>[!note] templates: https://cloudaccountingblog.com/templates-by-category ## key thoughts for onboarding workflows - define your outcome, e.g: - onboard ideal clients with ease, build early trust, and collect everything needed to start quality accounting work - **can put this in client-facing materials.** - define your ideal client → if you don’t know who this is, you don’t know what you’re building towards. - collaboration styles, entity type, demographic, geography, industry, stack stack, services - craft a welcome guide → tells them how you’re going to collaborate together // “bossy nice” // “clear is kind” - app help links (e.g, how to reconnect bank feeds), communicating, compliance, security; sharing, reporting, value statement. - email goes out at the start of the year with new tax rules, etc. - they get a task at the start of the year to take a picture of their odometer for mileage write-offs - one of the first tasks is to enable 2FA in practice management software - she does a training session for how to access their reports and set up bookmarks in qbo for them. - empower them to not need you. - she has it as a PDF, she spends time up front going over the guide on a call, it’s on her website - define the order of your milestones.. ## milestones of your onboarding systems **the chunks that need to get done in a certain order** ### 1) lead generation and discovery possibly the most important part of onboarding workflow. vet the misfits and don’t get into the time suck of prospects your firm can’t bring value to. even if someone comes to your firm via email, *have them fill out your inquiry / “discovery” form*. that way you can get ahead of things like pricing ahead of time. - [ ] change the onboarding form to have a statement about our ideal client at the very beginning. “are you… [insert ideal client]” as a yes or no question. - [ ] “what are you looking for in an accounting professional?” multi-select. - [ ] “have you check out our pricing page? here is a link to it… we have an average price of xyz… does this fit with your expectations?” - [ ] maybe: are you willing to collaborate with us via our cloud-based secure client portal? >[!note] kellie charges $250 for a file review before providing a quote for ongoing work. >mentions this in the pricing question, which is y/n she has an additional form that she does as part of discovery; they’re invited to fill it out prior to discovery call *or* they can go over it together during discovery call. ### 2) file review no matter how much is automated, this step needs human involvement. this is the next step after they meet. this is a paid step in kellie’s system. go into it with the understanding that *you* are the professional; they are not; they may not have any idea how many reports, etc. you need to pull for them. (some people may come just for file review.) she gives a report + video → bring value from the *beginning*. if they don’t work with you, they can even take it to a different accounting professional. adds to financial cents… some of the items below have subtasks; view kellie’s site (calmwaters or accounting4accountants.com for templates) onboarding file review: - engage prospect for file review - check out their website - information gatehr - review company settings - review overview for bank feeds, reconciliation statuses - review balance sheet - verify general ledger - review p&l - report findings - file review findings into doc or slide deck - record video of findings - upload report and video to client tasks when she’s done, creates client tasks for: - download file review report and video - book a file review call with us ### 3) quote have engagement letter that gives you an out for to disengage. they also have to sign ACH agreement. they get **one reminder**. if they don’t sign, disengage. - [ ] chat with anne about *her* disengagement points. identifying red flags early. ### 4) information gathering if they don’t get through this milestone, **end the process**. this is a sign of future collaboration. drip campaigns are great for onboarding clients; you can ask them to do one thing at a time. - send next steps email - send questionnaire: biz docs required - send questionnaire: bank recon info (bank name, last four digits, kind of account, etc) - send questionnaire: payroll information - send email: onboarding - cra (irs) authorization - send email: online tax payment ### 5) engagement in engagement letter, state the apps, timelines, and out of scope work. possibly use a 3 or 6 month engagement if scope of work is hard to assess. she charges a flat fee for bringing new employees into apps; getting them out of apps. new businesses or entities they didn’t disclose, etc… - send contract: onboarding - full engagement - send email: onboarding - we know this has been a ton of emails and documents - send email: onboarding - client best practices and checklists - schedule birthday email (!!!) she includes all the places she keeps client data, like google workspace, typeform, etc. they’re signing off that their data is in those software and kept in the cloud. be careful pricing by transaction load; see how *complicated* the transactions are. all notes, vendor notes, etc. go into client file; that client file goes to the client when reengaging so they see everything you’ve produced. ### 6) app implementation depends if they come to you with the tech set up or if you need to get them set up. have a template with some “this or that” scenarios… if this is what they’ve got, this is the tempalte we deploy, etc… ### 7) education spend time upfront for big overall gains… gives them app confidence and better communication and sharing collaborations. **(see rest of tasks in slidedeck)** >[!note] tech onboarding call for clients just like we do with team, DUH covers even how to use chrome / bookmarks, security session, etc. ## simple automations to implement ==AUTOMATIONS BUILT FOR LOUSY SYSTEMS WILL ONLY SPEED UP LOUSY OUTCOMES== discovery form that is accessible without you, vets who can book with you, and blocks your scheduler → online scheduler that integrates with CRM, etc… ## onboarding tech stack - form builder - checklist - signature app - storage folder - way to communicate - practice management app ## building a workflow *see the full list in slide deck* - start in a humble worksheet :) - discovery - short form – match the big 5 qs about ideal client - longer form – matches in detail services you provide - discovery call - quote - information gather - next steps letter that details what’s coming for htem to do - ship out forms - engagement - scope of work → responsibilities for clients vs. firm - out of scope dtails - deadlines - source docs not reviewed… *look at chrome folders, sub-folders, and bookmarks?* ## questions about financial cents - [ ] does it integrate with both qbo and xero - [ ] can you see vendors / 1099 stuff? - [ ] don’t see assignees – does it have those? - [ ] also – under what circumstances do you do a *reengagement*? - *after first three months and at end of fiscal year* ## q&a - if the lifetime value of a client is going to be very small (e.g, very small monthly fee), charge an onboarding fee. some people even refund this / remove from invoices over time, e.g, if they are with you for six months… - if she does not have the documentation needed to start work within 2 weeks, they just move on.