Guided Onboarding helps clients confirm household facts, upload documents, describe Goals, and enter or link financial accounts. Saved records belong to the same household the advisor uses. Completing the form doesn't complete the advisor's Plan Setup or certify that every fact is correct.
An advisor selects Guided Onboarding in an adult's personal invitation. See “Inviting a Client to the Portal” for that invitation procedure. Every household gets the same built-in sections; advisors can’t rename, reorder, hide, or require sections.
What does a client fill out in Guided Onboarding?
The Guided Onboarding form starts with Start, then takes clients through About you, Documents, Goals, Income, Link accounts, Assets, Debts, Spending, Insurance, and Review.
Existing household information can appear already filled in. Clients should confirm or correct it instead of adding another copy of the same person, account, income, or policy. Savings contributions belong with applicable account records; there isn't a separate Savings step in this flow.
Documents and Link accounts are optional ways to supply information. Clients can continue with manual answers when they don't have files or can't connect an institution. Some financial sections break into categories, so finishing one category isn't the same as reviewing the whole section.
Use Continue to advance and Back to return. Empty optional sections can show Skip for now; Goals and Spending keep Continue. Review shows Finish onboarding, while edits opened from Review show Back to review.
On wide screens, select a section in the left sidebar. On narrow screens, including tablets and narrow windows, View sections opens Your sections. Choosing a section doesn’t confirm its records are accurate.
What's the difference between Upload Only and AI Extract during onboarding?
In Guided Onboarding, an adult’s invitation mode controls extraction for every upload route. Use Documents, Upload documents in About you or Goals, Upload a pay stub in Income, Upload a statement in Assets or Debts, or Upload a policy in Insurance.
With Upload Only, files are stored for advisor review. With AI Extract, the upload starts an intake review that can propose supported starting facts. Neither mode automatically makes every document value an approved plan input.
Open Documents in the form.
Select Choose files, attach the household's documents, and add an optional message identifying owners, dates, or missing details.
Select Upload.
In AI Extract mode, open Review details when proposed information is ready. View details opens the existing review when it isn't awaiting a decision.
The uploader accepts up to 20 files at once, each 50 MB or smaller. Use PDF, PNG, JPEG, Excel .xlsx or .xlsm, CSV, plain text, or Markdown. Convert Word files before upload.
AI extraction uses the advisor’s AI allowance. If it’s exhausted, files still upload, but extraction can’t start.
This form initially shows “We couldn’t finish processing them” rather than an AI-limit explanation. The upload flow doesn’t quote a fixed per-document price.
Can clients approve extracted information themselves?
In Guided Onboarding's document review, clients can choose Use these details for a permitted intake proposal or Leave out to reject it.
Permitted proposals can contain supported household, account, income, debt, insurance, and Goal facts. A proposal outside that permitted scope requires advisor review. This limited review doesn't give a client the advisor's general Dora workspace or authority to approve advisor recommendations.
Before accepting, clients should compare owners, amounts, frequencies, and dates with their documents and existing records. If a proposal contains a material error or duplicate, choose Leave out first.
Then enter a correction in Add details or answer a question and select Send details. The reply area isn't available while a proposal is pending.
Decisions apply to the displayed proposal as a whole. The advisor should still verify saved facts before using them in planning, including details accepted by the client.
Does “Autosaved” mean every answer is already in the plan?
In Guided Onboarding, Autosaved can describe saved form drafts and progress; it doesn't prove that an unfinished record or unapproved proposal has become a planning record.
Complete the action in a record's add or edit dialog and check that the saved item appears with the intended values. Use Continue after completing a section. For example, the Spending step saves draft answers while clients type, then applies the spending inputs when they continue.
Progress also distinguishes information that was added from sections a client reviewed. Prefilled records can exist without the client checking them. When nothing applies, use the section's empty-answer confirmation instead of assuming an untouched section means “none.”
