Client Onboarding Kit Generator: Create a Welcome Packet for a New Client (Free, No Sign-Up)

Starting work with a new client goes smoother when expectations are written down from day one — what's included, how you'll communicate, when milestones land, and what you need from them before you can start. TidyPapers' Client Onboarding Kit Generator at https://tidypapers.com/onboarding-kit/ builds both a client-facing welcome document and your own internal checklist from one form. This guide walks through every section.

What this tool produces

One PDF containing two documents:

1. Internal Checklist — for you, covering everything to confirm before and during kickoff.
2. Client-Facing Welcome Brief — for the client, setting expectations on "communication, milestones, payment, and what they need to send you."

Nothing you type leaves your browser — the page states "nothing ever leaves your browser" — and your branding and default terms are saved to local browser storage automatically, so the next client's kit takes less time to fill in.

Step 1 — Fill in the Parties section

1. Business name — your business or freelance name, shown on the welcome brief.
2. Logo (optional) — upload a logo image if you want it on the document.

Step 2 — Fill in the Project section

1. Scope summary — a plain-language description of what's included in the project. Write this the way you'd want the client to read it, not as internal notes.
2. Key milestones — add checkpoints one at a time using the add-milestone control. The generator lets you add as many as you need; the page suggests typically 3–6 checkpoints for most projects.

Step 3 — Fill in the Communication section

1. Communication channel — where messages should go (e.g. email, a specific chat tool, a project-management app).
2. Response-time expectations — how quickly the client can expect to hear back from you (and, implicitly, how quickly you expect to hear back from them).

Step 4 — Fill in the Payment Terms section

1. Deposit percentage — what percentage upfront you require, if any.
2. Payment schedule — how and when the remaining payments are due.
3. Late-fee policy — a toggle to include or exclude a mention of late fees in the document. Turn this on if you want the welcome brief to reference your late-payment terms (you can look up the actual numbers using the separate Late Payment Interest Calculator); turn it off if you'd rather not mention it upfront.

Step 5 — Fill in "What You Need from the Client"

List anything the client needs to provide before or during the project — assets, account access, approvals, or other items that would block your work if missing.

Step 6 — Generate and download the PDF

1. Once every section is filled in, generate the document.
2. Download the resulting PDF, which contains both the Internal Checklist and the Client-Facing Welcome Brief.

What gets saved for next time

Your branding (business name, logo) and default terms are saved automatically to your browser's local storage, so when you start the next client's kit, those fields are already filled in — you only need to change what's specific to the new client (scope, milestones, communication details, and anything client-specific in the payment terms).

How this connects to your other TidyPapers documents

The onboarding kit's business name and logo are shared with the other tools that carry the business profile (the Invoice Generator, Change Order Generator, and more) — fill them in once anywhere and they're already there here. Beyond that, it's a standalone document: it doesn't pull the rest of its content from, or push it into, the invoice generator, the late-fee calculator, or any other tool. If you mention a deposit percentage or late-fee policy here, you'll still need to enter those figures separately when you actually generate the invoice or run the late-fee calculation.

Frequently asked practical questions