New client onboarding checklist

A new client checklist is the list of signed paperwork, business documents, records and access an accounting or bookkeeping firm needs before the first month's work can start. Most onboarding delay is not the work. It is waiting for files that were asked for loosely, in an email, with nowhere obvious to send them.

Payroll, sales tax, and open notices are sections of their own in the builder above, switched off by default. Turn on only what this client has: a list with twenty items that do not apply gets answered slower than a list of eight that do.

• Bookkeeping clients: the weight is on Banks and cards and Bookkeeping. Ask for statements from the last reconciled month, not the whole year, unless you are catching up.
• Tax-only clients: Business details and Prior records, plus Notices. For individual returns, the tax preparer checklist lists the documents by situation.
• Audit and review engagements: start here for the entity documents, then send a PBC list by account area.
• Catch-up or clean-up work: every statement for every month that is behind, and the previous accountant's files if you can get them.

Some of what you need is an answer, not a document. Ask these once, at the start, so they are not scattered across the first month of emails:

• What does the business sell, and how does it get paid?
• When does your financial year end, and do you use cash or accrual accounting?
• How many bank accounts, cards and loans does the business have?
• Do you have employees, contractors, or both?
• Which states do you sell into or have staff in?
• Who did this work before, and why are you moving?
• What deadline or problem made you get in touch now?

1. 01Send the engagement letter first, on its own. Nothing else is asked for until it is signed.
2. 02Send the trimmed checklist with one upload link directly under it, and a date for the first batch.
3. 03Ask for software and bank access as user invites, never as passwords in an email.
4. 04Review what arrived within two working days and send one follow-up that lists only what is still missing.
5. 05Set the kickoff date from the day the list is complete, not the day the letter was signed.

The document request email templates have the first request, the follow-up and the final reminder written out, with space for the list and the link.

Drive File Request gives each new client an upload link. They open it without an account, choose what each file is from a short list, and upload; every file lands in your own Google Drive, in that client's folder, and each answer can route to its own subfolder:

The link can ask for the client's name and email and a dropdown of the stages above, and you get an email when files arrive. It can be password-protected or limited to the client's email domain, and closed once onboarding is done; the secure file upload portal page has the details.