25 October 2026 · 9 min read · Hiring
What processes to document before hiring? Here are 15, grouped by area, with what to capture and a fast way to draft them. Get your first hire set up.
Your first hire starts on Monday. On Monday morning they ask, "How do you onboard a new client?" and you realise the answer is "Er, I just sort of... do it."
The short answer: before you hire, document the processes your new team member will touch in their first month: client onboarding, core delivery, communication rules, invoicing, scheduling, marketing basics and tool access. You don't need a perfect manual. You need a minimum viable version of each, recorded in your own words, that someone else can follow without asking you every five minutes.
This post is the what. If you want the how, read How to Write an SOP Your First Hire Can Actually Follow alongside it.
Document the processes your first hire will do most often, and the ones where a mistake costs you money, a client or your reputation. Everything else can wait.
Founders often ask me on discovery calls whether they need to document everything first. No. You need enough for your hire to be useful in week one and confident by week four.
Client onboarding is the first thing a new team member is likely to help with, and the first thing a client notices if it goes wrong.
What to capture: how a lead becomes a client. Which proposal template you use, what goes in it, how it's sent (I use PandaDoc), how you follow up and what happens once it's signed.
Minimum viable version: a five-step checklist plus links to your proposal and contract templates.
What to capture: the welcome email, the intake form, the folders and project boards you create, and any access you need from the client.
Minimum viable version: a copy-and-paste welcome email and a setup checklist with every folder and board named.
What to capture: how the call is booked, the agenda, who attends, where notes go and what gets sent afterwards.
Minimum viable version: a one-page agenda template and a follow-up email template.
Delivery processes describe how the actual work gets done, so your hire can take tasks off your plate without changing the quality.
What to capture: the steps from "client said yes" to "work delivered" for your main offer. Who does each step, which tool it lives in and how long it usually takes.
Minimum viable version: a template project in ClickUp or Trello that you duplicate for every client, with the steps as tasks.
What to capture: what "done" looks like. Spelling, brand colours, links tested, the client's name spelled right.
Minimum viable version: a 5 to 10 point checklist attached to the final task in your workflow.
What to capture: final handover, the last invoice, feedback request, archiving files and removing access.
Minimum viable version: an offboarding checklist and a wrap-up email template.
Communication processes set the rules for how your team talks to clients and to you, which prevents the "should I have told you about that?" moments.
What to capture: which emails your hire handles, which they flag for you, which they ignore. Labels or folders you use.
Minimum viable version: a simple three-column list: "handle it", "flag it", "leave it".
What to capture: response times, tone of voice, sign-offs, which channels clients use and what never goes in writing without your approval.
Minimum viable version: a half-page "how we talk to clients" note with two or three example replies.
What to capture: when you meet, where updates go, and what counts as urgent enough to interrupt you.
Minimum viable version: one recurring check-in in the calendar and a short list of "message me immediately if..." scenarios. Your First 30 Days With a New VA, Week by Week has a check-in rhythm you can borrow.
Admin and finance processes keep cash coming in and calendars working, which is why they're often among the first tasks founders hand over.
What to capture: when invoices go out, what's on them, which tool you use, how and when late payments are chased, and what your hire can and can't approve.
Minimum viable version: an invoicing calendar plus three reminder email templates (friendly, firm, final).
What to capture: your working hours, meeting types, buffer time, which meetings your hire can book or move and which are off limits.
Minimum viable version: a list of your scheduling rules and your booking links.
Marketing processes help your hire keep you visible without you having to approve every single comma.
What to capture: where enquiries arrive, how fast they get a reply, what the reply says and how they're tracked.
Minimum viable version: a reply template and a simple tracking list (a Trello board works).
What to capture: your content pillars, where ideas are stored, how posts are designed (Canva templates, for example), how they're scheduled (I use Metricool) and who approves them.
Minimum viable version: a weekly content checklist and a folder of ready-to-use templates.
Tools and access processes cover how your hire gets into your systems safely and how they get out again when they leave.
