Building an onboarding checklist that works
The best onboarding starts before day one and runs for a quarter, not a morning. Here's the structure every good checklist shares, why the 30-60-90 plan matters, and how to adapt it for employees, customers, and support hires.
The five phases of an onboarding checklist
Whether you're onboarding a new hire or a new customer, the arc is the same: prepare before they arrive, set them up, ramp them, hand over real ownership, then review. The generator above fills each phase with concrete items for the type you pick.
- 01Before day onePaperwork, accounts, equipment
- 02First daySetup, intros, first 1:1
- 03First weekTraining, shadowing, first task
- 04First monthA real project, mid-point check-in
- 05First 90 days30/60/90 reviews and goals
Onboarding checklist templates by type
The builder above shows one at a time. Here are the rest in full, so you can read the whole checklist before you pick one.
Remote employee onboarding checklist
Distributed onboarding for a fully remote or work-from-anywhere hire.
Before day one
Pre-boarding
- Ship equipment early with a setup guide and all chargers
- Mail a welcome kit or company swag
- Send a remote-work guide (tools, comms norms, working hours, time zones)
- Provision every account and SSO before day one
- Confirm the home-office stipend and expense process
- Collect new-hire paperwork digitally (e-sign)
- Schedule the first week of video calls
- Assign a remote onboarding buddy
First day
Virtual welcome
- Hold a video welcome with their manager
- Run a virtual team intro
- Walk through async comms norms (Slack, docs, meeting etiquette)
- Do IT setup over video — VPN, 2FA, password manager
- Add them to all relevant channels, calendars, and groups
- Confirm working hours and response-time expectations
- Book a first 1:1 with their manager
First week
Connection & ramp
- Schedule virtual coffee chats with teammates
- Run a document-first orientation (wiki, handbook, knowledge base)
- Hand off a first task with clear async feedback
- Set up recurring 1:1s and team standups
- Complete compliance and security training
- Introduce them to cross-functional partners
First month
Ownership
- Hand over a first real project
- Hold an async or video mid-point check-in
- Gather feedback on the remote onboarding experience
- Review meeting load and time-zone overlap
- Confirm 30/60/90 goals
First 90 days
Reviews & belonging
- Run 30/60/90 check-ins
- Check in on connection and engagement, not just output
- Send an onboarding feedback survey
- Set development goals for the next quarter
Customer onboarding checklist
SaaS customer onboarding from signed deal to first value.
Sales-to-CS handoff
Before kickoff
- Review the deal notes, goals, and use case from sales
- Confirm the primary contact and key stakeholders
- Send a welcome email with a kickoff-call invite
- Set up the customer's account and a shared onboarding plan
Kickoff
Align on success
- Run the kickoff call and introduce the team
- Confirm goals and the success metrics you'll measure
- Agree on a timeline and onboarding milestones
- Map out who needs access and which integrations matter
Setup & configuration
Technical onboarding
- Provision the account and invite users
- Import data and connect integrations
- Configure settings to match the customer's workflow
- Set up SSO and any security requirements
Training & adoption
Enablement
- Run an admin training session
- Share the help center, knowledge base, and self-serve docs
- Train the first group of end users
- Set up in-app guidance or onboarding resources
First value
Go-live
- Confirm the customer completes their first key workflow
- Mark the first value milestone as reached
- Confirm the account is fully live
Ongoing success
After go-live
- Hold a 30-day check-in and review the health score
- Schedule the first business review (QBR)
- Identify expansion or advocacy opportunities
- Hand off to the ongoing CSM cadence
Support team onboarding checklist
Onboarding a new customer-support or success hire onto your stack.
Before day one
Pre-boarding
- Provision shared inbox and help-desk access
- Set up accounts (inbox, knowledge base, live chat, phone, CRM)
- Assign a support buddy for their first weeks
- Gather the macros, saved replies, and SOPs they'll need
- Order equipment and a headset
First day
Tour the stack
- Walk through the support stack — shared inbox, help center, chat, CRM
- Review the tone and voice guidelines
- Tour the knowledge base and where answers live
- Read a handful of exemplary past tickets
- Set up a first 1:1 with the team lead
First week
Shadow & first tickets
- Shadow live tickets and chats
- Answer the first tickets with a teammate reviewing
- Learn macros, tags, and how routing works
- Review SLAs and the escalation path
- Study the top 20 FAQs and where each answer lives
First month
Own the queue
- Handle a full queue with spot checks
- Hold a first QA review and share feedback
- Contribute or improve a help center article
- Go deep on the product they'll support
- Review early CSAT and response times together
First 90 days
Independence
- Own a channel or queue independently
- Hit QA and CSAT targets
- Flag gaps in the knowledge base they hit while ramping
- Set development goals for the next quarter
New manager onboarding checklist
Onboarding someone stepping into a people-management role.
First week
Meet & understand
- Hold a first 1:1 with every direct report
- Understand the team's goals, metrics, and roadmap
- Review each report's role, strengths, and growth areas
- Align with your own manager on expectations
- Learn the budget, tools, and processes you now own
- Identify your key stakeholders and partners
First month
Establish rhythm
- Set your 1:1 and team-meeting cadence
- Set or confirm team goals and priorities
- Review in-flight projects and risks
- Learn the performance-review and hiring processes
- Build relationships with cross-functional peers
First 90 days
Lead
- Deliver a first visible team win
- Set a 90-day plan for the team
- Gather feedback from the team on your start
- Address any performance issues directly
- Define your management operating rhythm
The 30-60-90 day onboarding plan
The last two phases are the 30-60-90 day plan: learn in the first 30, contribute with support through 60, and own work independently by 90. It's the difference between an onboarding that stops once the laptop is set up and one that actually gets someone to full productivity. Set the milestones together in week one so there are no surprises at the 90-day review.
Customer onboarding checklist for SaaS
Customer onboarding follows the same arc — welcome, setup, training, first value, ongoing check-ins — and the fastest version is the one customers can do without waiting on you. A self-serve help center with an AI agent trained on your docs answers the setup and how-to questions instantly — so your kickoff calls focus on goals, not password resets. Pick the Customer onboarding checklist above to see that flow end to end.
