# Overview

The Onboarding Service is the foundation of every Tendar integration. It provides a suite of APIs that let you create and manage customer profiles, verify identities through KYC checks, and send OTPs - everything you need to onboard users securely before granting them access to lending, disbursement, or any other Tendar product.

### How it works

***

Integrating the Onboarding Service into your platform follows a straightforward flow:

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### Authenticate

Include your secret key in the `Authorization` header of every request (`Bearer <your_secret_key>`). All endpoints are scoped to your company, so the data you create and query is isolated to your account. Read the [Authentication](https://docs.tendar.co/documentation/getting-started/authentication) Article for better understanding
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Create a user

Register your customer by sending their profile information (name, email, phone, date of birth, etc.) to the [Create User](https://docs.tendar.co/documentation/user-management#create-a-user) endpoint. Tendar returns a unique `user_id` that you'll reference across all other API calls.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Continue to other services

Once onboarded, the user is available across the entire Tendar ecosystem — Credit Score, Disbursement, Recollection, and BNPL services.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

### Base URL

***

All Onboarding Service endpoints are served under:

Production

```bash
https://api.tendar.co/onboarding
```

Sandbox

```bash
https://tendar-onboarding-dev-v2.fly.dev
```

### Core Features

***

The Onboarding Service is organized into three main modules:

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><h4><i class="fa-user-group">:user-group:</i></h4></td><td><strong>User Management</strong></td><td>Create, update, list, and export your customers. </td><td><a href="user-management">user-management</a></td></tr><tr><td><h4><i class="fa-key">:key:</i></h4></td><td><strong>OTP (One-Time Password)</strong></td><td>Send and verify OTPs through email, SMS, or both. </td><td><a href="one-time-password">one-time-password</a></td></tr><tr><td><h4><i class="fa-face-viewfinder">:face-viewfinder:</i></h4></td><td><strong>KYC (Know Your Customer)</strong></td><td>Run identity verifications against Nigerian government databases.</td><td><a href="know-your-customer">know-your-customer</a></td></tr></tbody></table>