MSP Client Onboarding SOP
Onboarding is the most important 30 days of any MSP–client relationship. Get it right and you've earned five years of MRR with a happy reference. Get it wrong and you spend the next 24 months apologizing for things you didn't do in week one.
Most MSPs onboard ad-hoc. The owner runs the kickoff, a tech handles discovery, someone forgets MFA on the M365 admin account, the welcome packet never goes out, and on day 22 the client emails: "what's happening over there?" That email is the beginning of the end. The relationship never recovers from feeling neglected in week three.
This 32-page SOP fixes it. It's the exact 30-day flow I use to onboard a new client without dropping balls — written from inside an MSP, refined across hundreds of onboardings, and yours to duplicate into your own Notion workspace today.
What's in it
- 7-phase flow from contract signature to 30-day handoff
- Welcome email template - the one I actually send within 4 business hours of signature
- 60-minute kickoff meeting agenda, fully scripted with timings
- 80-field discovery questionnaire covering network, identity, backup, security, apps, vendors, and documentation gaps
- Tooling deployment order with the gotchas I've hit - MFA rollout being the big one
- Friday status email template - the single habit that prevents "are they still alive?" emails on day 22
- 30-day review meeting agenda
- Stakeholder map template
- Asset inventory spreadsheet structure
- Final 17-item "is it actually done" checklist
Format Note
Format: Notion master with Word and Excel exports referenced throughout. Duplicate the master into your own workspace — modify aggressively for your stack.
Who's it for
Built for MSPs under 25 staff. If you're past that, you have ops people who already wrote this for you. If you're under that, you've probably been meaning to write this for a year.
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