An executive assistant onboarding checklist should transfer the context behind your decisions, not just access to your tools. For a startup team, start with the founder's priorities, the people involved, and the decisions the assistant may make. Map the full operating scope, then hand over one priority workflow with a clear approval boundary and a review point.
Use the editable workbook below to turn that conversation into a working handoff. It covers principal context, stakeholders, access requests, communication examples, authority, and readiness checks. The founder or executive being supported is the principal. One principal should resolve competing requests while the assistant learns the team.
Before day one: give the role a defined scope
Write down what the executive needs help keeping in motion: team meetings, recruiting coordination, customer conversations, inbox follow-through, or preparation for recurring leadership discussions. Include the whole expected role even if only one workflow is ready to transfer. Otherwise, the assistant has a task list without a picture of the company.
For each area, identify the current owner and what will change. A recruiting lead might retain candidate decisions while the assistant coordinates approved interview times. A customer lead might own the response while the assistant gathers the agreed background. Avoid making the assistant the default owner of every request that arrives without a name attached.
Choose a starting workflow with a visible finish, such as preparing the weekly leadership meeting: collect agenda requests, ask the designated owners for approved materials, circulate the confirmed agenda, and record follow-up owners. The executive still decides the agenda priorities. This gives you something concrete to review before adding another workflow.
Build a context packet the assistant can use
Give the assistant a short explanation of what the company does, which priorities need the executive's attention, and which decisions are waiting. Link to the current internal documents rather than copying old summaries into several places. Mark who can resolve an uncertain fact.
Make a stakeholder map by role. Include the relationship to the executive, the reason they meet, the internal contact who knows the history, and any agreed handling rule. For example, a recruiting coordinator may be able to confirm interview availability, while a hiring manager must approve a change to the interview panel. Treat that as an illustrative arrangement, not a rule for every startup.
Ask the executive to explain a recent decision aloud. Why did one meeting get accepted and another wait? Why did a request go to the operations lead? Capture the reason as well as the action. A calendar full of meeting titles does not explain those trade-offs.
Separate access from permission to act
Create an access request for each tool with an account owner, required permission, and confirmation that it works. Keep passwords and private records out of the workbook. Use your company's approved account setup process and have the administrator decide which access is appropriate.
In Gmail, delegation lets someone read, send, and delete email; it is not a read-only arrangement. Google's delegation documentation describes those capabilities. A written “draft only” instruction sets a working boundary but does not remove the software's sending permission. If material must stay inaccessible, ask the account owner or administrator for a suitable arrangement.
Calendar access needs its own check. Google Calendar documents different sharing permissions, including free/busy visibility and permissions to edit events. Ask the administrator to confirm the actual setting for your account. Then agree separately on which invitations the assistant may accept, move, or decline.
Your editable startup EA handoff workbook
Complete one section at a time with the principal. Each section has a place for the context or rule, its accountable owner, and the next check. “Discussed” is different from “ready”: mark a section ready only after its owner has confirmed it. The completion count tracks your own selections, not an assessment of readiness.
Use role labels and non-sensitive descriptions here. Entries remain in this page's memory until reset or reload; exporting saves a CSV to your device. This worksheet does not connect to your company tools. Store the finished private record only in your approved company system. The example button supplies invented planning text, not a client story or approved company policy.
Use a progressive handoff, not a fixed countdown
A suggested sequence is prepare, observe, rehearse, then own. Move on when the agreed check is complete, not because a certain day has arrived. A workflow with missing access or unresolved authority should stay in preparation even if other work is ready.
- Prepare: Confirm the context packet, access, stakeholders, and decision owner. The assistant should be able to explain the purpose of the work and where an exception goes.
- Observe: Walk through one ordinary request and one exception together. Explain the judgment you would otherwise leave unstated.
- Rehearse: Let the assistant prepare the next real handoff for review. Check the recipient, current document, proposed action, and anything that needs approval before it goes out.
- Own within the boundary: Transfer the agreed routine steps after the principal confirms readiness. Keep an exception route and a next review date.
For the leadership meeting example, readiness might mean the assistant can identify the agenda owner, find the current approved materials, flag an unconfirmed attendee, and prepare the circulation message without publishing an unapproved decision. The principal decides whether that check is enough for this particular workflow.
Agree on how questions and conflicting requests get resolved
Choose where routine questions go and which channel is reserved for time-sensitive coordination. Define a fallback if the principal is unavailable. Do not assume that a short message is urgent or that silence means permission. Record how long the assistant should wait before asking the designated backup.
When two executives ask for the same time, the assistant needs an agreed priority rule or one person to decide. “Use your judgment” is not enough when the judgment has never been discussed. Until there is a rule, the assistant can gather the options and ask the principal to choose.
Use communication examples to show tone and authority. An illustrative draft could say, “I have collected the proposed agenda items. Please confirm which should be included before I circulate them.” Contrast that with wording that implies the priorities are already approved. For detailed email handling rules, use our inbox approval template alongside this broader context workbook.
Review what is working before expanding ownership
At the next check-in, examine an actual completed handoff. Was the right person involved? Was the current document used? Did anything wait because the decision owner was unclear? Update the rule that caused the friction instead of merely telling the assistant to be more proactive.
Ask the assistant which requests still require guessing. Add the missing context or keep those requests with the principal until the boundary is settled. Expand another part of the role when the current workflow is stable enough for the people involved, rather than treating a longer task list as proof that onboarding is finished.
Keep investment decisions, financial judgments, legal and tax questions, confidentiality decisions, and money movement with the responsible authorized people. An assistant can coordinate approved administrative steps and route questions; this workbook does not authorize specialist decisions or commitments.
How this fits a dedicated assistant relationship
Early Bird provides a dedicated, full-time executive assistant with ongoing Early Bird support. Onboarding maps the full operating scope before stabilizing one priority workflow at a time. The checklist helps make the principal's context and boundaries explicit; it does not reduce the role to one disconnected task.
If your startup needs ongoing executive coordination, see Early Bird's support for startups and venture teams. If you already have an assistant, start with the section where work currently gets stuck. Confirm its owner and next check, then use the workbook in your next handoff conversation.