FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Client / Customer Onboarding
[YourCompany.com] · Operations Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is your team's operating guide for the automated client onboarding process. It explains what the automation handles, what your team still owns, how to respond when something goes wrong, and who to contact for each type of issue. FullSpec has built and configured everything on the automation side. Your team's role is to complete the two remaining human steps, monitor exception alerts, and keep this document updated as your process evolves.
01Process overview
When a deal is moved to Closed Won in HubSpot, this process fires automatically and carries the new client from contract sign through to a fully updated CRM record, a sent welcome email, a completed intake form, a raised Xero invoice, and an internal Slack alert to the delivery team. Two steps remain with your team: provisioning the client account in your service platform, and scheduling the kickoff call. Every other step runs without manual input. At approximately 20 new clients per month, the automation runs this sequence around 220 times each month, saving your team roughly 5 hours per week compared to the previous manual approach.
Process name
Client / Customer Onboarding
Trigger
A HubSpot deal stage changes to Closed Won
Final output
Updated HubSpot record, sent welcome email, completed intake form, Xero invoice created, Slack alert posted to onboarding channel, deal stage updated to Onboarded
Agents running
Onboarding Coordinator Agent; Internal Handoff Agent
Tools involved
HubSpot, DocuSign, Gmail, Typeform, Xero, Slack
Weekly volume
Approx. 5 new clients per week (~20/month)
Human checkpoint
Step 6: Provision client account in service platform; Step 9: Schedule kickoff call
Process owner
[Your name] — Operations Lead
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02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: There are two human steps in this process. Step 6 requires your Operations Coordinator to provision the client account in your service platform and assign the correct access tier. Step 9 requires the Account Manager to send the kickoff call invitation once account setup is confirmed. Every other step is fully automated. You do not need to monitor the sequence for each new client unless an exception alert arrives in Slack or by email.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
The HubSpot deal stage changes to Closed Won. This event fires the automation immediately, without any manual action from your team. The trigger captures the deal record, contact details, service tier, and assigned account manager.
Automation
Automated
2
The Onboarding Coordinator Agent pulls the client's name, service tier, and account manager from the HubSpot record and sends a personalised welcome email via Gmail within two minutes of the trigger firing. No template editing is required.
Onboarding Coordinator Agent
Automated
3
A unique Typeform intake form link is sent automatically to the client's primary contact email address. The submission is tracked. If no response is received within 48 hours, the system sends a reminder email via Gmail without any staff involvement.
Onboarding Coordinator Agent
Automated
4
If the client has not submitted the intake form within 48 hours of receiving it, the automation sends a single follow-up reminder email via Gmail. If the form remains unanswered beyond a second threshold, an exception alert is raised for your team to review.
Onboarding Coordinator Agent
Automated
5
Once the intake form is submitted, the Onboarding Coordinator Agent maps each response to the correct HubSpot contact and company fields. No manual re-entry is needed. The CRM record is updated in real time.
Onboarding Coordinator Agent
Automated
6
Your Operations Coordinator provisions the client's account in the relevant service platform, assigns access permissions based on the purchased service tier, and confirms the setup is complete. This step requires human judgement and varies by client tier.
Operations Coordinator
Human
7
The Onboarding Coordinator Agent creates a draft invoice in Xero using the deal value, billing contact email, and payment terms from the HubSpot record. The invoice is sent to the client automatically once created.
Onboarding Coordinator Agent
Automated
8
The Internal Handoff Agent posts a structured message to the designated Slack onboarding channel. The message includes the client name, service tier, assigned account manager, and a kickoff scheduling link so the delivery team has immediate context.
Internal Handoff Agent
Automated
9
The Account Manager sends a kickoff call invitation to the client via email, including a calendar or Calendly link. This step is performed once account provisioning in Step 6 is confirmed complete.
Account Manager
Human
10
Once all automated steps have completed successfully, the automation updates the HubSpot deal stage to Onboarded and logs a timestamped note to the record confirming that the full onboarding sequence ran without errors.
Onboarding Coordinator Agent
Automated
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03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
Intake form not submitted after reminder
The automation sends one reminder email at the 48-hour mark. If no submission is received within a further 48 hours, the sequence pauses at the intake step and sends an exception alert to the designated Slack channel and to the process owner by email.
The Account Manager contacts the client directly by phone or email to confirm they received the form and to resolve any access issue. Once the client submits, the automation resumes from where it paused. If the client is unresponsive for more than 5 business days, escalate to your team lead and log the delay in the HubSpot record.
Duplicate HubSpot record detected
Before mapping intake data, the Onboarding Coordinator Agent checks for an existing contact record with the same email address. If a duplicate is found, the automation pauses the mapping step and flags the record in HubSpot with a tag of 'Duplicate Check Required', then sends an alert to the process owner.
The Operations Coordinator reviews the two HubSpot records, merges them using HubSpot's native merge function, and removes the duplicate tag. Once the correct record is in place, manually re-trigger the intake data mapping step from the automation platform dashboard, or contact FullSpec support if you are unsure how to do this.
