Sistava

Client Onboarding

AI for Accounting and Bookkeeping Firms

From signed engagement to ready to work

Onboarding a new client is a checklist nobody owns: engagement letter, identity verification, authorisations, software access, opening balances, and the handover from the previous accountant.,Your assistant runs it: what is outstanding, who is waiting on whom, and what is blocking the first piece of actual work.,It is the least interesting part of winning a client and the part that most often makes a good first impression turn into a slow start.

Benefits

How It Works

  1. Step 1:
  2. Step 2:
  3. Step 3:
  4. Step 4:

At a Glance

From signature
Tracking starts immediately
Chased
Predecessor handover too
Separated
Blockers from nice-to-have
Closed
A definite ready point

The Handover Nobody Can Chase

Predecessor handover is the step that most reliably stalls, and the client cannot fix it because they have no leverage with their former accountant and often feel awkward about having moved. So it sits, sometimes for months, while the new practice works around missing opening information or simply waits. Tracking it as an owned item with consistent follow-up is unglamorous and it is the difference between starting properly in week two and reconstructing an opening position in month three.

A Good First Impression Undone by a Slow Start

Clients change accountants because the last one was unresponsive, so the first weeks carry disproportionate weight. A practice that wins the work on responsiveness and then goes quiet for a month during onboarding has confirmed exactly the fear that made them switch. Nothing about that is a service failure in the technical sense, since no work was due yet, and it still sets the relationship on the wrong footing before the first job is delivered.

FAQ

Does it handle identity verification?

It tracks what is required and outstanding and chases for it. The verification itself and the professional judgement about whether it is satisfied stay with your team, since that carries regulatory weight.

Can it chase the previous accountant?

It drafts and tracks the professional clearance and handover correspondence. Firm-to-firm correspondence is worth having a person send, since the tone matters and it is a professional relationship.

What about anti-money-laundering obligations?

It tracks the checklist and the outstanding items. Assessing risk and deciding whether obligations are met is a regulated judgement for a qualified person, and nothing here substitutes for that.

Does it set up the software?

It tracks access requirements and prompts for what is missing. Actual system setup and opening balances are work for your team, since errors there propagate through everything after.