We want you to decrease your time to onboard and create more fantastic onboarding experiences for your clients.
Through onboarding hundreds of small business clients and coaching other firms, we've developed this proven process. Most clients can be onboarded in 30 days. However, we've used this process to onboard smaller clients or do rush jobs in as short as 15 days.
While most QuickBooks cleanups can be done during onboarding, if your client is more than a few months in or you're doing a major overhaul or cleaning up more than 6 months of work, we recommend creating a separate project for that backwork rather than trying to include it in onboarding.
Onboarding Checklist
Here's the above process broken down into a checklist. If you pick this method, keeping an "onboarding" folder with a separate checklist per client is a good approach. If certain clients don't need sections of the checklist, simply delete that section from their checklist.
Click here to view a Google Docs onboarding checklist. Remember to request edit access in the top right.
Designate an onboarding champion
You can have a great process but if you don't have a single person managing the process for all new clients things can fall apart real fast. You may not have enough volume for a dedicated new client onboarding person but assign someone on the team whether that's a senior accountant or your operations manager to manage and monitor the entire process for all new clients.
Online tracking & reporting
While the checklist approach certainly works, it lacks key visibility. If you prefer a more online approach, this section is for you.
If you don't have a flexible practice management system that includes onboarding workflows, like Karbon, or don't wish to add too many details to that system, and you consistently onboard more than 2 clients per month, you might benefit from tracking new client onboarding in Asana.
The timeline tab allows you to produce a Gant chart-style view of the project. We use this when reviewing the timeline with the client. Once this is set, you could even share this with the client via the intro email.
The dashboard tab in an Asana project allows you to monitor things like overdue tasks, % tasks complete, and the overall progress of the new client onboarding.
You can track simultaneous onboardings at once using the portfolios tab. Here, you can track at-risk projects and overall progress.
Asana CSV import file
If you'd like to copy the steps in the above checklist and import into Asana or your tool of choice, use this CSV file.
Welcome email template
Welcome to Cohesion Accounting!
We're thrilled you have selected us as your trusted financial partner. Getting started with a new accountant can be scary. We're here to make it a little bit easier.
First, I'm John Parker and will be here to answer any questions about getting started with your new firm and to walk you through every step.
Here's the team who will be working with you to hit your financial goals this year.
And this is what you can expect over the next 30 days.
Keek a look out for the online info form and get that back to us as soon as possible. We're looking forward to serving you!
<Insert signature with calendar link>
New client or referral gift ideas
A great new client welcome gift goes a long way. Don't forget to send a gift to the client or person who sent you the business to keep those good vibes strong too.
Here are some great resources to streamline your gift-giving while staying personal.
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