The sustainability and success of a business are heavily dependent on its relationship with clients, so it’s logical to dedicate your time, focus, and resources to streamline the transition. The first few months of guiding new clients to your firm can be convoluted and challenging, especially without an automated system set in place.

In today’s technology-driven landscape, implementing cloud-based solutions to take the drudgery out of managing administrative tasks is the key to your longevity. For accounting firms onboarding clients, an automated process can make all the difference between sales that rocks or flops.

Ways to Improve Client Onboarding for Accounting Firms

With that in mind, the list below should give you a basic rundown on ways to fast-track your client onboarding process:

Tip #1: Outline a Sales Handoff

One of the first steps to streamlining the client onboarding for CPA firms is to determine the hands-on-deck for the account. Briefing the team should cover critical factors in the sales process, from sharing the client’s documentation, story, goals, a summary of roles, and other valuable information that keeps everyone in the loop. It should also note the contract breakdown, project plan, project budget, timeline, suggestions, and other data that defines the project’s scope.

Tip #2: Streamline Your Proposal, Contract, and Payment Documents 

Manually sending out proposal emails, contract details, and invoices for every onboarding client can be time-consuming. It’s an arduous task that can eat away your team’s productivity but adopting automated programs allows you to attach the necessary documents under one easy-to-understand business proposal.

It can simplify and speed up the process for time-based pricing models, making it easier to notify your client and move forward.

Tip #3: Draft a Client Onboarding Questionnaire

If you want to gather valuable information from multiple clients, drafting client onboarding questionnaires that you can quickly send in a mass email before proceeding with the onboarding. Some basic questions you should ask include the following:

    • What is your business information?

    • Who is our primary point of contact?

    • Provide realistic and time-bound metrics that define the project’s success;

    • Do you have experience working with a similar company in the past?

    • What are your suggestions for the logins and passwords to your application software?

Read our detailed accounting client onboarding questionnaire guide or download our free client questionnaire template here.

Our Two Cents: Refining Your Client Onboarding Process to Improve Your Retention Rate and Bottom Line

Fine-tuning the onboarding process for CPA firms is a fundamental step that impacts various aspects of your business. Different accounting client onboarding solutions can enhance the client experience as it takes the guesswork out of displaying the value of your products, services, and other offerings.

With a proper onboarding process in place, you can gain a competitive edge as it can reveal your uniqueness and provide more reasons a client should choose your firm above the rest.

How Can We Help?

Fast-tracking your client onboarding process can be tricky, but with the right accounting practice management software in place, you can streamline your client onboarding and boost its efficiency by a significant margin.

We can take away your CPA firm’s struggles with our accounting workflow templates and other cloud-based productivity tools. Try it for free and see what we can do to improve your management solutions.