Last reviewed: October 2026
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Printed from checkflow.io/templates/sales/partner-onboarding-checklist
This free partner onboarding checklist is for partner managers, channel leads and the enablement, marketing and operations people who bring a new partner on board. One run onboards one reseller, referral or technology partner, starting on the first working day after the partner agreement is signed. It records the tier, territory and commercial terms and the partner’s named contacts, holds the kick-off, and sets up the partner portal, deal registration, demo access and finance. It trains and certifies the partner’s people, sends the co-marketing kit, agrees how your brand may be used and writes a joint business plan. The channel lead decides whether the partner is ready to sell before anything is announced, and the run ends with the first registered deal and the 90-day review. It includes the steps that SaaS partner onboarding needs, such as demo access and an integration listing, and works for any product sold through partners. Each partner type adds its own tasks, and a partner that misses its certification requirement gets extra training and a retake. Vetting a partner before you sign is a separate job, in the Business Partnership Due Diligence Checklist.
Partner onboarding is the work between a signed partner agreement and a partner that sells, refers or integrates on its own: the terms recorded, the systems set up, the partner’s people trained and certified, the marketing agreed, and a plan for the first year. This checklist runs it for one partner, with the channel lead’s readiness decision before the partner goes to market. No law sets out these steps. They are this template’s practice, and where a task touches anti-bribery or data protection it names the UK source.
Three other templates sit next to it. Vetting a partner before you sign is the Business Partnership Due Diligence Checklist. Onboarding a customer who has bought your product is the SaaS Customer Onboarding Checklist. And if you are the reseller, setting up each client account on a white-label platform you resell is the White-Label Reseller Account Setup Checklist.
Asks: is this partner ready to sell, refer or integrate, and does it have what it needs?
When: from the first working day after the agreement is signed to the review about 90 days later.
Output: a trained and certified partner with a joint business plan, the channel lead’s decision, its first registered deal and a 90-day review.
Asks: should we sign with this partner at all?
When: before the agreement, in the Business Partnership Due Diligence Checklist.
Output: a vetted partner and agreed terms, which this checklist starts from.
Asks: does this customer set up the product and reach the result it bought it for?
When: after a customer buys, including customers a partner brings, in the SaaS Customer Onboarding Checklist.
Output: a live customer, not a partner.
Nine phases take one partner from the signed agreement to the 90-day review. The partner type adds its own tasks: a reseller adds ordering and pricing, support for its customers and a check of its first order; a referral partner adds introductions and referral fees; a technology partner adds the integration’s scope, technical training, an integration test and the integration listing. A tier with a marketing fund adds the fund plan, and a partner that misses its certification requirement adds extra training and a retake. The channel lead’s readiness decision is the gate: nothing after it can be completed until it is recorded.
Start on the first working day after the partner agreement is signed. The first task names the partner type and the six people on your side; the type adds the tasks that reseller, referral and technology partners need. Every due date counts in business days from the onboarding start date.
Meet the partner's team in the first week. Agree the plan, who does what, and how introductions, deals and data pass between you. A referral partner adds a task to agree how introductions work, and a technology partner adds one to agree the integration's scope.
Give the partner what it needs to work with you day to day: the partner portal, deal registration, demo access and its records on your side. A reseller adds ordering, pricing and support for its customers; a referral partner adds how referrals are submitted and fees paid.
Train each person for their role and record who has finished what. Certification in Phase 5 checks what they learned. A technology partner adds technical training and a test of the integration.
Certification shows the partner's people can sell, demo and support the product without you in the room. If the partner has not met the certification requirement for its tier, a task appears to arrange extra training and a retake before the readiness decision.
Give the partner the material to market you, agree how your brand may be used and prepare the announcement. Nothing is published until the channel lead decides the partner is ready to sell. A tier with a marketing fund adds a task to agree its plan.
Agree what the partnership will achieve in its first year, check the partner against what ready to sell means, and get the channel lead's decision. Nothing after the decision can be completed until it is recorded.
Announce the partnership and get the first deal through deal registration, with your team alongside. A reseller adds a check of its first order, and a technology partner adds the integration listing.
About 90 days after the start, review the partner's first results with them, update the joint business plan and record what to change in onboarding for the next partner.
The first task asks which of three types the partner is. Partner programmes name their types and tiers in different ways, so map your own to the nearest one. The table shows what each type does in this template and the tasks the checklist adds for it.
| Partner type | What the partner does | How it is paid (this template’s assumption) | What the checklist adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reseller | Buys from you and sells to its own customers | A discount or margin on your price | The partner price list, quoting and ordering; who supports its customers; a check of its first order and invoice |
| Referral partner | Introduces customers, who then buy from you | A referral fee when an introduced customer buys | How introductions reach your sales team; how referrals are submitted, matched to a sale and paid |
| Technology or integration partner | Builds or maintains an integration between its product and yours, and may sell alongside you | Often no payment either way: the value is the integration and the customers you share | The integration’s scope and technical contacts; technical training; an integration test; the integration listing |
| All three | Works under the partner agreement and its tier | As the agreement sets out | Terms and contacts, portal and deal registration, demo access, training and certification, the co-marketing kit and brand use, a joint business plan, the readiness decision, the first registered deal and the 90-day review |
Anti-bribery. A partner that wins business for you may be an associated person under the UK Bribery Act 2010. Section 7 makes a commercial organisation guilty of an offence if a person associated with it bribes someone to obtain or retain business for it, with a defence for adequate procedures to prevent it. Section 8 says a person is associated if they perform services for or on behalf of the organisation, judged on all the circumstances. The Ministry of Justice guidance says a supplier performing services, rather than simply acting as the seller of goods, may be associated. The offence covers bodies and partnerships formed in the UK, wherever the bribery takes place, and those formed elsewhere that carry on business, or part of a business, in the UK (sections 7(5) and 12(5)). The checklist’s second task confirms the partner went through your anti-bribery checks before signing; the Anti-Bribery & Corruption Compliance Checklist reviews the programme itself.