What to capture: every tool your hire needs, what access level they get, how logins are shared and how access is removed if they leave.
Minimum viable version: a tool list with access levels. Give each person their own login where the tool allows it, share passwords through a password manager rather than email, and turn on two-step verification. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre calls 2-step verification "one of the most effective ways to protect online accounts when passwords are still in use" and recommends removing accounts that are no longer needed.
What to capture: your folder structure, file naming rules and where the "final" version of anything lives.
Minimum viable version: a screenshot of your folder structure and three naming examples.
Prioritise processes your hire will use in their first two weeks and processes where mistakes are expensive. Use this table to decide what to document this week and what can wait.
| # | Process | Why it matters | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Proposal to signed contract | Directly affects revenue | Medium |
| 2 | New client welcome and setup | First impression for every client | Low |
| 3 | Kick-off call | Sets expectations for the whole project | Low |
| 4 | Core service workflow | The work itself. Your hire can't help without it | High |
| 5 | Quality check | Protects your reputation | Low |
| 6 | Client wrap-up | Final invoice, feedback and referrals | Low |
| 7 | Inbox triage | Biggest time saver for most founders | Low |
| 8 | Client communication standards | Keeps your voice consistent | Medium |
| 9 | Check-ins and escalation | Stops small issues becoming big ones | Low |
| 10 | Invoicing and follow-up | Cash flow | Medium |
| 11 | Calendar and scheduling | Protects your time | Low |
| 12 | Responding to enquiries | Slow replies can lose leads | Low |
| 13 | Content creation and scheduling | Keeps you visible | Medium |
| 14 | Tool access and passwords | Security and clean offboarding | Low |
| 15 | File storage and naming | Stops "which version is final?" | Low |
If you only have one week, start with 2, 4, 7, 10 and 14.
The fastest way to document a process is to record yourself doing it, talking out loud as you go, then use Claude to turn the transcript into a draft SOP. You do the task once, and you get a first draft without staring at a blank page.
Tip: set up a Claude Project for your SOPs. Projects are self-contained workspaces with their own chat histories and knowledge bases, so you can add your templates and tone of voice once and reuse them for every SOP. Before uploading anything containing client data, check your plan's data settings and Anthropic's privacy policy.
For the detail on structuring each SOP, go back to How to Write an SOP Your First Hire Can Actually Follow.
Once your core processes are written down, you're ready to write the role and plan the handover. Your process list effectively becomes the task list for the job, so it feeds straight into How to Write a Job Brief for Your First Virtual Assistant.
Not sure which tasks to hand over first? How to Delegate as a Founder starts with five. And if you want a wider view of what your business needs before it grows, use the small business operations checklist.
You need some, not all. Document the handful of processes your VA will do in their first two weeks so they can start without constant questions. The rest can be written together during their first month, which also helps them learn the business.
Using the record-and-transcribe method, a simple process can often be drafted in under an hour, including recording, drafting with AI and a quick review. Complex processes take longer, mostly because you'll discover decisions you've never written down before. Budget a few hours a week for a month rather than trying to do it all at once.
Enough for someone who has never done the task to complete it correctly. If your hire has to ask you more than one or two questions, add detail there. Screenshots and examples usually help more than extra paragraphs.
Yes, and it can work well. Do the task once on a recorded call while they take notes, then ask them to write the draft. You review it. This shares the work and shows you quickly what they've understood.
Somewhere your team already works and can search. A shared folder, your project management tool or a dedicated wiki all work. What matters is having one place, a clear naming system and a link to each SOP from the task it relates to.
They will, and that's fine. Add a "last updated" date to each SOP and make updating it part of the process itself. A quick review every few months keeps everything current.
If you'd like someone to map your processes with you, the AI Operations Audit is a 90-minute session that leaves you with a recording and a written Priority Action Plan, including which processes to document first.
If you'd rather have it done with you, the 90-Day AI Operations Sprint builds your SOPs and systems ready for your first hire, and the AI-Powered Operations Retainer gives you ongoing operations support once your team is in place.
Or book a free call and tell me where you're stuck.
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