Onboard a Client
Sending an invite, choosing what to ask access to, the intake questionnaire, reviewing the first program before your client sees it, and directory hires.
A client joins your roster in one of two ways: they accept an invite you sent, or they hire you from the coach directory. Either way, their first program waits for you before they see it.
Send an invite
The Invite a client card sits on the coach dashboard.
- Under Ask for access to, tick what you want to see and change.
- Enter the client's email address.
- Press Invite.
MuscleBuddy emails the invite. If the email cannot be delivered, the toast says so and you copy the link from the pending list and send it yourself.
What each kind of access gives you
| Access | What it covers | Ticked by default |
|---|---|---|
| Training | Programs, workouts and progression settings | Yes |
| Nutrition | Calorie and macro targets, food logs and weigh-ins | Yes |
| Daily check-ins | Sleep, energy, recovery, water and their notes | Yes |
| Health | Health markers, bloodwork and vitals | No |
| Compounds | Their supplement and compound stack | No |
Health and compounds are sensitive, so ask for them on purpose. The tabs on a client's page follow what they granted: without check-ins access you get no Check-ins tab, and without health access no Health or Imaging tab. If you need more later, the client page has an Ask for more access button (it names the one missing access when only one is left), and the client grants it from My coaches.
Pending invites
Every invite still waiting shows under Pending invites with its expiry date. An invite link works for seven days.
- Copy link copies the invite link, for a text message or a DM.
- Resend issues a fresh link, good for seven more days, and emails it.
- Withdraw stops the link working. To invite the same person again, send a new invite.
What the client sees
The link opens Coaching invite. A client without an account signs up first and lands back on the invite. They must be signed in with the email address you invited; any other account sees a message asking them to sign in with the right one.
The screen shows:
- What they'll be able to see and change, with each access you asked for as a box they can untick.
- A few questions from you, if you wrote intake questions.
When they press Accept invite, they join your roster with the access they left ticked. If you are already at 20 active clients, the accept is refused and they see that you are at your client limit.
The intake questionnaire
The Intake questionnaire card on your dashboard holds the questions a new client answers on the accept screen. Press + Add question, write the question, and pick an answer type:
- Free text
- A number
- A 1-to-N rating, with a top of the scale between 2 and 10
- One of a list, with options separated by commas
Tick Required to stop a client accepting until they answer. You can flip that later with the switch beside each question. You can hold up to 25 active questions. Retire stops asking a question and keeps every answer already given.
A client's answers show on the Overview tab of their page, under Intake questionnaire. The answers belong to the client: they can read them back, and the answers stay with them if the coaching ends.
Their first program waits for you
After accepting, a new client finishes the usual onboarding: goal, experience, measurements, schedule, the gym they train at and food preferences. MuscleBuddy generates a program from it.
When you hold training access, that program does not go live. It lands in Programs awaiting review on your dashboard, and you get a push notification if you have them on. Each row shows the client, their goal, the progression method and the date. From there:
- View client opens their page so you can check the plan against their intake answers.
- Approve makes the program live. The toast confirms the client can now see it.
- Discard removes it before the client sees it.
If the program clashes with an accommodation in the client's health profile, the row lists each conflict under it. You can still approve; the list tells you what to look at first.
To give a new client your own program instead, deploy a template to them. Programming clients covers templates and the block builder.
Directory hires
A member who finds you in the directory at /coaches hires you by
subscribing at your rate. Nothing is created until their checkout completes.
When it does, they join your roster with Training and Nutrition
access. A directory hire does not see your intake questions, since there was
no invite screen; ask for anything else you need in a message, and ask for
more access from their page.
A directory hire counts toward your 20 clients, and the directory refuses the hire before checkout when you are full.
Where to go next
More guides
MuscleBuddy 101: What's Where and Why
A quick orientation to the app: what Plan, Train, Nutrition, Health and Community do, and how they connect.
Logging Your First Workout
The logging flow: starting a session, recording sets, RPE/RIR, and how offline mode keeps you covered.
Understanding Your Program & Progression
How double progression, linear, RPE and the other progression methods set your training loads from what you log.
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