Client details
- Client name
- Service tier purchased
- Contract start date
MSP Client Onboarding Checklist
MSP onboarding determines the margin on an account for its entire life. Estates documented properly in the first thirty days generate predictable ticket volumes; estates taken on blind generate surprises that get absorbed into a fixed fee.
What you get
- A phased checklist from contract signature through to steady state
- A discovery phase that surfaces the surprises before they become your problem
- Tooling deployment with coverage verification, beyond installation
- A handover gate before the account moves to business-as-usual support
How to use this template
- 1
Document before you take responsibility. Discovery is where margin is won or lost. An undocumented legacy server, an unsupported line-of-business app, or an unpatched estate discovered in month three becomes unbilled work under a fixed fee.
- 2
Verify tooling coverage, do not assume it. Reconcile agent counts against the asset list. Devices without an agent are invisible, and the first you hear of them is a ticket about a machine you did not know existed.
- 3
Gate the handover to support. Define what must be true before the service desk takes the account: documentation complete, agents deployed, escalation paths agreed. Accounts handed over early generate escalations the team cannot resolve.
What's inside
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Frequently asked questions
How long should MSP client onboarding take?
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Typically four to six weeks for a mid-sized client: two weeks of discovery, two of tooling deployment and remediation, and the remainder on service enablement and handover. Rushing discovery is what causes unbilled work later.
What is most commonly missed in MSP onboarding?
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Verifying tooling coverage against the asset list, and establishing the real backup position by testing a restore rather than trusting the console. Both failures surface months later as incidents the client expects you to own.
Should discovery findings be shared with the client?
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Yes, in writing, especially unsupported systems, patch backlogs, and backup gaps. It sets expectations, protects your margin by making remediation a separate conversation, and is the basis of the first quarterly review.