At GranthamPoole, the sales process is integral to onboarding and starts with the very first meeting with a prospect. This is the initial chance in which the team can listen to the client. Our team needs to understand why they want a meeting with us, why they are leaving their last accountant, or why they need an accountant for their business.

We need to hear exactly what they want. Do they just want us to deliver financials and run payroll, or do they want a trusted advisor who will help them decide business strategy? We need to understand the client's personality because they need to be matched with the right staff and controller. For the onboarding team to ensure success, they first have to ensure what the client wants is actually delivered.

Listening to what the client needs is key

The goal of this meeting is to ask questions and listen. Our sales team is made up of the employee who is the client’s main contact, a tax manager or partner, a client accounting and advisory (CAAS) partner, and possibly an advisory partner in an area the client mentioned in an email or call with their contact. For example, if the client mentioned wanting to talk about retirement or succession planning, the sales team will bring in team members from those areas to address questions.

The next step is the proposal meeting, the perfect time to present services, pricing, a timeline, the recommended tech stack, and share information about the onboarding process, including who the onboarding team members are and their specific roles. We also stress that we do not start until an engagement letter is signed. We talk high level about the information that will be needed, client involvement and support, and when the client will transition to the ongoing team. We stress the importance of leveraging technology in all ways on all days; there will be no keying in of transactions and we want to integrate all of the software, if possible. That includes our 100% goal of getting original transactions into QuickBooks Online.

Once the client accepts the proposal, the onboarding team is now ready to go! A team member prepares the engagement letter, portal form, and ACH form. When the client returns the signed document, we ensure the tasks are set up in our system that match the signed engagement letter. The letter should list the tasks we are agreeing to perform, as well as those that are out of scope. Clients often think accounting means “everything,” when it really doesn’t! There is accounting, payroll, sales tax, bill pay, accounts receivable invoicing, integration software, advisory consulting, dashboards, 1099s, budgeting, cash flow analysis, tax returns, and many other services.

 Next, we hold a kickoff meeting to introduce the onboarding team and really get into the details. We provide a list of information needed, discuss the conversion of systems to QuickBooks Online, and include integrating point of sale or other apps that need to be connected to the QuickBooks Online ecosystem. Our goal is to have a modern cloud-based accounting system where clients can work anywhere they choose. We request logins for everything because we do not want to wait on the client for information we need when we need it.

Something important to note: Our agenda isn’t just about processes and systems; it’s also very important to nurture the relationship. We want to get to know the client’s personality and interests, personally and professionally. The relationship is everything—and so is our first impression. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

Technology and converting to the QuickBooks ecosystem

The onboarding team uses Asana to manage the onboarding tasks for each onboarding process. We have taken the time to build out each process. Consistency is the key to success and efficiency. If you go by memory, something will get left out and you’ll risk an unhappy client. If a client wants payroll set up, we have steps that are managed and checked off by our onboarding project leader—and the same goes for other software. If a new issue arises, we update our processes to avoid issues in the future. Processes change as software changes, so keeping these steps current is very important.

 Let’s talk conversion! Some are easy and some are not. Our team uses the Intuit migration team to convert all of our clients from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. We love that Intuit offers this to our firm. Recently, they rolled out a multiple client migration process from Desktop. One of our team members reviews the conversion, and ties out the prior year and the conversion date in accrual and cash basis to ensure the conversion was a success. We find issues in conversion when a client or previous accountant utilizes a  journal entry for accounts receivable or accounts payable transactions, instead of using the systemic types for the process, such as invoicing and the receiving payment types, or utilizing bill and bill payments functionality.

 If a client was on another system, we need to understand how much history they want to bring over. We typically only bring over one or two years of trial balances by month. Again, a team member will record a journal entry. We can also upload journal entries, a newer feature in QuickBooks Online. A tie out of the conversion is prepared to ensure the data is correct. We then tie out to the prior tax return balance sheet to ensure all adjustments have been recorded. This helps us when the tax team starts the tax return so that they do not have to correct retained earnings. 

We may also set up or convert payroll, and again, there is a step-by-step process. We usually allow two weeks to set up payroll. The onboarding team works with the QuickBooks Online Payroll team to ensure it is set up properly, and the two weeks allows us enough time to obtain tax IDs and other information. The onboarding team also runs payroll the first time to ensure it is successful, and if it is bumpy, we run the payroll a second time. Once it is smooth, we pass the payroll over to the ongoing team.

We will also integrate the client’s point of sale system. We ensure we understand how each system integrates to QuickBooks Online, mapping the products, services, or accounts properly. We review the transactions to ensure they are landing correctly in the general ledger. Recently, we transitioned the onboarding team to prepare the first financials and other tasks required for the client, really focusing on having a great first impression and high-quality deliverables.

Once all conversions are complete, tested, and payroll is smooth, we hold a success call. Before I tell you what a success call is, let me share the structure of our ongoing team. A staff accountant, controller, and CAAS partner makes up the ongoing team. The success call is a time where we bring the ongoing team, client contact, and the tax manager/partner together with the onboarding team, sharing  all we have learned. We discuss the business of the client, key employees/contacts, basis of accounting, price of the engagement, what work is being/will be performed, estimated budget, difficulty level, the personality of the client, and their expectations. We allow time for questions.

Ensuring success

Along the way, we noticed delays in timely delivery of the initial financial statements. Since then, we moved the preparation of the initial financial statement task to the CAAS onboarding team. We want the clients to stay with onboarding until their financials are current, then the onboarding team can hand off to the ongoing team a clean and current set of books to put in their rotation.

 As a partner and CPA of the CAAS team, I always review the first financials and any other deliverable. My goal is to ensure we are delivering what the client asked for in that first sales meeting. Once it is good, we will hand it over to our ongoing team, where I know they get the best service.

CAAS has a lot of moving parts. Every client is different, and at GranthamPoole, we love serving our clients. Good luck with your onboarding process!