Deploy a Client Onboarding Agent and Catch Failed Bank Feeds Early
The Client Onboarding Agent does the setup work on every new engagement so your staff accountant is not spending the first weeks chasing signatures and passwords. The AgentWorks Client Onboarding Agent sends the engagement letter, requests prior-year files, gets access to the client's books, watches the bank feeds and follows up with the prior accountant, while your team spends its time getting to know the client business.
What it takes off your plate
Ask anyone who has onboarded a new client how it goes. The engagement letter goes out by email and gets tracked in a spreadsheet. Prior-year returns and statements arrive as photos, scans and forwarded attachments in no particular order. Getting access to QuickBooks or Xero takes several rounds of email because the invite went to the wrong address or expired.
Then the bank feed connection fails quietly and nobody notices until month-end, when a whole month of transactions is missing. The handoff from the old accountant depends on the client remembering to authorize the release, and they rarely do until someone asks a third time.
The cost is a staff member's week spent on setup, a first close that runs late, and a new client whose first impression of the firm is a string of reminder emails. The relationship starts on the back foot before anyone has talked about the client business.
What the Client Onboarding Agent does, step by step
The Client Onboarding Agent starts with the communication:
- Sends the engagement letter. Once the partner approves the scope, it sends the letter for signature through DocuSign and reminds the client until it comes back signed.
- Requests the prior-year files. It emails the client a clear list of what the firm needs and a secure upload link to SmartVault, then follows up on each missing item by name.
- Handles the prior accountant. It sends the client the release authorization, and once it is signed, sends the request to the old firm and follows up until the files arrive.
- Sets up access. It sends the QuickBooks or Xero invitation, confirms the client accepted it, and walks the client through connecting bank feeds.
- Watches the feeds. It checks that each bank and card feed is pulling transactions and alerts the bookkeeper and the client the day a connection drops, not at month-end.
- Books the kickoff. When the file is complete, it schedules the kickoff call on Google Calendar with the client and the accountant who will own the engagement.
Then the data work: files are named and filed in the client's SmartVault folder, and the onboarding checklist and engagement record are updated at each step.
Where the work is recorded
An agent that cannot record its results is a chatbot. Every email, reminder and reply the Client Onboarding Agent sends lands on the client's record in the CRM your team already sees: when the letter was signed, which files are still missing, when the prior accountant was contacted, which feed failed and when it was fixed. The documents live in SmartVault and the books in QuickBooks or Xero, where your accountants already work.
The next morning, the manager sees each new client's progress in one place: letters out and signed, files received and missing, access confirmed, feeds healthy or broken, kickoff booked. Anyone who takes that client's call knows exactly what is still open. The same approach carries through the tax document collection each season, once the client is set up.
What your people do instead
Your staff accountant spends the kickoff call learning how the client business works, what worries the owner and what they want from the firm, instead of reading a list of missing items. Your bookkeeper starts the first close with complete feeds and prior-year balances. Your partner welcomes a client who already feels looked after.
Onboarding done well also makes every later request easier, from chasing client files to the first planning conversation.
Customer service and client satisfaction are the human job. The AgentWorks Client Onboarding Agent keeps the letters, files, access and feeds moving so your people can focus on the new client in front of them.
One next step
Not sure whether onboarding is the first workflow to hand over? The free Industry Assessment looks at your intake, client service and bookkeeping work and shows which workflow an agent should take first. You can see every accounting agent on the accounting industry page.
See where the Client Onboarding Agent would start in your accounting business.
I'm Rachel, the Accounting ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
Rachel replies from accounting@agentworksstudio.com. One email with the link — no list, no drip, unless you ask for the weekly letter. Or go straight there →