Onboarding & Setup

The new Onboarding & Setup experience is available in Settings → Labs. Turn on Onboarding & Setup overhaul, then open Onboarding & Setup. After provisioning, use Open Funding Machine to sign in through your CRM, then choose Onboarding & Setup. The page opens at /onboarding/setup. Turning the feature off hides setup and preserves your checklist progress.

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Find your next task

Funding Machine sets your CRM Location’s Contact Deduplication Preferences: Allow Duplicate Contact off, Find existing contacts based on Phone, and no second preference. A first installation sets this automatically, and our team applies the same settings to installed Locations. Other settings, including duplicate opportunities, stay as configured. If the initial setup can’t be verified, your team can review the failure and scheduled recovery in Admin → Locations. With Onboarding & Setup overhaul enabled, a banner below the main navigation follows you across Operator pages only when you have unfinished onboarding tasks and an Open onboarding opportunity linked to your Location in the operations account. Your Dashboard also shows a Get your Funding Machine ready card above the metrics, with your progress and links to each remaining task. Select Continue setup or a task to open its instructions. These reminders count the five tasks assigned to you, plus identity verification when enabled. Phone setup and tasks assigned to your team do not count. Identity verification stays outstanding while verification or review is pending; you can continue other tasks during that time. Both reminders disappear when your tasks and required identity verification are complete, or your onboarding opportunity is no longer Open. They return when an Open opportunity has unfinished tasks. Accounts without a matching Open opportunity do not see these reminders. If the opportunity cannot be verified, the reminders stay hidden until a successful check. Completing your tasks does not mean staff setup or approval to go Live is complete. Turning off the Labs feature hides both reminders without changing progress.

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Your four setup stages

See What remains in onboarding for the shared view of your actions, team work, and provider processing. Required setup completion remains separate from final staff approval to go Live. Use the four stage cards to move around your setup. Each shows its own required-step progress. Continue setup opens the earliest action available to you, including recommended phone setup. Selecting a stage opens its available action before team verification cards. Expand a task card to see its guidance and actions; completed tasks can be reopened. Card widths stay consistent as you switch stages. Your next action leads the page, alongside Your account details: Your Business Phone, branded application link, and website. The application link shows Branding pending until its branded domain is configured. Open phone setup takes you directly to the phone step. Missing details have a clear placeholder. When that action is a checklist step marked You, select Mark complete right in the top panel if you have already done it, or Continue setup to review its instructions. The same completion action remains at the bottom of the expanded step. Phone setup keeps its own controls; your team manages verification in the admin workspace. Completed steps can still be reopened from their task cards. The header shows the overall required-step count. All four stage cards remain visible in a two-column grid on phones. Gold buttons confirm or save your work; downloads and navigation use secondary buttons. The nine required outcomes stay separate from recommended phone setup. Account setup labels the phone task as recommended. Website readiness comes from the website saved in your CRM Location’s business settings, without a separate onboarding form or confirmation card. A successful refresh with a valid website completes its check; an empty or invalid website reopens it. The overall count includes technical checks handled by your team, plus identity verification when enabled.

1. Get connected: join our Slack support workspace with your onboarding email, open your private support channel, confirm training access, and update your CRM business details.
2. Prepare your account: choose a phone number while your team verifies email, DNS, calendar, and integration setup.
3. Put your application online: your team builds your new website in AI Studio, or helps you embed your application on your existing website. Both paths use your Location’s 1. MAIN Apply For Funding Form. It works on a default domain initially, then uses your branded domain after technical setup. Neither this form link nor your website URL needs team verification.
4. Work your first file: review client messages and team alerts, then walk through the report, funding plan, agreement, Processing Application, processing submission, and updates using a sample or a file you already worked.

Steps marked You can be confirmed and reopened by you. Steps marked Your team need staff verification. Website readiness updates automatically from CRM business settings. The application form link updates automatically when your branded domain is connected.

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Join your Slack support workspace

See Confirm your Slack support connection for connection freshness and recovery. The first step is Join your Slack support workspace. Join My Funding Machine Support using the email on your onboarding account. Use Join the Slack workspace or the invitation emailed by your team. You can use a free Slack account; you do not need to create your own workspace or upgrade your plan. You’ll share the Operator community with other members. Your client support channel is private and connects your approved account with the support team. Setup creates that channel, links its ID to your account, and adds you after your email matches a workspace member. If you joined with a different email, ask your team to review the match. The page suggests the Slack desktop download for Mac or Windows and always shows both. Open Slack app launches the installed app; your browser may ask permission. Open support channel opens your private channel in the My Funding Machine workspace once it is linked. Refresh setup after joining. Channel connected means your approved Slack account is active and in your private channel. A connection check stays valid for ten minutes. If confirmation is disabled with a refresh reminder, choose Refresh status before confirming. Confirm the step after opening it; this acknowledgment remains separate from the connection check, and you can reopen it. Awaiting connection means setup is waiting for you to join or for channel access to be confirmed. Unable to verify means the check failed; it does not mean you left. Disconnected means your approved account lost access or the channel was archived. Your team reviews removals before using Approve reconnect. The Join button gets the current invitation when you click it, so an updated link works even if you opened this page earlier. If the invitation is being updated, try again later or ask your team for help. Allow pop-ups for this page if your browser blocks the invitation tab. Continue other setup while your team checks the connection.

