extract — The client uploads documents and the Extractor runs automatically, pulling data from their files into the client profile. This gives you a head start on the client's data before you even open their file.
The mode you choose affects what happens when the client uploads documents through the portal, not what you see on your end. You can change the mode from the client's Profile → Household tab where the invite link is managed.
Document extraction is included in your Kerdora subscription at no additional cost.
After the Onboarding Flow
Once you've completed the wizard, all of the data you entered lives in the client's Profile tab. You can edit anything at any time by going to the relevant sub-tab (Accounts, Cashflow, Insurance, or Household).
The data also flows into the Planning modules — Goals, Investments, Insurance calculators, Taxes, and Estate Planning — so you can start analyzing the client's financial picture right away.
The onboarding flow is the recommended way to set up every new client. It ensures you capture all the key data in one pass, especially when combined with the Extractor in Step 1.