---
title: Intermediary onboarding cycle time
slug: kpis-and-performance-measures/intermediary-onboarding-cycle-time
icon: {"lucideIcon":"Timer"}
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-17T11:16:12.145Z
---

## 📘 Definition

Working days elapsed from **Stage 1 (Intake) complete** to **Stage 4 (Activation) complete** on the intermediary onboarding checklist, per intermediary, reported as a monthly median and 90th percentile.

| Attribute | Value                                            |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Owner     | Distribution Operations Manager                  |
| Source    | CRM onboarding task timestamps                   |
| Reported  | Monthly, on the Distribution scorecard           |
| Target    | Median ≤ 10 working days                         |
| Tolerance | Median ≤ 15 amber; > 15 red; P90 tracked, no RAG |

## 🧮 Formula

`cycle_time = working_days_between(stage1_complete_at, stage4_complete_at)`

Working days per the company calendar; the clock starts only when Stage 1 is complete — time spent waiting for the applicant to supply missing intake documents is therefore excluded by design.

:::hint{type="info"}
**ℹ️ Control note**

Cycle time monitoring depends on checklist timestamps being completed contemporaneously within the onboarding workflow.
:::

## 🧾 Inclusions and exclusions

- **Included:** every intermediary activated in the reporting month.
- **Excluded:** declined applications (they never reach Stage 4), reactivations of previously deactivated intermediaries.
- **Clock pauses:** none. Compliance escalations and remediation count inside the cycle — slow escalation paths are precisely what the measure exists to expose.

## 📊 Why median, not mean

One stuck application can move a mean by days; the median with a visible P90 shows both the typical experience and the tail without either masking the other.

:::ExpandableHeading
## 🧭 Operational interpretation

Use this KPI to evaluate operational friction within onboarding and escalation handling. Median performance indicates the standard operating experience, while P90 exposes queue congestion, escalation delays, or incomplete intake controls.
:::

## 🛡️ Data quality notes

Cycle time depends on checklist stages being completed in real time. Backfilled stage timestamps are detectable (stage complete before predecessor) and are reported as data-quality exceptions on the scorecard rather than silently corrected.