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Verify your identity

When enabled, complete identity verification in Get connected. The purchaser, agreement signer and person completing KYC must match. Your team confirms the payment and agreement evidence; a successful matching Stripe check then completes KYC automatically after CRM confirmation. Other setup remains available while verification is processing.

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Find your training

In Get connected → Open your training, use these three links:

• Funding training in Skool: on-demand training about the funding space.
• Live training calendar: upcoming live training sessions in Skool.
• CRM training in FM University: the CRM course inside your account. The onboarding link opens your own account’s FM University page.

Open all three destinations, then choose I can access my training. This confirms access, not course completion; continue learning throughout setup. If you cannot access a destination, ask your team in Slack. You can reopen the step later.

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Update your CRM business details

In Get connected → Update your CRM business details, select Open CRM business settings to open company settings for your own account. Review and update your business information, including your website and timezone, then save any changes in the CRM. Return to onboarding and select I updated my CRM business details. Opening the link alone does not complete this step; you can reopen it later.

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Phone and messaging

Your business phone numbers are read from your own CRM Location’s phone inventory when onboarding refreshes. Your Business Phone shows the returned numbers; Open phone setup opens the phone step. A phone lookup does not require your operations contact to be mapped. If your phone system has not been provisioned, the page directs you to CRM Phone Settings to finish setup and refresh. This does not buy a number or complete the phone step. Connection failures remain separate, and previously found numbers stay visible. An account administrator can purchase a US number directly in onboarding:

1. Enter a three-digit US area code for a local number (recommended), or choose toll-free.
2. Select Find available numbers, then choose a number and review its monthly USD rental.
3. Review the recurring charge, check the authorization box, and select Purchase number.
4. Wait for the ownership check. The step completes when your CRM reports the number as owned.

Quotes expire after five minutes. Searching does not reserve or purchase a number. Checkout rechecks availability and price before purchase; if the price increases, search again and review a fresh quote. Rental uses your account’s CRM phone billing arrangement. Usage, taxes, and messaging registration may cost extra. If you already have a number, it appears as connected. Use Open CRM Phone Settings to manage additional numbers. Accounts that need phone billing or identity verification setup should complete that in the CRM first. If a purchase times out or its result is unclear, select Check number status. The page blocks another purchase until the outcome is resolved. Do not buy a second number in the CRM while the first purchase is under review; contact your onboarding team if the status remains unresolved. The phone step completes when the CRM reports an owned number, or when an account administrator explicitly selects I won’t use CRM calling or texting. That choice records that you do not plan to use calling or texting in your Funding Machine CRM and shows Complete · Phone not needed. It does not cancel numbers, change billing, or change messaging approval. Select Reopen phone setup if your plans change; search again to review a fresh quote. A purchase with an unresolved outcome must be checked before you can choose this option. Select Continue other setup to move on without completing the phone step. This defers its recommendation for the current visit; reopening or reloading onboarding may recommend it again. Phone setup remains separate from the required checklist, so it does not block onboarding completion. Your onboarding team can also record or reopen the phone-not-needed preference in the admin app. Your outsourced technical team handles phone setup and manages messaging registration and approval. This is the same team that helps with your technical calls. Local business texting uses applicable A2P registration; toll-free texting requires separate verification. Owning a number does not mean texting is approved. Messaging readiness does not block completion of the required checklist.

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Connect your sending email

Your sending email will be set up during your technical call. Your team verifies the sending domain and DNS configuration before confirming the step. Advanced users: if you are comfortable managing your domain’s DNS, you can optionally follow the email setup guide before your call. Let your team know what you completed so they can verify it. Opening the guide does not complete the step.

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Connect your calendar

Your technical team will help connect your calendar during the technical call and verify the integrations needed for your account. To get a head start, open Connect your calendar and integrations → Open calendar connections. This opens calendar connections for your own CRM account. Follow the linked and conflict calendar setup guide, then let your technical team know what you completed. Your team still verifies this step; opening the links does not mark it complete.

