How to Create an Effective Onboarding Checklist for Accounting Clients

01 Dec How to Create an Effective Onboarding Checklist for Accounting Clients

You could constructing the effective tax rate reconciliation and income tax provision disclosure also trigger a notification whenever you move a new file to your client’s folder, with an automation like one of these. In the excitement of a new project, it’s easy to forget all of the little details to get a client set up. You get clients up to speed faster, show off your organizational skills, and save mental space for the work clients hired you to do.

Whether the prospective client is a new or established business, using the following standardized steps will make your life (and theirs!) easier. Enter all relevant information on the client, including the full company name, address, and preferred contact details. Quickbooks permits the connection of multiple bank and credit card accounts, streamlining the tracking of transactions. If the client has employees, configure payroll settings, including employee information, pay rates, and tax withholdings. Begin populating Quickbooks with historical financial data, either by importing data from spreadsheets or manually inputting transactions.

As an accounting or bookkeeping firm, one of the challenges that you may encounter is deciding what questions to ask a new client. However, the onboarding process can be easier after creating a bookkeeping client onboarding questionnaire that guides you on what to ask. Remember, the questions can help you solve a problem or meet the client’s expectations. Linking your client’s bank accounts and credit cards to QuickBooks Online is easy. Simply provide all necessary account information when connecting their bank feeds.

Free Workflow Templates

If your client does not have a need for these, they can start off at a lower tier, save money, and upgrade later if need be. Also, let the client know if you need anything, like accessing the internal systems to work seamlessly. Review the project’s details and answer any client questions during the meeting. Sales tax rates and rules can change, so it’s essential to regularly update these settings to ensure accurate calculations and compliance. Before fully transitioning to Quickbooks, perform test transactions to validate that all accounts and settings are functioning correctly. Create professional, branded invoices with custom templates that suit the client’s business style.

What Is the Client’s Business About?

The bank feeds provide a complete picture of the transactions in the bank, although they need to be reviewed for accuracy through regular reconciliations. If you want to streamline your client onboarding workflow, you can use Zapier to connect your favorite apps. Start by choosing one step in your onboarding flow to automate, and go from there. Automating even a few steps in your process can clear up mental space for more high-impact tasks. Creating a special folder, channel, or label for the new client in your inbox or chat app helps you stay organized. And if there are still some details to sort out, use this step of the client onboarding template to schedule a kickoff call with your favorite meeting scheduler.

What if my client has multiple bank accounts and credit cards?

1. And you’ll want to have a central location where you log agreed-upon rates for clients (if there’s any variation).
2. It is imperative to understand the value in a new bookkeeping client checklist.
3. Linking your client’s bank accounts and credit cards to QuickBooks Online is easy.
4. This is pretty meta, but the first step in your customer onboarding template is onboarding new customers.

Any agency or freelancer that’s ever dealt with a clingy client or a ghosting collaborator knows the importance of communication. In addition to setting expectations around response times, it helps to establish communication channels right from the start. And you’ll want to have a central location where you log agreed-upon rates for clients (if there’s any variation). If you require a deposit or payment upfront, now is the time to set that up, too. And even if your app of choice saves the contracts within its system, make sure you save copies of all agreements in your client/project management app as well. To make this step even easier, include a link to the intake form in your welcome document.

Being onboarded with a standardised process from start to finish helps to build your clients’ confidence in your business, saves time and keeps things moving. For the purposes of this article, onboarding is defined as the process of bringing a new client on board, incorporating training and orientation. You can access accounts, previous accounting systems, and inventory records through the communications system. Knowing the taxation and reviewing previous invoices, financial statements, or documents can also be easier. When developing the bookkeeping onboarding checklist, ensure you know your client’s expectations or goals.

Now that you’ve almost finished onboarding your client, it’s time to get set up to work. Having an in-person meeting with the client is advisable to get to know one another better and grow trust.

From there, you can schedule regular touchpoint meetings to update your client on their projects. This step can also include discussion about whether QuickBooks managed payroll services are right for the business. The success of the onboarding with a new bookkeeping client checklist project depends on how collaborative the team members are during the processing. To make work easier for your team members when onboarding a client, introduce the best collaborative tool that makes communication easier. If you want to make bookkeeping easier (and less prone to human error), you can connect your payment processor to your accounting app. This way, income tracking is automatic, and you can avoid manually transferring numbers between apps.