Xero billing contact or payment terms missing
If the intake form submission does not include a billing contact email or payment terms, the Xero invoice step will fail. The automation logs the error, skips the invoice creation step, and sends an alert to the Finance Admin contact and the process owner with the specific missing field identified.
The Finance Admin contacts the client to collect the missing billing details, then manually creates the invoice in Xero once confirmed. Update the intake form response in HubSpot with the correct details so the record is complete. If this happens frequently, review the intake form to make the billing fields required before submission.
Xero or Slack is temporarily unavailable
The automation platform retries failed steps up to three times with a 10-minute interval between attempts. If all three retries fail, the affected step is skipped and an exception alert is sent by email to the process owner listing the step that failed and the client record it relates to.
Check the status page of the affected tool (status.xero.com or status.slack.com) to confirm whether there is a known outage. If the outage is confirmed, wait for the tool to recover and then manually trigger the failed step. For Xero, create the invoice manually in the meantime and note it in HubSpot. For Slack, post the client alert manually to the onboarding channel.
HubSpot deal moved to Closed Won in error
The automation fires immediately on the Closed Won trigger. There is no pre-check that the deal is genuinely ready to onboard. If the deal stage was set incorrectly, the welcome email and intake form will have already been sent to the client before the error is noticed.
Move the HubSpot deal stage back to the correct earlier stage as soon as the error is spotted. Contact the client to apologise for the premature email and confirm the correct next step. If an invoice was already created in Xero, void it immediately. Log the incident in HubSpot with a note. Contact FullSpec support if you need to understand which automated steps were completed before the error was caught.
Operations Coordinator does not complete Step 6 within expected timeframe
The automation does not currently monitor Step 6 completion. The Slack alert posted in Step 8 serves as the primary prompt for the delivery team. If provisioning is not completed, the kickoff call in Step 9 will be delayed, but no automated escalation is triggered.
The process owner should monitor the Slack onboarding channel for any client where the kickoff has not been scheduled within 2 business days of the Slack alert being posted. Follow up with the Operations Coordinator directly. If provisioning is regularly being delayed, raise this with FullSpec to discuss adding an automated reminder or escalation step.
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04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows below once your team is confirmed. Add names and preferred contact methods for each internal role so anyone stepping in during leave or absence knows exactly who to reach. The FullSpec rows are fixed and do not need to be updated.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner (Operations Lead)
[Your name]
[Email / Slack handle]
Account Manager (Steps 2, 9, exceptions)
[Your name]
[Email / Slack handle]
Operations Coordinator (Step 6, duplicate checks)
[Your name]
[Email / Slack handle]
Finance Admin (Xero invoice exceptions)
[Your name]
[Email / Slack handle]
FullSpec builder (automation changes, re-triggers, field mapping updates)
FullSpec team
[Rep email]
FullSpec support (errors, outages, unexpected behaviour)
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
For any situation where an automated step has failed and you are unsure whether it completed, contact FullSpec support at support@gofullspec.com before attempting to manually re-run the step. Running a step twice can result in duplicate emails or duplicate Xero invoices being sent to the client.
05Ongoing maintenance
Any time the Typeform intake form fields are changed
Notify FullSpec before making changes to the intake form. Field names in Typeform are mapped directly to HubSpot properties. Renaming, removing, or reordering questions will break the CRM mapping step until the automation is updated to match. Changes must be agreed and tested before going live.
Process owner + FullSpec team
Any time a team member joins or leaves
Update the contact table in Section 04 of this document. If the departing person was an assigned account manager in HubSpot, update the deal ownership in HubSpot so the correct name appears in automated welcome emails. Notify FullSpec if the Slack notification routing needs to change.
Operations Lead
Any time email templates or invoice terms change
Contact FullSpec to update the welcome email content or Xero invoice defaults inside the automation. Do not update the Typeform or Gmail template directly without coordinating with FullSpec, as the automation pulls content from configured templates, not from manually edited drafts.
Process owner + FullSpec team
Monthly spot-check (first week of each month)
Review 3 to 5 onboarding records from the previous month in HubSpot. Confirm that the welcome email was sent, the intake form was submitted, the Xero invoice was created, and the deal stage updated to Onboarded. Flag any records where steps appear missing and raise with FullSpec support.
Operations Lead
Monthly error log review
Check the automation platform's error or execution log for any failed runs in the past 30 days. Look for recurring failures on the same step, which may indicate a tool credential has expired or a field mapping has drifted. Forward any unexplained errors to support@gofullspec.com.
Operations Lead
Quarterly volume review
If client volume increases significantly above 20 per month, review whether the current automation setup scales comfortably within your HubSpot, Typeform, and Xero plan limits. If volume drops significantly, assess whether any tool subscription tiers can be reduced. Share updated volume figures with FullSpec to confirm no platform rate limits are being approached.
Operations Lead + Finance Admin
The most common maintenance issue for this process is a change to the Typeform intake form made without updating the field mappings in the automation platform. Even a minor rename of a question label can cause the HubSpot mapping step to silently fail, meaning intake data is not written to the CRM and the Xero invoice may be created with missing billing details. Always check with FullSpec before editing the intake form after go-live.
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