A day-by-day onboarding workflow accounting firms can copy — from first enquiry to signed engagement, complete records and a live filing calendar in seven days.
Seven days from enquiry to a fully onboarded client is a realistic standard for an accounting firm with the right machinery: structured intake, portal-based document collection, automated chasing and template-generated task plans. Here is the day-by-day workflow, exactly as a well-run firm executes it.
The Seven Days
- Day 1 — Enquiry to record. The enquiry lands in the CRM (form, call or referral), a record is created, and a discovery call is booked the same day. Speed here decides whether you were the first firm to respond or the third.
- Day 2 — Discovery and proposal. The call captures entity, services and current state into the intake form. The proposal goes out before end of day, generated from the captured scope.
- Day 3 — Acceptance and letters. On acceptance, the engagement letter issues automatically from the template and goes for e-signature. The KYC and document checklist is released to the client portal at the same moment.
- Day 4 — Collection runs itself. The client uploads against the checklist from a phone or desktop; reminders are scheduled for anything outstanding. Staff review and verify items as they arrive.
- Day 5 — Setup. Ledgers configured, access to existing bookkeeping confirmed, portal users created on the client side. The compliance calendar generates from the client's year end and registrations.
- Day 6 — Internal go-live. Recurring tasks generate from the engagement template, assigned to named staff with deadlines. The engagement moves from "onboarding" to "active" on the board.
- Day 7 — First value. The client receives their filing calendar and a short kickoff summary: what we have, what happens monthly, who to contact. Onboarding ends with a deliverable, not a silence.
What Makes the Timeline Hold
- No re-typing anywhere. Intake fills the record; the record fills the proposal, letter and invoice.
- The system chases, not the staff. Reminders run on schedule; humans handle only judgement and conversation.
- Templates carry the plan. Nobody decides what tasks a new VAT client needs — the template already knows.
This is precisely the workflow Risper CRM automates for accounting and corporate services firms — intake, checklists, portal, e-signature status, deadline generation and task templates in one platform. Firms starting from an email-based process typically halve their onboarding time in the first month; the administrative overload guide shows where the hours come from.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if the client is slow with documents?
The workflow does not break — collection continues on automated reminders while setup proceeds on what has arrived. The stall report shows exactly which clients are waiting on whom.
Does this work for complex entities?
Multi-entity groups take longer on collection, but the structure is identical — each entity gets its checklist, and the board shows them as one onboarding with linked records.
Where do most firms lose the seven days?
Days 2 and 3: proposals that take a week to write and letters that wait for a partner's Friday. Templates fix both.
Run your next onboarding on this timeline — see the workflow live at rispercrm.com/feature.
