Salesforce Financial Services Cloud is the most configurable system an RIA can buy. If your firm has the scale and the appetite to build on it, almost anything you can describe can be built, onboarding included.
That is also the reason firms compare it with OnBord. One is a platform you configure into an onboarding process. The other is an onboarding process that works the day you sign up. Which is right depends far more on your firm than on the software.
A platform you build, and a tool that already works
Financial Services Cloud brings client data together from custodians, planning tools, email and documents into one household level view. Add action plans and it will run a structured onboarding sequence, with compliance steps, approvals and reporting attached. At a few hundred advisors, that consistency is worth a great deal.
Getting there is a project. Most RIAs use an implementation partner, and even a small firm is typically looking at eight to twelve weeks of configuration before the first client is onboarded through it. That is not a criticism. It is what a platform of that depth requires.
OnBord takes the opposite approach. You sign up, add your firm’s branding, connect Redtail and DocuSign, and onboard your first client the same day. The advisor opens the account, the client gets a text, and the compliance documents are generated and delivered inside the same flow. There is nothing to configure because the process is the product.
OnBord vs Salesforce for RIA client onboarding at a glance
| Comparison | OnBord | Salesforce Financial Services Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Independent advisors, solo RIAs and growing firms | Mid size and enterprise RIAs with internal resources |
| What it is | Purpose built client onboarding software | A configurable platform that onboarding is built on |
| Time to first onboarded client | Same day | Typically eight to twelve weeks for a smaller RIA |
| Who sets it up | You, in an afternoon | An implementation partner or an internal admin |
| Client experience | SMS led, mobile first, automatic reminders | Configurable digital onboarding journeys |
| Compliance documents | Form ADV 2A, Form CRS and ADV 2Bs generated and delivered automatically | Built to your specification as part of the configuration |
| Client data | Sensitive information never touches our database | Held in your Salesforce instance as the system of record |
| Breadth | Onboarding, done properly | CRM, service, marketing, analytics and onboarding |
| Integrations | CRMs Redtail Wealthbox Sales Force Practifi Custodians Charles Schwab Goldman Sachs Fidelity BNY Pershing Docusign |
Broad integration hub with custodial connections |
| Published pricing | Entry tier 1-10 users – $80 per user per month Growth 11-99 – $70 per user per month |
Custom, enterprise-based |
The real cost of an onboarding build
Licensing is the visible number. For a small RIA, published guidance puts Financial Services Cloud entry pricing at roughly $300 per user per month, with implementation for a firm of one to twenty five advisors commonly landing somewhere between fifteen and fifty thousand dollars in the first year.
Then there is the cost nobody quotes. Somebody in your firm becomes the person who understands the configuration. When a form changes or a regulator updates a disclosure, the change goes through them or back through your partner.
Be honest about what you give up
We would rather say this plainly than pretend otherwise. Salesforce does things we do not. Firm wide analytics, marketing automation, service case management and a single record spanning every department. If you want one platform running the whole business, that is a real argument and we are not it.
What we would question is whether an eight week build is the right way to solve onboarding when onboarding is the only thing that hurts. A lot of firms buy the platform for the onboarding problem, then spend a quarter and a five figure sum solving it.
Which one is right for your firm
Choose Salesforce Financial Services Cloud if you have the scale, the internal expertise and a genuine need for one platform across the firm. It rewards that investment.
Choose OnBord if you want new clients onboarded next week rather than next quarter, and you would rather your budget went into new business than into configuration.
See OnBord on your own onboarding process
Book a short demo and we will run a live client setup, show you how the compliance documents are generated and delivered, and give you a straight answer on whether we are the right fit for your firm.
