Onboarding checklist

This is your complete path from signed to live, stage by stage. For each stage you will see who leads it — you or SpiderLabs — roughly how long it takes, and the done-when signal that lets the next stage begin. Nothing touches a real customer call until the final go-live verification passes.

At a glance

SpiderLabs leads the technical setup; you provide your business’s ground truth and forward the calls you choose.
Most stages take minutes to a day — the whole launch is typically days, not months.
Every stage has a clear done-when signal, so you always know where you stand.
The last stage proves it works — a real test call, a visible transcript, and a captured callback — before any real traffic.

Think of this as the checklist your account team works from during your founder-led launch. It maps the same stages as Getting started, but with the detail you need to know exactly what is expected of you at each step and what marks it done.

The onboarding stages at a glance
Stage	Who leads	Typical time
1. Sign & day 0	You sign; SpiderLabs provisions	Same day
2. Your number & forwarding	SpiderLabs, plus your phone provider	Minutes to a day
3. Teach the assistant	You provide; SpiderLabs configures	About an hour of input
4. Invite your team	You	Minutes
5. Daily rhythm	You, ongoing	A few minutes a day
6. Beyond the phone	SpiderLabs; you add the widget	Minutes
7. Practice management	SpiderLabs + you, if applicable	Part of setup
8. Go-live proof	SpiderLabs, with you watching	Same session

Stage 1 — Sign and day 0

Day 0 begins the moment your agreement is signed and your first payment clears. This also puts your Business Associate Agreement on file, which is required before any patient information can flow. From there SpiderLabs provisions your account — your dedicated AI phone number, your receptionist, and your dashboard — while you gather the details for the next stage.

Who does it: you sign and pay; SpiderLabs provisions.
How long: signing is a single session, and provisioning starts the same day.
Done when: your agreement and BAA are on file and your dashboard sign-in works.

Stage 2 — Your number and call forwarding

You keep your existing number. SpiderLabs provisions a dedicated AI receptionist number, and your phone system forwards the calls you choose to it — overflow, after-hours, or full coverage. There is no port and no downtime, and the cutover is reversible in minutes. The full breakdown of forwarding modes is in Phone setup & forwarding.

Who does it: SpiderLabs provisions the AI number; you or your phone provider set the forwarding rule.
How long: the forwarding change itself is minutes, though scheduling it with your provider can take up to a day.
Done when: a call to your number reaches the AI receptionist under the coverage rule you chose.

Stage 3 — Teaching the assistant your business

The receptionist only sounds like your practice if it knows your practice. You provide the ground truth — your hours, the services you do and do not offer, and answers to the questions customers ask most — and SpiderLabs loads it so voice and web chat give the same answers. You can refine this any time from your dashboard as your services or hours change.

Who does it: you provide the facts; SpiderLabs configures them.
How long: about an hour of your input up front, with small edits any time after.
Done when: a test question about your hours or a service gets the answer you would give.

Stage 4 — Inviting your team

Add the staff who will work the inbox and callback queue, and give each person the right role — owner, admin, member, or viewer. The people you add are the ones who receive callback alerts, so this is also what makes notifications reach a real person. Roles and how to invite are in Team & roles.

Who does it: you, as an owner or admin.
How long: a couple of minutes per teammate.
Done when: each teammate has accepted, signed in, and can see the inbox at the role you chose.

Stage 5 — Your dashboard daily rhythm

Once you are live, your day runs from the dashboard, and the rhythm is simple: skim the inbox for what the receptionist handled, work the callback queue so nothing sits unseen, and confirm any appointment requests that need a staff decision. Most teams check it a few times a day and clear the queue like a short worklist.

Who does it: you and your front-desk team, ongoing.
How long: a few minutes per check, several times a day.
Done when: this one is ongoing — your queue is at zero when every follow-up is handled.

Stage 6 — Channels beyond the phone

The phone is the start, not the whole product. A web chat widget — one line of code on your site — answers the same questions in text and lands in the same inbox. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are rolling out; when they are enabled for your account, those messages appear beside your calls and chats. See Channels for what is live today and what is coming, and Image Studio for creating graphics to post.

Who does it: SpiderLabs enables channels; you paste the web chat snippet on your site.
How long: the web chat snippet is a minutes-long paste; social channels are enabled by your account team as they roll out.
Done when: web chat answers a test question in your dashboard. Social channels stay marked rolling out until your account team turns them on.

Stage 7 — Practice-management integration

This stage applies to dental practices on Open Dental. Connecting it lets the receptionist read real availability and, once a booking test passes, write appointments straight into your schedule. Until that test passes, bookings stay callback-first — captured as requests your staff confirm. The connection steps and the write-mode gate are in Connecting Open Dental, and the difference between the two modes is in Booking modes.

Who does it: SpiderLabs generates the key and guides the connection; you paste it into Open Dental, founder-assisted for your first launch.
How long: part of setup — the paste is minutes, and the create/cancel booking test is a short live check.
Done when: a create/cancel test appointment writes to your schedule and is removed cleanly. If you are callback-first, you can skip this stage entirely.

Stage 8 — Go-live verification

Nothing goes live on guesswork. Before your customer traffic moves over, SpiderLabs proves the whole path with you watching: a real call from outside your network reaches the receptionist and appears in your dashboard, its transcript loads, and a follow-up is captured as a callback your team can see. Only when every go-live gate is green does your traffic move.

Who does it: SpiderLabs runs the proof; you watch and confirm.
How long: a single session, usually the same one where you go live.
Done when: the test call, a visible transcript, and a captured callback all check out — and a real staff notification proved to arrive.

Green gates only

This is healthcare, so we do not cut corners. If any go-live gate is not ready — the test call, the test booking, staff notifications, or your dashboard as your team will actually use it — we hold the launch and fix it first. The full gate list lives in Getting started.

Once you are live, keep Troubleshooting handy for the common what-ifs — a missed name, a booking that needs confirmation, or a notification you did not get — and work your dashboard as your daily home base.

Keep exploring

Getting startedWhat happens after you sign: the founder-led launch, the phone-forwarding cutover, and the test gates every business passes before going live.Phone setup & forwardingHow call forwarding works — overflow, after-hours, or full coverage — with no number change, an optional port, and what your staff experience day to day.Your dashboardA tour of your dashboard: one inbox for calls and chats, transcripts and recordings, the callback queue, appointments, tasks, analytics, team, and notifications.