The most stressful time for an accounting firm isn’t always tax season but the first 30 days with a new client.
Just the thought of having to chase documents and manage compliance checks across multiple systems can feel exhausting.
Now, what if you are a smaller accountancy firm and you don’t have the staff or resources to have specific roles to manage all the dedication that onboarding needs?
You shouldn’t have to let the size of your firm affect your client’s experience and onboarding does not have to feel as hard as it often does.
Systems that automate the onboarding process could be the answer to your prayers and free your team up to focus on work that truly matters, as well as allow a wider range of staff the ability to complete elements of the process.
The pitfalls of traditional onboarding
It might just be that your firm has one or a few earners, a service team and some admin staff and not a dedicated onboarding or compliance team to manage the process.
This means that the responsibility for onboarding falls to individuals who are already trying to balance other duties, client work and deadlines.
Traditional onboarding processes will only add to this pressure.
Many firms still rely on spreadsheets, emails, paper forms and at best disconnected systems. This creates data silos, where information is stored in different places and has to be manually transferred or checked.
Tasks like issuing letters of engagement, completing Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and collecting client information are also handled separately.
This essentially opens the door to the risk of duplication and errors.
Cracks in your onboarding process can become even bigger when your firm starts to grow and your team can quickly feel overwhelmed.
There is also the cost of getting it wrong, as poor onboarding can lead to compliance risks and a negative first impression that’s hard to recover from.
All this can make it difficult to see the benefits of sticking to your traditional onboarding process.
Why do you need to improve your onboarding?
Onboarding is your client’s first experience of your firm and having a slow or disjointed process can quickly impact your client’s trust from the outset.
Clients are expecting efficiency from their accountants and delays or repeated requests for information can also build frustration.
So, why would you not look to automate this process?
Automating onboarding allows you to reduce admin time and ensure you are consistently meeting your compliance requirements.
It is also a reflection of your professionalism and a structured process, which is the same for each client, should not be underestimated.
If your firm is taking those steps to grow, the wrong onboarding process can also become a bottleneck and hold back your ability to take on new clients and scale.
How Summa Tech’s Onboarder can help
Our Onboarder tool has been developed to solve these challenges and replaces manual, disconnected processes with a single, easy-to-use platform that brings everything together.
From client KYC to AML checks to engagement letters, the entire onboarding process is managed in one place.
So, there’s no more switching between systems or chasing paperwork. You can track each client’s progress in real time and make sure nothing is missed.
Onboarder is also built with smaller and growing firms in mind and our research has shown that traditional systems are too rigid and force you to adapt to their processes.
Onboarder works the other way around and is tailored to your workflow, adds custom questions and shapes the process to suit your firm.
It’s also accessible and cost-effective, so you can implement it straight away and your onboarding process can grow with you.
Onboarding doesn’t need to be complicated or time-consuming and our tools are here to set your new client relationships up for success.