Short answer: if you created the firm's account, you follow the owner setup; if someone invited you to help, you follow the shorter teammate welcome.
What is the difference between the owner setup and being invited?
The onboarding portal has two separate entry points, and they lead to different experiences.
The owner is the person who created the firm in the portal. They go through a one-time, three-step entry wizard that:
Confirms their details and whether they currently see clients.
Explains that most of the nine onboarding sections can be delegated to teammates.
Connects the firm's Xero account for financials.
By the time you reach your dashboard, all nine sections are seeded there, starting as Not started, and you're placed on the team roster.
A teammate (delegate) is anyone the owner invites to help with specific sections. Teammates never see the wizard, the company-name and website fields, or the Xero step. Instead, they see a short, two-step welcome:
Confirm their name (their email is fixed to their sign-in and can't be changed).
Say whether they're an adviser (someone who sees clients) or in a support role.
Note: Answering "Yes, I see clients" adds the teammate to the team roster under the Adviser role. This only happens once per person, even if they somehow go through the welcome flow again.
Which path is mine?
If you're the one who set up your firm's account in the portal, you'll land on "Let's set up your firm" first, followed by the entry wizard. That's the owner path.
If you received an invite link from your firm's owner, you'll land on the shorter welcome screen the first time you sign in. That's the teammate path.
Either way, you only see this one-time flow once. After that, you go straight to your dashboard.
Tip: Not sure which sections you can access as a teammate? Every member can see the status and completion percentage of all nine sections, but you can only open the content of the sections your owner has handed to you.