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How to create a killer bookkeeping client intake form

bookkeeping client intake form
By Marina Lovejoy-Black, Last Updated September 18, 2023

As we all know, winning over a client can be draining. It can sometimes take every ounce of your time, effort and money over a long period just to ensure that they end up opting for your bookkeeping firm’s services.

This is why, as soon as both parties are ready to get started, it’s important to have a smooth and streamlined onboarding process in place, as you really don’t want to go through another lengthy journey just to get them set up.

One of the first elements of this process is usually a bookkeeping client intake form. The benefits of kicking off your working relationship with one of these are endless, as they allow you to collect valuable information and enhance your understanding of the client’s current business and bookkeeping situation.

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What questions should I be asking in a bookkeeping client intake form? 

As this is just an initial phase, it’s important to keep things concise and simple for your client to ensure maximum satisfaction from the start. The onboarding phase is technically the client’s first impression of your working methods, so you must make it count.

In order to lend a helping hand with that, we’ve done all of the work for you and collated the perfect initial questionnaire for you to send off to your new clients.

Basic Information

This short list of questions will allow you to kick things off by collecting the basic information regarding the client.

  1. What's the name of your company?
  1. Please provide your full name.
  1. Please provide your primary email address. 
  1. Please provide your primary contact number.

Company Information

This section will allow you to uncover a little more about your client’s business, with a specific focus on logistic and financial aspects of the company.

  1. Please provide the full address for your company headquarters.
  1. In a few sentences, please describe what type of product(s)/service(s) your business offers? 
  1. What type of entity category does your business fall under?
  1. Please roughly indicate the number of employees you have. 
  1. Please indicate the last year you filed taxes. 
  1. Do you file taxes on a cash or accrual basis?
  1. Please provide us with the name of the bank you use for your main business transactions.

Bookkeeping Requirements

This section is as extensive as extensive gets for a client intake form. The goal is to find out as much information as possible regarding the company’s current bookkeeping situation in order to give you a better understanding of the job at hand. 

  1. Have you worked with any bookkeeping or accounting services before?
  1. At present, what bookkeeping software are you using?
  1. At present, what payroll software/service are you using?
  1. How many bank accounts do you have?
  1. How many credit cards do you have?
  1. How many transactions do you process monthly?
  1. How many invoices do you process monthly?
  1. Do you pay 1099 contractors?
  1. Do you enter payments and bills?
  1. Do you use services like Paypal?
  1. Do you make use of any integrated apps?
  1. Please list all of the integrated apps you use within your business.
  1. Please briefly describe the type of bookkeeping services you're looking for from us.

Initial Required Documentation

In a document-heavy industry, a client intake form wouldn’t be complete without a checklist of initial documents required from the client!

  1. Copies of prior tax returns 
  1. Copies of organisation or incorporated documents
  1. Copies of cash flow statements
  1. Copies of balance sheets
  1. Copies of investment portfolio documents

Why is creating a bookkeeping client intake form important?

Fantastic, the hardest part is all done! With the above questions, your next bookkeeping client intake form is bound to be a showstopper. 

However, before we leave you to try it out for yourself, it’s worth going over the apparent and hidden benefits of sending an intake form to your new bookkeeping clients one more time to truly demonstrate the value it can bring to your business.

You can collect essential information from the get-go

Fed up of rummaging through files and folders just to find a basic piece of information about a client? So are we.

A robust client intake form will, in the click of a button, allow you to have access to everything you need in one place, eliminating the need to search for information or, even worse, make an uncomfortable call to a client to request information you should already know.

You can increase retention rates

Retention, retention, retention.

Yes, acquiring new clients is always amazing but, statistically, retaining clients that are already with you represents a much lower cost to a business. This is why it’s vital to ensure your clients have an incredible experience with you and, as a result, have no desire to explore other options. 

The onboarding phase plays a big part in ensuring retention and satisfaction, as it demonstrates a higher level of care and shows clients that you really want to meet their needs and solve all of their problems.

You can boost your reputation

Newsflash! First dates are not the only occasions during which first impressions count. 

The first interactions you have with your clients are always going to be the most crucial, as they set the tone for the remainder of your working relationship together. Even if you provide a client with impeccable bookkeeping services, if their onboarding process with you was less than impressive, that’ll be the element that lingers in their mind when they write that review.

By streamlining your initial onboarding efforts, your bookkeeping firm will look more professional to new clients from day one. As a result, they won’t have a choice but to rave about your services!

Which tool should I use to create my bookkeeping client intake form?

When it comes to crafting your client intake process, there are many options available that’ll pretty much do what you need them to do on a basic level. However, a lot of them have a whole host of limitations that do nothing but over-complicate things, making it an unpleasant experience for all involved.

The above is why online tools like Content Snare exist, making the process smoother, simpler and much more efficient in terms of time and effort. 

Content Snare is quick and easy to use for both yourself and your clients. You can create stunning requests from scratch to send to your clients or, to make things even simpler, you can take your pick from the range of built-in templates that are provided and ready to go.

Sending your first request can take just minutes and, from there, you can kick back and relax as your client begins filling in their responses. Anything your client types in is automatically saved, meaning that they can progress at their own pace, which takes away the pressure from them and allows them to actually enjoy the process.

With its automatic email reminder feature, Content Snare also ensures that your content is provided to you in a timely manner and exactly how you asked for it. Those days of working your way through endless email threads just to communicate with clients and collect their information are well and truly over!

We hope this post has been able to provide you with some inspiration for your next bookkeeping client intake form.

Are there any extra questions that could give the form a little more oomph? We’re all ears - let us know in the comments below!

Avoid bottlenecks with our bookkeeping client intake form template

Content Snare is here to ease the stresses of bookkeeping client intake forms. Sign up to access our bookkeeping client intake form template. It’s ready when you are.

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Marina Lovejoy-Black

Marina is a bilingual writer, graduate and dedicated member of the Content Snare team. She acquired her passion for writing through years of extensive blogging experience, during which she created both casual content for her readers and promotional content for a variety of household names for sponsored campaigns. A technology aficionado, Marina now spends her time helping customers and prospects get the most out of Content Snare.

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