After the initial kickoff meeting with your new client, send a welcome email. Be sure it clearly outlines the next steps, your expectations of them, and a timeline for the initial scope of the project. You could have 1 for new bookkeeping clients, and another for new tax clients. Whichever way you categorize clients, develop checklists that are easy to stick to, and continually test them.

Answer any questions and make sure the client agrees with everything. Most people hate bureaucracy, but there are occasions when just a little bit of digital paperwork dramatically improves business processes. That’s the case with onboarding checklists, so let’s breeze through their major benefits.

Include a plan of the process that double‐entry bookkeeping the team will use to meet the client’s goals. Also, outline the expectations, such as what to expect from each other and turnaround times. This welcome pack is a summary from the kick-off meeting, but in writing.

Now it’s time to conduct the formal kick-off meeting via video conference or an in-person meeting. With your first client meeting scheduled, it’s important to provide them with the agenda. You want your client to come prepared and aware of what you aim to accomplish. Automators will also assign the job to the relevant team member based on its current stage. Identify the primary contact person on both sides, preferred methods of communication (email, phone, meetings, etc.), and response time expectations.

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2. This allows you to establish a connection between QuickBooks and the client’s bank account to streamline and automate data entry.
3. Your marketing effort and fabulous sales pitch landed you a brand-new client.
4. This should include any expectations they may have for this new working relationship.

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At this stage, you’ll want to clarify where your client is right now and what they want to achieve by working with you. It’s only by fully understanding their aims and objectives that you can produce a proposal that’s fit-for-purpose and estimate the scope of the work required. Onboarding processes often involve regulatory and legal requirements. A checklist reminds you to take care of all necessary compliance steps, so you can avoid potential penalties or legal issues. However, if your employees juggle multiple clients, your lists can get mixed up. Another drawback of this method of maintaining your checklist is that you cannot insert what is amortization hyperlinks or connect them to other documents.

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Some petty cash meaning in accounting clients may require data migration while others may require data conversion. Read more about choosing the right data migration method for your client. Onboarding new clients is a checklist of activities; it’s the first step toward establishing a strong, long-term connection. The more effective your onboarding, the stronger your client connections will be. Use tools like the Free Bookkeeping Onboarding Checklist and Cone software to make the process easy and professional. Whether your client is a small business or a bigger company, a smooth start will make them glad they chose you as their bookkeeper.

Develop a customizable bookkeeping client onboarding checklist that can be adapted for different types of clients. To save time in the future, create one standard bookkeeping onboarding checklist template for each customer persona. You can then customize the checklist further based on what you already know of the client. This ensures that all necessary steps are covered without overwhelming the client with irrelevant details.

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Outline the Onboarding Process – Clearly describe the steps of the onboarding process. Include a timeline and what each step entails, ensuring your client knows what to expect and when to expect it. This transparency helps prevent confusion and sets a clear path forward. This allows you to gather insights into your client’s onboarding experience and make necessary adjustments to improve your process continually. Start by understanding the nuances of your client’s business model, financial goals, and challenges.

A signed contract is the first document required for your working relationship to begin. The contract should include details on the scope of your arrangement, and a complete, signed copy should live in your client file, ready to reference if needed. When you’re ready to onboard new clients, ensuring they get a proper checklist of the documents you need from them is critical. Your marketing effort and fabulous sales pitch landed you a brand-new client. And you might think this is the most significant moment in the client relationship.