New Bookkeeping Clients Start Clean When Every Bank Feed Is Verified
The Client Onboarding Agent in EngageSuite360 handles the part of onboarding that decides whether the first month-end goes well: it gets your firm access to the client's QuickBooks or Xero file, confirms every bank and card feed is connected and current, and obtains the prior accountant's release and files. The staff accountant who inherits the engagement starts the first close on clean data instead of spending it finding out what is missing.
This post covers the ledger handoff. Engagement letters and the tax-season document checklist are a separate part of onboarding.
What it takes off your plate
Ask a bookkeeping manager what goes wrong with a new client. The engagement letter is signed, and then the real work begins. Accountant access to QuickBooks Online or Xero takes three emails, because the client invited the wrong address or gave the wrong role. Bank feeds look connected, but the operating account stopped syncing when the client changed banks, and the credit card feed was never linked at all. Nobody notices until month-end, when a stack of transactions is missing.
The prior accountant holds last year's workpapers, depreciation schedules and adjusting entries. They will release them once the client authorizes it, and the client means to, eventually. Meanwhile the staff accountant is guessing at opening balances and the partner is fielding a client who wonders why the first financial statements are late.
What the Client Onboarding Agent does, step by step
It begins with the messages that need a client's action.
- Sends the access request. Once the engagement letter is signed, the agent emails the client step-by-step instructions to invite your firm as accountant user in QuickBooks Online or Xero, with the exact address and role to use, and follows up by text until the invitation arrives.
- Requests the prior accountant's release. It sends the client a release authorization for e-signature through DocuSign, then sends the signed release to the prior accountant with a clear list of what your firm needs: prior-year returns, workpapers, fixed asset and depreciation schedules, and adjusting entries. It follows up with the prior firm until the files arrive.
- Checks every feed. With access granted, it lists every bank and credit card account in the ledger, compares them to the accounts the client named in the engagement checklist, and checks each feed's last sync date.
- Chases the broken ones. For any feed that is missing or stale, it sends the client instructions to reconnect it, or to upload statements if the bank does not support a feed, and checks again once they reply.
- Files what arrives. Documents from the client and the prior accountant go into SmartVault or your document system under the right entity and year, matched to the checklist.
- Hands off the engagement. When access, feeds and prior files are all confirmed, it notifies the staff accountant and schedules the kickoff call.
Opening balance adjustments, accounting method questions and anything the prior files raise go to the accountant and the partner.
Where the work is recorded
Every step the Client Onboarding Agent takes is written to the engagement in EngageSuite360: access requested and granted, each feed with its status and last sync, the release sent, signed and delivered, and each file received from the prior accountant. The client business record shows who at the client has acted and who still owes a step. The files themselves sit in SmartVault, linked to the engagement.
The next morning, the onboarding lead opens one view: new clients waiting on ledger access, feeds still broken, prior accountants who have not responded, and engagements ready to hand off. The partner sees at a glance which new client business will be ready for its first close.
What your people do instead
Your staff accountants do accounting: reviewing opening balances, understanding the client's business, setting up the chart of accounts properly. Your partner spends the kickoff call on the client's goals rather than on why the bank feed is empty. Clients get a firm that knows what it needs and asks for it clearly, which is the first impression that keeps an engagement. The Client Onboarding Agent keeps the requests, reminders, checks and filing moving around them.
Clean onboarding sets up the rest of the year. The document side of tax season is described in Your Worker Classification Agent Builds the File Before the Audit, and ongoing records collection in Clients Call Less When Every Financial Statement Explains Itself.
One next step
EngageSuite360 is a CRM shaped for accounting firms, with clients, client businesses, engagements and prospects built in, and the EngageSuite360 Client Onboarding Agent works on those same records. See EngageSuite360 for accounting and start your next engagement on verified books.
Get the next one for accounting in your inbox.
I'm Rachel, the Accounting ambassador here. One useful piece a week for accounting owners, written for how the work actually happens — plus first access to the free EngageSuite360 CRM built for accounting. Unsubscribe any time.
Rachel replies from accounting@agentworksstudio.com. One email with the link — no list, no drip, unless you ask for the weekly letter. Or go straight there →