Bringing on a new client touches a dozen small steps: an engagement letter, ID and verification, software access, prior-year files, and the first few deadlines. Miss one and the relationship starts on the back foot, or worse, you discover a gap weeks later when you need the information and it was never collected.
This printable client onboarding checklist template gives your team one repeatable path for every new client. Print it, hand it to whoever is running the onboarding, and tick each item off as it’s done.
What’s inside the client onboarding checklist template
- Engagement and setup (days 1 to 3): conflict check, proposal, scope, engagement letter, welcome email, and the intake form.
- Information gathering and due diligence (days 2 to 7): identity and ownership checks, prior-year returns, software and bank access, and records from the prior accountant.
- Setup and review (days 7 to 10): review prior returns and the books, then set up recurring work and deadlines.
- Kickoff and 30-day check-in: the kickoff meeting agenda and the follow-up a month later.
- Client intake form template: business details, contacts, financial setup, services and key dates on one form.
Who it’s for
Accounting and bookkeeping firms that onboard new clients regularly and want consistency across the team, so onboarding doesn’t live in one person’s head.
How to use it
Print one copy per new client and work top to bottom. Send the intake form at the back as soon as the engagement letter is signed.
For the reasoning behind each step, timelines and ready-to-send emails, read the full new accounting client checklist. For the intake form questions in more detail, see the accounting client intake form guide.
Prefer to run onboarding as a live workflow instead of a printable checklist? Use the client onboarding process template, a step-by-step job template with built-in client requests you can import straight into Tidyflow.