Cut onboarding kickoff time from 2 days to under 5 minutes and save 90 minutes/week on manual follow-up.
~2 hrs
Saved / wk
Medium
Setup
No AI
AI
New clients fill out a Cognito Forms intake form (a tool for building online forms) with their details. That submission automatically kicks off a personalized onboarding email series through n8n (a workflow automation tool), so you never have to manually start the process.
~2 hrs
Saved / Week
Some setup required
Setup Complexity
No AI involved
AI Status
Step 1: Build your client intake form in Cognito Forms — include fields for name, email, company, and service package
Step 2: In n8n, create a workflow with a Webhook trigger and connect it to your Cognito Forms submission webhook URL
Step 3: Add an email node in n8n and write your onboarding email template using form field variables
Step 4: Add additional email nodes with Wait nodes between them to create a Day 1, Day 3, and Day 7 sequence
Step 5: Test by submitting a dummy form entry and verify each email sends correctly with the right client details
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See PlansOpen-source workflow automation — connect apps and build automations visually. Self-host free with unlimited workflows, or use cloud service. Similar to Zapier/Make but with custom code support and no per-task limits on self-hosted. Self-hosted: free unlimited. Cloud Starter: ~$24/month (2,500 executions). Pro: ~$60/month.
Cognito Forms is an online form builder that lets you create anything from simple contact forms to complex multi-page workflows with conditional logic, calculations, and payment collection — all without writing code. You drag and drop fields, set up rules for which sections appear based on answers, and embed the form on your website. The platform handles payment processing through Stripe, Square, or PayPal right inside your forms. Repeating sections let respondents add multiple items dynamically. Free tier includes unlimited forms with 500 entries/month. Paid plans start at $15/month.