New Client Onboarding: Workflow Configuration

A ready-to-build example workflow for taking on a new accountancy client, from sales handover to a live, recurring engagement. Use it as a starting point and adjust the steps, roles, wording and timing to suit your firm.

This version assumes the client uses Wórkiro for the steps that involve them, so those steps are written and addressed to the client, not to your team.

How to use this configuration

1. In Settings → Workflows, create a recipe named New Client Onboarding (UK).
2. Build the steps in order using the configuration blocks below. Each block gives you the participants, outcomes, guidance to copy and paste..
3. You create each role the first time a step needs it (via Participants → Add → New Role), so roles come into being as you build. The roles table shows where each one first appears.
4. Remember, a step's participants all see the task guidance, so put your internal owner on client steps but never put the client on an internal step. Do not default to a single participant: include whoever needs to receive the handover, sign off, or attend.
5. Any document attached carries forward between tasks automatically, so keep sensitive or internal material off the flowing task and on the client record (via Relates To) instead, and make sure nothing internal reaches a client step.
6. Turn Visibility on once every step is complete.

Suggested timing is a guide for setting due dates when a workflow runs. It is not part of the recipe.

Roles

Create each role when you reach the step where it first appears.

The workflow at a glance

Step-by-step configuration

Step 1: Confirm sales handover (internal)

ℹ️ This task allows the Onboarding Lead to pick up the client context, the agreed scope and fees, and the key contacts. 

Participants: Client Relationship Owner (Starts the workflow), Onboarding Lead (assignee)

Outcomes: Ready to onboard → Step 2

Guidance (shown to your team): copy and paste this...

Confirm the engagement is ready to onboard before releasing it:

- The onboarding team is assigned
- The client connection is set up
- The signed engagement letter is attached and stored, and the first meeting is booked.
- Sales handover notes are added to the comments

**On completion of this task the Client will start their onboarding, 
Note that the attached document will carry forward as a reference that the client will see**

Step 2: Get your onboarding started (client-facing)

ℹ️  The previous-accountant details and uploaded accounts pass to the Onboarding Lead for clearance and the opening review.

Participants: Client Contact (assignee), Onboarding Lead (oversees and answers questions)

Outcomes: Checklist complete → Step 3

Guidance (shown to the client): copy and paste this...

**Welcome aboard, and thank you for choosing us.**

To get your onboarding moving, please complete the few items below. 

You can add a comment or upload a file for each one, and tick it off when it's done.

- Book your kick-off meeting using our scheduling link: [insert link]
- Tell us about your previous accountant, if you had one: their name, firm, email and phone number.
- Upload your most recent accounts or tax return so we can get up to speed quickly.

If anything is unclear, just leave a comment here and we'll help.

Documents: The client's uploaded accounts or tax return carry forward; they are needed at later steps.

Step 3: Due diligence and clearance (internal)

ℹ️ Confirmation that the client is accepted and cleared, so the kick-off can go ahead.

Participants: Onboarding Lead (assignee), Reviewing Partner (client acceptance sign-off)

Outcomes: Cleared to proceed → Step 4

Guidance (shown to your team): copy and paste this...

**Checklist**

- Carry out client due diligence, including identity and AML checks. 
- If the client had a previous accountant, request professional clearance and the handover details.
- Set up agent authorisation with HMRC where relevant. 
- Continue once the client is accepted and cleared by the reviewing partner.

**Identity and AML evidence and clearance correspondence are sensitive** 
**Attach them to the client record through Relates To, not to this task**

Step 4: Hold kick-off meeting (internal)

ℹ️ The agreed actions and the list of access and documents still needed pass to the client at the next step.

Participants: Onboarding Lead (assignee), Client Relationship Owner (continuity from sales)

Outcomes: Kick-off held → Step 5

Guidance (shown to your team): copy and paste this...

- Confirm the meeting time with the client and send an agenda in advance. 
- Run the kick-off: walk through the onboarding plan and what each side will provide.
- **Capture all notes and agreed actions as a document on this task**, it confirms
 what you still need from the client.
- Attach the agenda and meeting notes. 
- **Send a separate signature task for any client authority needed**

**On completion of this task the Client will recieve the document and request for final details.**

Step 5: Share access and documents (client-facing)

ℹ️ The clients access details and signed authority are needed by the Systems Administrator and the Accounts Preparer.

Participants: Client Contact (assignee), Onboarding Lead (receives items and answers questions)

Outcomes: Items provided → Step 6

Guidance (shown to the client): copy and paste this...

**A few things we need to start work on your accounts.**

Please provide each item below and tick it off when it's done. 

- Read-only access to your bank, card and payment accounts.
- Administrator access to your accounting software.
- Sign and return the authority document we attached in a separate task.

Not sure how to share access for any of these? Leave a comment and we'll guide you through it.

Documents: Store the signed authority on the client record. Treat access credentials as sensitive: they are needed only until the systems are set up, so plan to remove them from the workflow after step 7 rather than carrying them onward.

Step 6: Confirm everything is received (internal)

ℹ️ A confirmed, complete set of access and documents passes to the Systems Administrator.

