You finally land a new accounting client.
But you forgot to ask them a bunch of questions at the initial meeting and now you have to call them again, which isn’t a great way to start off the working relationship.
A key way to become more efficient, and not annoy your new client, is to create standard processes which eliminates the guesswork everytime you onboard a client. Having a new accounting client checklist does just that.
Your accounting firm has many things they repeatedly do for each client, the first thing being onboarding them. A client onboarding checklist lets you know exactly which tasks should be done first while meeting with the client, what information the client needs to gather or know and what needs to be done post meeting.
Why is client onboarding important?
Client onboarding is adding new clients and setting them up in your business. This process should involve communicating your processes to your clients, establishing a plan, allowing them to ask any questions they have and establishing a solid relationship.
The process of client onboarding for an accounting firm is important for many reasons. It creates a strong connection with the client, helps them understand the services offered, allows you to get an understanding of their business and fosters trust in the firm.
The first meeting with a new client is often used as an opportunity for the accountants to gather information about the client and establish rapport. The accountant will ask questions about personal background, their business and any current challenges they are facing. The discussed topics will depend on relevant to the client's needs, but some general topics can be expected to be covered, which should be included on your new accounting client checklist.
Common challenges when onboarding new accounting clients
Not asking enough questions
One challenge is the time required to build rapport with a client. It can take some time for an accountant to get to know the client as well as understand their needs and preferences and develop a plan that will work best for them.
Be sure to ask open-ended questions about their business and personal life during the initial meeting and include these on your checklist. It is important to get the information needed to begin working, but it is just as important to build rapport with the client and gain their trust.
If you only ask basic, surface-level questions, becoming a trustworthy advisor to your client will be challenging. You want to dig deep to get all the information you require, including knowing about their goals and long-term plans. It is essential that you genuinely care about their business. It is also important to ask enough questions to be able to add additional services down the road when their business needs them. Be sure to revisit these questions annually to keep up to date.
It is also important to schedule a follow-up meeting and keep those lines of communication open to continue to build upon the new client relationship.
Not asking the right questions
It’s important for accountants to ask the right questions when onboarding new clients. This ensures that they get the information they need to provide accurate advice and services, while also understanding their client's expectations and needs.
Consider utilizing the following questions as a starting point:
- Tell me about your business?
- What are your business goals?
- What do you hope to gain from our relationship?
Allowing scope creep
The client will have to provide all the necessary information upfront so that you can adequately assess their needs and estimate what they are looking for.
It is important to establish boundaries and expectations upfront and not incur scope creep, which can lead to delays in completing projects and additional costs incurred by accounting firms.
It is important to discuss this with the client as well as the process for adding other services.
Not managing expectations
The key here is to be transparent about what is included in their service and what isn't. You also need to develop an accurate estimate or a range for the project so that there are no surprises.
Developing an accurate estimate can be difficult to do when you have not worked with them before and have not had time to get a sense of their expectations. Solutions such as providing a service agreement will help set expectations from day one.
Wasting time
Onboarding new accounting clients can be difficult if you do not have a transparent and duplicatable client onboarding process. Having a new client checklist that you improve as you go and looking for ways to automate items on the list where possible should help save a ton of time. This may also free up time to take on more clients.
New accounting clients can often be discouraged by the time it takes to onboard and get set up, so it's important to communicate the process upfront.
Why is having a pre-made new accounting client checklist essential?
Given all of the time and effort it would take to create a checklist from scratch for every client and the lost time for things missed, it is very important for your business.
A checklist that you have with you during the initial meeting as well as after can help avoid any oversights. This way, you don’t need to go back and ask clients for more stuff later.
It allows you to become more efficient so you can offer additional services, increase your client’s lifetime value and your overall profit.
Essential elements of a new accounting client checklist
Service specific - The client checklist will look different depending on what service you’re offering your client. It will save time by having a checklist specific to each service, or at least a section of additional items required that can either be used or crossed off.
Clear & organized - This allows the checklist to be efficiently utilized by all staff members during the engagement and lets everyone know what is completed and what’s not.
Accessible by all staff - This allows the tasks on the list to be completed simultaneously and as efficiently as possible. Also, let your team voice their opinions on how the checklist and client onboarding process can be improved and update it often.
Where should you keep your checklist
You can choose to keep it old school and have your checklist in a word document and print it for meetings, get a little fancier with a spreadsheet or integrate it into your client management software.
The most important part is that it's easily accessible to everyone who needs it, it can be edited as things change, customized to each client, and can be checked off when completed (which is kind of the point of a checklist!)
What to include in your new accounting client checklist
Contact information
- Name
- Phone number
- Mailing address
Business information
- Business name
- Business number
- Is this a new business?
- Incorporation/business formation documents
- Ownership schedule
- Brief overview of your business
- What are your business goals?
- What do you hope to gain from our relationship together?
Communication
- How often will we communicate and how?
- Schedule follow up meetings
- Connect with the client on social
- Add client email to newsletter
- Add their birthday to calendar
- Send welcome email with what to expect, timeline and next steps
Financial information
- Access to online banking, credit card, loan and bank statements
- Recent account reconciliations
- Copies of prior tax return
- Previous invoices
- Payroll information, if applicable
- Inventory information, if applicable
Deliverables
- Explain how financial statements will be delivered
- Discuss what exactly will be provided and process for adding additional services
Accounting software
- Is there any set-up required?
- Is any cleanup required?
- Access to current accounting software
Billing & payment
- Explain how billing works
- Explain how payment works
- Explain deadlines and penalty policies
- Scheduling a subscription billing if applicable
Contracts
- Sign written contract
Project management
- Add to project management software
- Brief team on client
- Create client folder
This list is not comprehensive but can be a starting point to build upon and customized to each new client.
How to gather everything on the checklist from your clients
Sending emails back and forth with clients is a common practice for requesting information, but that doesn't mean it's without problems. Sometimes it might be hard to spot important information in an email, and when you get loads of emails with one file, it can get overwhelming. It is a pain to search through emails for the information you need, and it usually gets lost.
Shared drives
Shared drives are another option for storing client documents and a storage solution you probably already use. The problem with these is that many require your clients to create an account, which adds barriers for them to upload content.
The open nature of the folders makes it hard to search, and you can't track what you've received. You'll have to keep checking the app manually to see if anything shows up and discuss through phone or email if something’s missing.
Forms
Forms are a time-saving way to collect information from your customers when you need a few basic questions answered, as long as all new clients will be answering the same questions.
It's unlikely you'll ask all clients the same questions since their circumstances are often very different from others'. That means you'll need to create new forms for every new client which can get overwhelming.
Content Snare
Content Snare provides a comprehensive solution for collecting information from your new accounting clients. Some useful features for onboarding are:
- Automatic reminders - There are so many important documents to gather and questions to answer that your client needs to complete on top of running their business. Rather than being the one to send a manual reminder, let the system remind them!
- Mistake proof instructions - Only allow the client to upload the correct format and personalize questions based on previous answers.
- All client info in one place - All your client’s information is organized and in one place.
- Simple and clear for your clients - Easy to follow and gather information organized. If anything is unclear, questions and comments can be added right there.
- Automatic saves - Everything they type and upload is saved right away, so you don't have to worry about lost information.
A standardized checklist lets you focus your extra time on finding the new clients to onboard and completing the accounting work. Use the checklist as a starting point and improve as you find out what works for you and your clients.
