Partner Onboarding and Support Documentation

Onboarding a new trading partner should take an afternoon. It usually takes six weeks, and almost none of that time is spent transferring anything. It is spent on email: which port, which protocol, whose firewall, what is your fingerprint? Can you resend the credentials? The test file did not arrive. Oh, the folder is called inbox not Inbox. Every one of those emails is a document you did not write.

This series writes them. It provides a one-page connection guide partners actually read. It also provides an intake form that captures what you need from them the first time. It provides a test procedure they can run without you. There is a FAQ and error decoder that answers the ten questions every partner asks. There is also a maintenance routine that keeps the documents true when addresses, certificates, and keys change. The partner-exchange program itself lives in our B2B series. That covers standards, agreements, and credentials at scale. Here we cut the back-and-forth.

Articles in This Series

• Why Partner Onboarding Takes Six Weeks (and How to Make It Two)
  The article presents a synthetic onboarding timeline counted in emails. It explains the loops that cause the delay: missing facts, mismatched assumptions, untested instructions. It covers the documentation set that removes each loop.
• Writing a Partner Connection Guide People Actually Read
  The article covers one page: host, port, protocol, authentication, fingerprints, folders, naming rules, limits, and contacts. It includes a template and the order that matters. It covers the mistakes that make partners phone instead of read.
• The Partner Intake Form and Onboarding Checklist
  The article covers what you must learn from the partner before anything is built, and the form that asks it once. It covers the internal checklist that follows, tracking many onboardings at once, and the handoff to the flow inventory.
• A Test Procedure Partners Can Run Without You
  The article covers numbered steps a partner's junior admin can follow alone, and the test file and its expected fate. It explains what a pass looks like, what to send when it fails, and the evidence you keep.
• The Partner FAQ and Error Decoder
  The article covers the questions every partner asks and the answers written once. It decodes the error messages partners paste into email, giving causes and next steps. It also covers support macros for the rest.
• Keeping Partner Documentation Current
  The article covers versioning the guide, change notices for addresses, certificates, and keys, and a partner-facing page or bundle. It covers review cadence tied to changes and retiring documents when a partner leaves.

Explore More Topics

This series is part of the Sysax file transfer topic library. The library covers the protocols, security practices, automation techniques, and operational skills behind reliable file transfer. The library pairs well with the practical tools we build. Sysax Multi Server is a secure FTP, FTPS, SFTP, and HTTPS server for Windows. Sysax FTP Automation schedules and scripts secure transfers so the routine ones run themselves.