Participants: Onboarding Lead (assignee), Systems Administrator (preparing to set up)

Outcomes: All received → Step 7 · Items outstanding → Step 5 (loop)

Guidance (shown to your team):

Check that everything requested in the previous step has arrived:
 
- account access 
- accounting software access
- signed authorities and any handover documents from the previous accountant. 

If anything is missing, choose **Items outstanding** to send the request back to the client. 

Once everything is in, store the documents on the client record and choose **All received**.

Step 7: Set up the client's systems (internal)

ℹ️ Configured systems and confirmed access pass to the Onboarding Lead and the Accounts Preparer.

Participants: Systems Administrator (assignee), Onboarding Lead (visibility)

Outcomes: Systems ready → Step 8

Guidance (shown to your team): copy and paste this...

Set the client up across our internal systems: 

- Create their profile and record their details
- Give them access to the tools they will use
- Configure the accounting system
- Set up billing or a recurring invoice schedule.

Once access is configured in our systems, remove any raw credentials from the workflow.
Access now lives in the systems, not the task.

Step 8: Prepare opening position and confirm scope (internal)

ℹ️ The confirmed scope, or a raised change order, passes to the Accounts Preparer.

Participants: Onboarding Lead (assignee), Reviewing Partner (scope decision sign-off)

Outcomes: Scope confirmed → Step 9 · Clean-up needed → End

Guidance (shown to your team):

Review the prior year profit and loss and balance sheet, and check the real state of the books
against the engagement letter. If the work matches the agreed scope, choose **Scope confirmed**.
If a major clean-up is needed, choose **Clean-up needed**, raise a change order,
and run that as a separate engagement before continuing.

Step 9: Build the opening ledger (internal)

ℹ️ The working ledger passes to the Onboarding Lead for the processes step and partner review.

Participants: Accounts Preparer (assignee), Onboarding Lead (visibility)

Outcomes: Ledger ready → Step 10

Guidance (shown to your team):

Reconcile as needed, update the chart of accounts, and carry
out any minor clean-up so the books are ready to work from.
Working papers and the draft ledger are internal. 
Remove them before the client-facing step that follows, so nothing internal reaches the client.

Step 10: Tailor workflows and get partner sign-off (internal)

ℹ️ Approved financials and processes, and the client is then invited to book the review.

Participants: Onboarding Lead (assignee), Reviewing Partner (sign-off)

Outcomes: Approved → Step 11 · Changes requested → Step 10 (loop)

Guidance (shown to your team):

Build the recurring work the client has signed up for, then review the
financials and proposed processes with the Reviewing Partner.
Choose **Changes requested** to revise and come back, or set **Approved** once it is signed off.
Keep working papers internal. Prepare a client-appropriate summary for the review meeting.

Step 11: Book your review meeting (client-facing)

ℹ️ The confirmed meeting time passes to the review-meeting participants.

Participants: Client Contact (assignee), Onboarding Lead (oversees)

Outcomes: Meeting booked → Step 12

Guidance (shown to the client):

**We're almost there.**
Please book your onboarding review meeting using our scheduling link: [insert link]
In this meeting we'll walk you through your numbers, the systems we've set up for you,
and how we'll work together from here.

Documents: None expected from the client. Make sure no internal documents are attached to this client-facing step.

Step 12: Hold the review meeting (internal)

ℹ️ Agreed KPIs and follow-up actions pass to the Client Relationship Owner for close.

Participants: Onboarding Lead (assignee), Reviewing Partner (presents)

Outcomes: Review complete → Step 13

Guidance (shown to your team):

Confirm the meeting time and send an agenda. Present the financials, the systems you have set up,
and how you will work together. 
Agree the KPIs you will report on, provide any training, and capture follow-up actions.
Share the review summary and financial overview with the client in the meeting.
Keep the underlying working papers internal.

Step 13: Follow up and close (internal)

ℹ️ The client moves into recurring service; the relationship owner and onboarding lead hand over to the service team.

Participants: Client Relationship Owner (assignee), Onboarding Lead (hands into ongoing service)

Outcomes: Onboarding complete → End

Guidance (shown to your team):

Call the client to thank them, run your satisfaction survey, and ask for a testimonial or referral. 
Send any welcome gift, then move the client into their ongoing, recurring service.
Attach the final onboarding summary. Nothing sensitive.

Notes for whoever configures this

• Participants are deliberate, not default. Each step lists its assignee plus anyone who needs the handover, a sign-off, or oversight. Client facing steps carry their internal owner so someone is minding them. No internal step include the client, because all participants see the step's guidance.
   
• Documents need removal points, not just to carry-over. Sensitive material (ID and AML evidence, signed authorities, access credentials) lives on the client record through Relates To, and should not continue on the flowing tasks. Internal working papers are removed before the client-facing steps. Removing a document from a task is a maturing capability, so for now keep that material off the task in the first place.
   
• The loops and the branch need a decision from you. Step 6 sends the client back to step 5 while anything is outstanding, step 10 loops for partner changes, and step 8 ends the workflow when a major clean-up becomes a separate engagement.