The first 30 days of a client relationship determine whether they stay for one year or ten.
A smooth onboarding process signals professionalism, builds trust, and prevents the messy back-and-forth of chasing information months after the engagement starts. A disorganised onboarding — missing documents, unclear expectations, delayed access — starts the relationship with friction that can take months to recover from.
This checklist covers everything you need to onboard a new bookkeeping client properly, from the initial meeting through to the first monthly summary.
Before You Start: The Discovery Meeting
Before accepting a new client, you need enough information to scope the engagement correctly. A 30-60 minute discovery call or meeting covers:
Business basics:
- What does the business do?
- How long has it been operating?
- How many transactions per month (roughly)?
- What accounting software are they currently using?
- Are their books current or do they need clean-up?
Current situation:
- Do they have an accountant or tax preparer (separate from bookkeeping)?
- Have they had a bookkeeper before? Why are they looking for a new one?
- What are their biggest pain points right now?
What they need:
- Monthly reconciliation only, or do they need management reports?
- Do they want monthly summary emails?
- Do they need payroll support?
- Are there any upcoming events (year-end, audit, loan application) you need to know about?
This meeting also lets you assess fit. Some clients are a pleasure to work with. Others will make your life difficult regardless of how good your systems are. Trust your instincts.
Step 1: Send the Engagement Letter
Within 48 hours of agreeing to work together, send a formal engagement letter covering:
- Scope of services (exactly what's included)
- What's explicitly excluded
- Monthly fee and payment terms
- Response time commitments
- How you'll communicate (email, phone, client portal)
- Termination terms (30 days notice on either side is standard)
- Your data security practices
Use electronic signature (HelloSign, DocuSign, or similar). Don't start work until it's signed.
Step 2: Collect Access and Documents
Create a standard onboarding checklist you send to every new client. It should include everything you need to get started — and nothing more, to avoid overwhelming them.
Accounting software access:
- Invite yourself as an Accountant user in QuickBooks Online (or equivalent)
- Confirm you can see all accounts, transactions, and reports
Bank and credit card access:
- Read-only access to bank statements (or direct bank feed connection)
- List of all business bank accounts and credit cards
Key documents:
- Previous year's tax return (useful for understanding the chart of accounts)
- Any loan or lease agreements (for liability tracking)
- Payroll summary if applicable
Business information:
- Legal business name and entity type
- EIN (Employer Identification Number)
- Registered address
- Fiscal year end
Give clients a deadline — "Please send these by [date] so I can start work on [date]." Without a deadline, document collection drags on indefinitely.
Step 3: Set Up Your Systems
Before touching the books, spend time getting your systems in order.
Review the chart of accounts. Is it set up correctly for the business? Are there unnecessary accounts? Are categories labelled clearly enough that you can explain them to the client? Clean up anything confusing before you start categorising transactions.
Set up bank feeds. Connect all accounts directly if possible. Manual imports work but add friction every month.
Review the opening balances. If you're taking over from a previous bookkeeper, reconcile the opening balances to the prior period's statements. Errors inherited from a previous bookkeeper become your problem if you don't catch them at the start.
Create a client folder. Set up a consistent folder structure for documents: engagement letter, monthly statements, annual documents, correspondence.
Add them to your practice management tool. If you use Jetpack Workflow or similar, create the client profile and set up the recurring monthly tasks.
Step 4: Complete the First Month's Books
The first month takes longer than subsequent months — that's normal. You're learning the business, cleaning up any inconsistencies, and building the patterns you'll follow going forward.
Work methodically:
- Reconcile all bank and credit card accounts
- Categorise all transactions
- Review for anything unusual or unclear
- Prepare the P&L and balance sheet
- Note any questions for the client
Keep a list of questions as you work. Batch them into a single email rather than sending five separate messages. Clients find one consolidated email much easier to respond to than a drip of individual questions.
Step 5: Send the First Monthly Summary
The first monthly summary email is the most important one you'll ever send this client. It sets the template for every email that follows and demonstrates your value immediately.
Put extra care into this one:
- Introduce yourself briefly at the top if you haven't been in regular contact
- Walk through the key numbers clearly
- Explain anything unusual from the first month's review
- Note anything you'll be watching in coming months
- End with a clear invitation to ask questions
If the first monthly email is clear, professional, and useful, you've set an expectation that will pay dividends for years.
Figurenote can generate this first summary email — and every subsequent one — directly from your QuickBooks data in seconds. Free for one client.
Step 6: Schedule the First Check-In
Two to four weeks after sending the first monthly summary, schedule a brief check-in call (15-20 minutes). The agenda:
- Did they have any questions about the summary?
- Is there anything about the business changing in the next few months you should know about?
- Is there anything you need from them to keep the books clean?
Most clients appreciate this call even if they have nothing specific to discuss. It signals that you're engaged and proactive — not just processing transactions in the background.
The Onboarding Checklist — Summary
Before start:
- [ ] Discovery meeting completed
- [ ] Engagement letter sent and signed
- [ ] Onboarding document request sent
Week 1:
- [ ] Accounting software access confirmed
- [ ] Bank feeds connected
- [ ] Chart of accounts reviewed and cleaned
- [ ] Opening balances verified
- [ ] Client folder created
- [ ] Added to practice management system
Month 1:
- [ ] All accounts reconciled
- [ ] Transactions categorised
- [ ] Client questions batched and sent
- [ ] P&L and balance sheet prepared
- [ ] Monthly summary email sent
Month 2:
- [ ] Check-in call scheduled
- [ ] Monthly routine established
- [ ] Any clean-up items resolved
What Good Onboarding Buys You
A well-onboarded client is a client who trusts you, pays on time, refers others, and stays for years. The investment of time and process at the start of the relationship pays back many times over.
The bookkeepers who lose clients in the first six months are almost always the ones who skipped steps — unclear scope, missing documents, delayed communication, no monthly summary.
The ones who retain clients for five, ten, fifteen years are the ones who made the relationship feel effortless from day one.
Figurenote handles the monthly communication piece — generating plain-English summary emails from your QuickBooks data in seconds. Free for one client, no credit card required.