Why this matters
Your four-person bookkeeping firm onboards about three new clients a month. Each one needs an engagement letter, bank statements, a kickoff call and a client portal. Today those tasks live in email threads and a shared spreadsheet, so a client can wait a week for a letter because nobody knew it was theirs, and the Monday meeting is spent asking "where are we with…?".
In this module you put the whole process on one Trello board on the free plan: a list for each stage, a card for each task, a red Urgent label and a due date on the task that matters, and cards moved along as work happens. The board becomes the status report.
What you’ll build
A board called Client onboarding with four lists: To do, In progress, Waiting on client and Done.
Five cards for three clients, a red label named Urgent and a 30 October due date on the Cobalt Legal card, which sits in Waiting on client while the engagement letter is In progress.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceThe practice is built from real Trello screens and does not touch any Trello account.
- A free Trello account, to do it for realUse practice tasks first, not real client data.
Concepts
2 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
Boards, lists and cards
A board is one process, a list is one stage of it, and a card is one task. Cards move left to right; moving a card is the status update, so nobody has to ask.
Keep lists few and plain, and give work that waits on someone outside the team its own list (Waiting on client), so stalled work is visible.
Labels for priority, dates for deadlines
Trello's six colours start unnamed. Name one once (Labels > pencil > Title > Save) and every card on the board can use it.
Dates adds a due date with a reminder a day before. Due dates show on the card front, and turn green when the card is marked complete.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. What is a Trello list for?
- A stage the work moves through
- One task
- A team member
Show the answer
A stage the work moves through. Lists are stages; cards are tasks that move from list to list.
2. Why give Waiting on client its own list?
- So work stuck outside the team is visible
- Trello needs four lists
- To hide those cards
Show the answer
So work stuck outside the team is visible. Mixed into In progress, waiting time looks like slow work by the team.
3. How do you name a label?
- Labels > pencil next to the colour > Title > Save
- Right-click the card
- Rename the list
Show the answer
Labels > pencil next to the colour > Title > Save. Labels start as colours only; you name them once from the Labels box.