Stop chasing IT, managers, and new hires across Slack, email, and 7 spreadsheets. FirstDay runs your entire onboarding process — so nothing falls through the cracks on someone's first week.
No credit card · No enterprise contract · Works without an HRIS
The problem
Every new hire triggers the same exhausting loop — and you're the one running it manually, again.
You copy last month's Google Sheet, adjust the name and start date, and pray you didn't miss a step.
IT still hasn't provisioned the laptop. Manager forgot to schedule the 1:1. New hire never saw the DocuSign link.
There's no system — only your attention. Scale the headcount, scale the chaos.
BambooHR and Workday are built for 2,000-person companies with an IT implementation team. You're not that.
"I handle onboarding at a 300-person company. We use GSheets, DocuSign, and Jira tickets. Every new hire requires 10+ manual steps... No one owns the process end-to-end, so I end up doing all the follow-up. It's burning me out."
— r/humanresources, July 2025 (1.2k upvotes)
How FirstDay works
From offer acceptance to the end of week one — fully tracked, fully coordinated, without you as the middleman.
Start with a pre-built playbook for Software Engineer, Sales Rep, Customer Support, or Operations. Each step is pre-filled with suggested tasks, owners, and timing. Customize in minutes — not hours.
Each step belongs to someone specific. IT gets "Provision laptop + email + Slack." The manager gets "Schedule 30-day check-in." HR gets "Send benefits enrollment." Everyone knows exactly what they own.
Your new hire receives a single link — their personal onboarding portal. Sign documents, watch the welcome video, fill out their emergency contact, complete their own checklist. No login required, no app to install.
Overdue tasks trigger automatic escalating reminders. First a gentle nudge via email. Then a flag in your HR dashboard. You see what's complete and what's blocked in one glance — and you only intervene when something actually needs you.
Features
Pre-built playbooks for common roles. Start with 20+ steps and customize in minutes.
Assign steps to IT, the hiring manager, finance, facilities — each person sees only their tasks.
One magic link gives new hires their personalized checklist, docs to sign, and onboarding resources.
Escalating nudges for overdue steps. Tasks follow up themselves — without you in the middle.
All active hires, completion rates, and blockers visible in one place. Know your status in seconds.
One-click report: who completed what, when, and who signed off. Great for compliance reviews.
Manual steps per hire that HR currently tracks alone
Average time HR spends per hire on coordination and follow-up
Time to set up your first onboarding playbook in FirstDay
Not too big. Not too bare. Just right for your size.
| Tool | Right-sized | Multi-party | New hire portal | Auto-reminders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FirstDay | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Google Sheets | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Notion / Asana | ✓ | ~ | ✗ | ~ |
| BambooHR / Rippling | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
We're building with a small group of HR teams who feel this pain daily. Join the waitlist and we'll be in touch first.
We'll reach out when early access opens. In the meantime, if you want to share your onboarding horror story — we genuinely want to hear it.
No spam. No enterprise sales calls. Just a heads-up when we're ready.