If the form shows “Save pending — retry to continue” or says it couldn't save, retry before leaving. Closing a browser isn't confirmation that the latest draft reached Kerdora. Report persistent errors with the household, section, exact message, and approximate time.
Can a client return to onboarding after exiting?
A client with unfinished Guided Onboarding can choose Finish later, then use Finish onboarding in portal navigation to return.
Complete any open record's save action and check for a save error.
Select Finish later to leave the form.
When ready, sign in with the same client login and select Finish onboarding.
Revisit the relevant section and verify the saved answers before continuing.
On the completion screen, Review my answers returns to the form and Go to my plan opens the plan experience. After completion, the temporary Finish onboarding navigation item disappears. Clients can still make supported ongoing changes through portal Accounts, Cash flow, Insurance, and Household, and upload files in Documents.
An advisor's Preview form isn't a separate client simulation: it opens live household data. “Inviting a Client to the Portal” explains how to rehearse safely.
Can clients add, reorder, or delete Goals during onboarding?
In Guided Onboarding's Goals step, clients can add Goals, change their priority order, and delete eligible Goals. The Emergency fund can't be deleted through this form.
Select Add goal to create a Goal and complete its form.
Select an existing Goal to review or edit its details.
Drag Goals into priority order when more than one is present.
For an eligible Goal that should be removed, open it, select Delete goal, and confirm Delete.
These changes affect the household's saved Goals. An advisor should review the client's priorities, timing, and amounts before choosing funding assignments and planning assumptions.
Adding a Goal doesn't establish that it is funded or that a contribution recommendation is appropriate. Which assumptions fit depends on the advisor's planning approach for this household.
What if an onboarding upload is saved but processing didn't finish?
Guided Onboarding's Documents step can keep uploaded files even when a later processing step fails. Use Continue processing when it appears beside an uploaded document.
Check Uploaded documents for the files that already arrived.
Read the error before uploading the same files again.
Select Continue processing to retry the saved batch's remaining work.
Open Review details or View details when a review is available.
A successful retry doesn't approve extracted facts. Clients still need to resolve supported proposals, and advisors still need to review important saved information.
If a file won't upload, check its size, supported format, and PDF password first. If processing repeatedly fails, the advisor should check whether their AI allowance is exhausted.
Retrying won’t restore that allowance. Clients can continue with manual answers; files remain saved in Documents.
Once AI access is available, the advisor can open a saved file in Documents and select Extract data, or Document actions → Extract on a phone. If the allowance isn’t the cause, contact Support with the household, filename, time, and exact message.
How can clients upload more documents after onboarding?
A client who already has a login can use Documents → Upload in the portal without receiving another signup invitation.
Sign in to the existing client account and open Documents.
Select Upload, then Choose files.
Add supported documents and select Upload to store them for the advisor.
The regular client Documents uploader doesn't offer the advisor's Upload & extract action. An advisor can later open a stored file and select Extract data when extraction is useful.
Clients don't need a new household or the practice's public Invite Link to provide another statement. A dedicated document-upload-only email link isn't part of this workflow. For requests to store copies elsewhere, use your firm's document-handling process; this upload procedure doesn't automatically send files to Google Drive or Dropbox.
What should happen when the client finishes the form?
In Guided Onboarding's Review step, clients check their starting information, open items needing correction, and select Finish onboarding.
The completion screen offers Go to my plan and Review my answers. Completion records the client's progress and changes their starting destination; it doesn't finish the advisor's separate Plan Setup, approve pending extraction, or resolve account decisions deferred to the advisor.
The advisor should check household members and ownership, income and spending frequencies, account balances and duplicates, Goal priorities, and current insurance details. Compare uploaded documents with saved facts, then review any pending account connections and proposals.
Continue advisor planning only after resolving material uncertainty. If a client cannot advance, check the current category, open record dialog, and save message. Send persistent failures to Support instead of creating a replacement household or another client login.