Shared personal data. Leads you pass to a partner and prospects it registers with you are personal data. In the UK, a partner that processes personal data on your behalf is a processor, and Article 28(3) of the UK GDPR says that processing must be governed by a contract or other legal act. Where each side decides for itself what to do with the data, the ICO’s data sharing code says a data sharing agreement is good practice, though not mandatory; the ICO says it is reviewing that guidance after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. The checklist records which terms cover what you share. Outside the UK, check your own law.
The channel lead’s readiness decision is assigned to them alone, and the checklist halts there: the announcement, the directory listing and the first registered deal cannot be completed until a decision is recorded. Ready with conditions or Not ready adds the next step for the partner manager. See how approvals that halt a checklist work.
Choose reseller, referral or technology partner on the first task and the checklist adds that type’s tasks, from the price list to the integration listing. A tier with a marketing fund adds the fund plan, and a missed certification requirement adds a retake before the decision.
Enter the onboarding start date and every task falls due a set number of business days after it, assigned from the six people named on the first task. The Reports Grid lists every partner onboarding with its answers, such as the partner type, the certification result and the channel lead’s decision, and the Tasks Grid shows each person what is due this week.
CheckFlow does not replace your partner portal, CRM or learning platform: deal registrations, courses and certificates stay there. CheckFlow makes sure every new partner gets the same steps in the same order, with an owner and a due date for each, a decision before launch, and a record of who did what and when. See how a checklist runs.
This template starts once the partner is signed. Vet a partner before signing with the Business Partnership Due Diligence Checklist, and review your anti-bribery programme with the Anti-Bribery & Corruption Compliance Checklist. Once the partner is selling, plan its key accounts with the Account Planning Checklist and onboard the customers it brings with the SaaS Customer Onboarding Checklist. Your own new sales hires follow the Sales Rep Onboarding Checklist, and the joint announcement can follow the Press Release Checklist. If you are the one reselling a white-label platform, set up each client account with the White-Label Reseller Account Setup Checklist.
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
Partner onboarding is the work that turns a signed partner agreement into a partner that can sell, refer or integrate on its own. It covers recording the terms and contacts, access to the partner portal and deal registration, training and certifying the partner’s people, agreeing how they may use your brand, and a joint business plan. This template runs it for one partner, from the first working day after signing to a review about 90 days later.
This template covers the tier, territory and commercial terms, the partner’s named contacts, a kick-off, portal and deal registration access, demo access, finance set-up, product and sales training, certification, the co-marketing kit and brand rules, a joint business plan, a readiness decision, the first registered deal and a 90-day review. For SaaS partner onboarding it adds a demo environment or sandbox and, for a technology partner, an integration test and a listing in your marketplace.
This template allows about five weeks to the channel lead’s readiness decision (26 business days after the start) and about 90 days to the first review. Those are its own choices, not a standard. A referral partner with a simple fee needs less training than a reseller that supports its own customers, and a technology partner’s timeline depends on the integration. Change the offsets to fit your programme.
A reseller buys from you and sells to its customers, so it needs a price list, a way to order and an agreement on who supports its customers. A referral partner introduces customers who buy from you, so it needs a way to pass on introductions and a clear rule for when its fee is paid. A technology partner builds an integration, so it needs technical training, a test and a listing. This template adds each type’s tasks.
Deal registration is how a partner tells you about an opportunity it is working on and asks for it to be protected, so that another partner or your own sales team does not compete for the same customer. Write down what qualifies, how long a registration lasts, how quickly you approve or reject, and how conflicts are settled. This template sends the rules in Phase 3 and checks that the first deal comes in through registration.
In this template the enablement lead records whether the partner has met the certification requirement for its tier. Not yet adds a task to arrange extra training and a retake before the readiness decision. If the requirement is still not met, the channel lead can decide Not ready, or Ready with conditions with a later date for the missing certifications. Either decision adds a follow-up task for the partner manager.
Logos and the partner badge, product descriptions, slide decks, case studies you have permission to share, email and social media copy, and the brand guidelines. With it, agree which logos and names the partner may use, what needs your approval before it goes out, and how use ends if the partnership ends. This template reviews the partner’s first materials and holds the joint announcement until the partner is ready to sell.
A joint business plan sets out what you and the partner aim to achieve together in the first year: the targets, the target accounts and segments, the joint activities each quarter, the support each side gives and the dates of the reviews. In this template it is written before the readiness decision and updated at the 90-day review. To plan one key account in depth, use the Account Planning Checklist.
It depends on each side’s role. In the UK, a partner that processes personal data on your behalf is a processor, and Article 28(3) of the UK GDPR says that processing must be governed by a contract or other legal act. Where each side decides for itself what to do with shared data, the ICO’s data sharing code, which it is reviewing after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, calls a data sharing agreement good practice, not mandatory. This template records which terms apply.
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