Guided Onboarding is the client-facing intake flow for building or confirming a household's starting data. In the current Kerdora dev platform, an advisor chooses Guided Onboarding when copying an adult client's invite link; the client then works through a built-in ten-section form that saves progress as they go.
The form writes into the same Profile records the advisor uses in Kerdora. Completion means the client's answers were saved. It does not mean the plan, assumptions, or recommendations are complete.
How does an advisor send the Guided Onboarding form?
The advisor starts Guided Onboarding from the adult household member's portal invitation.
Open the client file and go to Profile → Household.
Find the adult who needs portal access and select Invite.
Under “How should this client get started?”, choose Guided Onboarding.
Choose how documents should be handled:
Upload Only saves client uploads for advisor review without running AI extraction.
AI Extract lets the document intake workflow extract proposed data for advisor review.
Select Copy Invite Link and send the unique link to the correct adult through the firm's approved communication channel.
Use Straight to Guides when intake is already complete and the client should skip Guided Onboarding. The selected starting mode is saved for the household invitation when the invite link is copied.
Verify the adult's email and household before sending the link. Each invited adult should use an individual account; advisors should not share one person's link or login with another person.
What does the Guided Onboarding form ask a client?
The current Guided Onboarding form contains ten built-in sections:
Welcome explains the guided and document-first starting paths.
Household records or confirms the people included in the household.
Goals captures what the household wants the plan to support.
Income records income sources, owners, amounts, and frequency.
Assets records applicable bank, investment, property, annuity, business, and other assets.
Debts records liabilities and payment details.
Savings records current contributions and connects them to the applicable account and income source when needed.
Spending records typical monthly household spending and whether that amount already includes debt payments.
Insurance records current policies and coverage.
Review summarizes the entered data and lets the client return to a section before finishing.
Welcome and Review are always part of the flow. The August 12 dev build uses this built-in form for every household; it does not currently expose an advisor editor for renaming, reordering, enabling, disabling, or marking these sections required.
Can a client skip a section or come back later?
Guided Onboarding saves the client's progress as they move through the form. The client can select Save & exit, return through the portal later, revisit completed sections, and use Skip for now where the current section is optional.
For Goals, Income, Assets, Debts, Savings, and Insurance, Kerdora may ask the client to confirm that there is nothing to add. This records an intentional empty answer instead of leaving the section untouched.
Some areas use smaller internal steps. The client should finish or intentionally clear the current category before advancing. In the current built-in form, the content sections are optional; the client can add the applicable information or confirm that there is nothing to add.
Should the client choose Guide me through it or Start with documents?
The client sees two choices on the Guided Onboarding Welcome screen:
Guide me through it starts the ten-section form.
Start with documents opens a separate upload path for statements or policies, after which the client can continue the form and fill gaps.
Uploading a document does not, by itself, complete the applicable onboarding sections. Upload Only stores the file for later review. AI Extract may produce proposed records, but the advisor still reviews the source file and the extraction proposal before relying on or applying the data.
Clients should never upload bank passwords, multifactor codes, or other credentials. When a document does not contain enough information, the advisor should ask for the missing fact instead of treating the extraction as complete.
Is account linking part of Guided Onboarding?
Account linking is not one of the ten Guided Onboarding form sections. A client links financial institutions from the portal's Accounts experience when account aggregation is enabled for the household.
Use Guided Onboarding for the household's starting profile and use account linking for recurring connected balances, holdings, and transaction data. The advisor should review newly linked accounts and resolve duplicates or ownership issues before using them in Planning.
What should the advisor review after onboarding is finished?
Guided Onboarding ends with a client confirmation that the entered answers were saved. The advisor should then validate the household before moving into Planning:
Confirm each household member and entity.
Review each Goal's purpose, amount, owner, and timing.
Check income, savings, spending, and debt-payment frequency.
Verify asset and debt ownership, subtype, balance, and applicable rates.
Compare insurance details with the source policy.
Review uploaded Documents and any pending extraction proposals.
Resolve duplicate, missing, or inconsistent records in Plan Cleanup.
Continue the advisor-only Plan Setup and prepare the client Guide.
The advisor knows the handoff is complete when the client can reopen the saved profile, the advisor can see the same records in the client file, and material source documents and proposals have been reviewed.
Information the advisor entered before the invitation can already appear in the client's Profile. The client should confirm or correct those saved records instead of adding a second version of the same person, account, income source, debt, or policy.
What does Guided Onboarding not do?
Guided Onboarding does not approve extracted data, link financial institutions, complete advisor-only planning assumptions, produce recommendations, or make a Guide client-ready. It also does not certify that every answer is accurate.
If the client cannot advance, the advisor should identify the visible section and field, confirm whether the client is inside an unfinished internal step, and ask the client to save and reopen the flow. If the problem repeats, contact Kerdora Support with the household, adult user, section name, visible message, and approximate time. Do not include passwords, multifactor codes, or full account numbers.