You’ve just landed a new client — woohoo 🎉
Now comes the boring bit: the contracts, the invoices, the welcome emails, the endless back-and-forth about start dates. 🫠

If you’re still doing all that manually, you’re wasting valuable time you could be spending on the work that actually earns you money.

Smart freelancers — especially social media managers — are now automating their client onboarding using tools like Hubsy, the all-in-one business platform built specifically for freelance social media managers.

Hubsy brings everything together in one place — CRM, contracts, invoicing, email marketing, forms, scheduling, websites, and automations — so you can manage clients, deliver services, and grow your business in one tab.

What client onboarding actually means

Client onboarding is everything that happens between “yes, let’s work together” and actually doing the work.

For social media managers, onboarding a new client usually includes:

• Sending a welcome email or message
• Sharing your contract and collecting signatures
• Sending an invoice and setting up recurring payments
• Gathering brand assets, logins, and background info
• Scheduling a kickoff call
• Setting expectations and timelines

When you automate this, it all happens in the right order — without you lifting a finger.

Why freelancers should automate onboarding

Simply put, your time is your profit!

Automating client onboarding means:

• You save hours of admin every month
• You get paid faster and more reliably
• Clients have a smoother, more professional experience
• You can scale without burning out

For social media managers, it’s a total game-changer. Most clients don’t understand what you need from them to get started — automation makes that crystal clear and consistent every time.

How to automate client onboarding (step-by-step)

1. Automate your contract and invoice

Link your proposal, contract, and invoice together so that when a client agrees the proposal, they immediately get their first invoice to pay.

2. Send a welcome email automatically

Once payment is confirmed, use automations to send a personalised welcome email to guide your clients through their next steps and give them the links and resources they need.

3. Create one central form or questionnaire

Use a dedicated onboarding form to collect everything you need upfront—brand guidelines, social logins, tone-of-voice notes, and content preferences. Then save it all to your client's record so everything is in one place.

Once a client fills it in, you can use automations to keep them in the loop on your progress.

4. Book your kickoff call automatically

Give your clients a link to your calendar (or better yet, integrate it into your workflow) so clients can choose a time that suits them for their first kick-off call— no email ping-pong needed.

5. Trigger client setup tasks

Automatically add the new client to your CRM, your project list, or your content scheduler so you can hit the ground running.

What automation looks like inside Hubsy

You can automate the entire process in one place with Hubsy — the all-in-one business platform for freelancers and social media managers.

Here’s how a typical workflow looks inside Hubsy:

1. Client signs a proposal → Hubsy automatically sends their contract and invoice.
2. Payment received → Hubsy sends your welcome email with their onboarding form and calendar link.
3. Form submitted → Client's contact record is updated with their onboarding details. They are moved to the active section of your visual pipeline.
4. Kick-off call booked → Details added to both calendars and reminders sent out. (And, yes, you can personalise them so they sound like you wrote them yourself!)

No third-party integrations, no Zapier nightmares — everything happens in one dashboard.

It’s not just faster; it’s better for the client experience. They get instant communication, clear expectations, and a super smooth start.

Automation ideas for social media managers

Here are a few extra onboarding automations that work beautifully for SMMs:

• Auto-send a “How we work” guide once a client pays
• Tag clients by package type (retainer, strategy session, or project) so they get the right automations
• Send reminders if a client hasn’t completed their onboarding form
• Trigger your scheduler setup checklist once logins are received
• Start a nurture sequence for upsells like audits, ads management, or consulting

With Hubsy, you can build these in minutes — and once they’re set up, they run every single time you sign a new client.

How do freelancers automate client onboarding?

Freelancers and social media managers usually automate onboarding by connecting tools like CRMs, forms, email marketing, and payment systems. Platforms like Hubsy combine all of these into one place, so contracts, invoices, and welcome emails are sent automatically after a client signs up.

Think this sounds complicated? It doesn't have to be! Hubsy includes pre-built workflows that do all of this for you, and with free access to Hubsy University, you'll get the full playbook for creating a client pipeline to win and onboard new clients!

Final thoughts

Automation doesn’t make you less personal — it makes you more professional.

By automating your client onboarding, you free up time, reduce mistakes, and make a brilliant first impression.

If you’re ready to stop drowning in admin and start working smarter, Hubsy gives social media managers everything they need to automate client onboarding and manage their business in one place.