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Your website and optional AI Studio prompts

Your website comes from your Location’s CRM business settings and appears under Your account details. There is no separate website URL form or Link your website card in onboarding. To add or correct it, use Open CRM business settings, save the website there, then return and select Refresh status. A successful refresh with a valid website completes the automatic website check. Clearing the website in business settings reopens that check after refresh. If the business profile cannot be read, the last confirmed website and check remain with a warning. Your Funding Machine team builds your new website in AI Studio, or helps embed your application on an existing website. The team records the delivery path in the admin workspace. Your application form link is read from your CRM account. You can continue other setup while the form or branded domain is being configured. For an optional head start, open the AI Studio prompts and setup guides in Your application. Copy a prompt, replace its bracketed placeholders, and paste it into Open AI Studio. The prompts cover a first draft, branding, services and FAQs, and the application journey. Use accurate business details and share your draft with your team for review. Embed and domain guides are available there too. AI Studio has a small usage cost. Most sites cost less than $1 to build; the total varies with usage and revisions. This is an estimate, not a price cap. Starting a draft is optional. Your website and direct application link do not require staff verification; the separate partner application page is verified by your team.

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Your calls

Your team coordinates kickoff, technical, and FM onboarding calls. Existing kickoff and FM bookings can appear before your first visit after staff links your operations contact. Technical calls are updated manually for now. Next call highlights the earliest active, verified CRM booking and appears before your tasks on phones. Its day tag shows Today, Tomorrow, a weekday within the next week, or a date for later calls, using your displayed timezone. The full appointment date and time remain underneath. Other calls keep their individual status in compact rows below. Calendar and Slack checks retain their own timestamps and warnings; refreshing one source does not imply that every source is current. Calls, phone setup, and texting approval remain outside your required readiness count. Tracked separately keeps texting approval and business phone status together. Green tags indicate confirmed outcomes; yellow tags indicate waiting or review states. Unknown status remains explicit. These tags do not complete required steps. Appointment dates and Today/Tomorrow labels use the timezone in your Location’s CRM business settings, not the timezone of your device. If a valid Location timezone is unavailable, times explicitly use UTC until the setting can be read. After its scheduled end, a synced call shows Awaiting team confirmation until your team records attendance. Cancelled and missed calls do not count as completed. Your team can correct a call or explicitly mark it not needed. Your team manages attendance and status updates in the admin workspace. Schedule not yet verified means booking information is missing; it is not proof that no booking exists. Your team will arrange this call appears for a call known to be unbooked. If the CRM supplies conflicting or unrecognized call statuses, the call needs team review instead of being marked complete. A reported cancellation or no-show prevents completion even if another status still says confirmed. Refresh rechecks an assigned appointment even when it no longer appears in the contact’s booking list. A reschedule updates its dates; a missing appointment needs team review. If the CRM cannot be checked, the page labels the displayed dates as last known rather than treating the check as successful. Use Refresh status after a booking changes. While the page is visible, it also checks every five minutes and when you return to the window. A failed check preserves the last known information and displays a warning. For an upcoming kickoff or FM call, open Manage, choose Reschedule, pick a date, and select an available time. Review the current and new times, then select Confirm new time. Your host and call length stay the same. Rescheduling defaults to your Location’s business timezone and shows the timezone used; availability is checked again when you confirm. If no time works, contact your team. To cancel, open Manage, choose Cancel appointment, check the date, then select Confirm cancellation. Your team can help arrange another call. Changes are saved to the CRM and may send its configured appointment notifications. Technical, recurring, past, and manually managed calls need your team’s help. Attendance confirmed by your team means staff recorded that you attended. Time passing alone does not complete the call. A missed call is labeled Missed. If a save cannot be confirmed, use Check appointment change before trying again; it checks the existing request without submitting another change.

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Review notifications intentionally

Open both Review client messages and Review team alerts. Check delivery channels, policies, and recipients, and save any changes in those settings. Then select I reviewed my notifications on the checklist. Opening a settings page alone does not complete the step. Keeping your existing settings, including disabled messages, is a valid review. The notification review does not turn on another Labs feature or send messages.

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For the onboarding team

Use Admin → Onboarding as the primary workspace for required checks, shared blockers, identity review, attendance, provider updates, and account configuration. The Operator onboarding page is for the customer’s own actions and progress. See the staff onboarding guide for staff controls and recovery instructions.

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Application link updates

The workspace reads your business website and funding form from your CRM Location when it opens, using a ten-minute cache. Refresh status checks again immediately. A failed read retains the last confirmed link and shows a warning. A business-profile read is independent of form discovery: a form lookup failure does not prevent the website from updating. A new domain updates the form link without requiring staff verification. Links previously copied into messages do not change. The funding intake form is separate from the FM Processing Application used later in processing.