you may want someone dedicated to onboarding.
by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers
once you have signed all the agreements and uploaded initial documents for back office support, your bookkeeper manager (bkm) steps in to connect with the client. the bkm should be on-site for one to five days depending on the size and needs of the client. at that time, the bkm obtains more documents and access points. the information is digitally stored while the bkm is on-site so that the full team has access immediately.
more: start every engagement with an sla | three demos: pricing your value add | set expectations with an anticipatory set | get the most out of your client meeting | why bos calls for flat rates | four steps for controlling source documents | why you need standard naming conventions | procedures require regular revisiting
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caveat: being on site is not necessary. during the covid-19 pandemic, many firms went virtual. here’s a story from five years before covid-19 that shows that virtual onboarding works just fine.
case study: virtual onboarding for a company on multiple continents
in 2016, i was doing a series of seminars for the 2020 group usa. i also had my two partners from india with us. we did a six-week tour of the u.s. with a weekend break at my home in san diego. i had been contacted the week before the break by a company who found us on the intuit proadvisor site. they sent me an email asking if i would discuss their accounting needs and if i would be open to a skype call. i set it up for the saturday we would be in san diego.
we skyped with the ceo of a new startup, who lived in madrid. his business partner lived in florida. they went to university together in the states. one partner was from spain, one from peru and the pair ended up starting a company that solved a need they had: e-visas. they had a florida cpa, three u.s.-based sales staff, an admin in lima and a cfo in barcelona. they also would be utilizing telemarketing staff in the philippines. their current cpa did not have any interest in bookkeeping, cloud accounting systems or dealing with their e-commerce information. the cpa just wanted to do the taxes.
while on the skype call, my partners were sitting with me. the ceo asked how much we would charge, so we asked for access to their qbo file. while i continued to ask the questions on our new client intake checklist and listen to where this company was and where they were going, my partner looked at the qbo file, and came up with an estimate for the initial cleanup and a price for the month-to-month.
at the end of a 90-minute skype call, we sent a contract via practice ignition, and had the ceo sign up for auto fetch of statements. we already had their qbo access. we got him to reset his bank feeds and showed how he could maintain the stability of both the feeds in qbo and the statement auto-fetch to a shared dropbox. this company grew in leaps, so we added dext, veem and gusto payroll to the list of apps. when the cfo needed data outside of these apps, we added a kpi program for him to use. virtual meetings were a bit rough for me as it meant 3 a.m. calls. but after a year, we only needed those early morning calls once a month. they were in a slack channel on our slack. they loved it so much, they got their own slack account, so now it is a direct shared channel from their slack to ours. as of 2021, our monthly flat rate billing with this company has changed drastically. business for them dropped in 2020 as fast as it grew in earlier years because of the pandemic, but now they are coming back. as i hope we all do.
checklists for work details
there are additional checklist items the bkm will go through, depending on the type of client. these checklists are created or edited to manage the details of each task type. a schedule of work is entered into the workflow. by doing this with the client, the bkm is including the client in the process and making them part of the team. whenever anyone has an opportunity to make adjustments on your work, they have buy-in and a desire to see it completed. the client or their designated employee is more willing to keep using the technology you have put into place.
the anticipatory set is added to page one of client onenote or any client-specific needs tracking system you use internally and in the client leave behind manual in digital access.
the bkm adds the new and updated checklists and scheduling to the client leave behind manual. as you create each client-specific procedure, be sure to share that with the client. let them know what you are doing daily, weekly and monthly for them. use the checklists as a starting point. the more information you can get up front, the easier the transition. again, doing this with the client on-site is helpful.
the bkm and the client may find redundant processes, missing steps or additional work while going through this exercise. as the team leader, you may want to be along for some of this at the beginning. the most important thing is not who obtains the information but that the information is obtained and shared equally across the team. every visit is an opportunity to learn more.
as the case study above shows, the engagement did not remain static. the client grew, technology changed, needs changed and as our workload changed, so did our pricing.
the onboarding team member
as your business grows you may – and most likely should – add an onboarding agent. this person does not have to be an accountant or bookkeeper. frankly, if you put this person in either of those two buckets, you will eventually negate the purpose you hired them for. getting the business to use the apps is important. their technology is key to keeping any profit you may have on this foundation.
the onboarding agent can work with the client from the technology side and with the app providers when there are questions, problems and/or upgrades. they can be the go-to person for the nuances of each app so your accountants and bookkeepers do not have to be in constant learning or in catchup mode with tech. they will be busy enough with compliance, day-to-day work, special work, not to mention life.
i do not get into any work that involves bookkeeping or accounting anymore. never liked it, and to tell the truth, i never was dedicated to this. i like dealing with the client, the process and the technology. my more than competent partners know debits, credits, compliance and accounting. they do that part. i have a three-person team to help me, and they have 50 to help them. together, we are a small business that gets a lot done. we work toward efficiency, not numbers of people on the team.