PingtailThis page shows how new client onboarding works with Pingtail: one request that collects the engagement letter, the basic facts, prior returns and last year's books, with every answer and file saved as your client goes. You know the usual version. Your welcome email has eleven bullet points, and the reply has two attachments and "will send the rest soon".
The new client onboarding checklists
There is a ready-made new client checklist for each country we cover. Use it as it is, or take out and add items for the client in front of you.
- United States. Signed engagement letter, legal business name, EIN, type of business, state, fiscal year end, financial statements for the last two years and the most recent business tax return, plus optional items such as a chart of accounts export. Yes/no questions ask whether the client has given you access to their accounting software and bank accounts.
- United Kingdom. Signed engagement letter, company details, a question about accountant access to the accounting software, the HMRC agent authorisation code, the last set of accounts and the last tax return. A separate checklist covers identity checks for anti-money laundering: photo ID, proof of address, date of birth, company owners with 25% or more, and the certificate of incorporation. You can send both on day one. What your firm must collect depends on your own risk assessment, so check the current rules.
- India. Signed engagement letter, PAN card, GST registration certificate, incorporation certificate or partnership deed, the last ITR and audited accounts, and a question about access to the client's accounting data.
The engagement letter item collects a letter your client has already signed. Pingtail does not provide e-signature.
Questions and files in one request
An onboarding request mixes three kinds of item: a file, a yes/no question and a short answer. So the EIN, the fiscal year end and the prior year return sit in the same list. Items are required or optional, and reminders only mention the required ones still missing.
Uploads are checked at once. A password-locked PDF, a document with pages missing or a blurred photo of an ID is flagged while your client is still on the page, not three days later. The check can ask your client to look again, but it never rejects a file. See upload checks.
Who at the client gets which email?
A new client is often more than one person. At Taqueria Luna the owner signs the engagement letter and the office manager has the bank statements. Add both as contacts on the same client. For each contact you decide two things: whether they receive requests, and whether they receive reminders. The owner can get the first email and no reminders, while the office manager gets both.
Each contact also has a language, English, Spanish or French, and a timezone. The owner can read the request in Spanish and the office manager in English, and reminders arrive between 8:00 and 21:00 where each of them lives. Your client can change the page language themselves too.
If you take on many clients at once, import them by pasting a list or CSV text. Each client has an owner on your team, who gets the upload notifications.
Save your own onboarding template and share it
After two or three new clients you will know what your firm really asks for. Save that request as your own template and start every new client from it. A saved template cannot be edited in place today; to change it, adjust a request and save it as a new template.
A template can be shared by link. Anyone with the link can view it. Using it needs an account.
When the client sends things by email anyway
Some clients will reply to your email with attachments, however clear the button is. That is fine. You have two options on the item.
- Upload for the client. Save the attachment and upload it to the item yourself. The file is stored with the rest and included in the export.
- Mark as received outside the tool. For a paper letter, or a document you already hold. The item counts as done and reminders stop asking for it.
The first week, in short
- Day 1. Add the client and its contacts. Send the onboarding request, and the identity checks request if you are a UK firm.
- Day 3. The first reminder goes out for missing required items. Review what has arrived.
- Day 7. The second reminder. Add any item that the answers show you need.
- End of the week. Export one zip, with files renamed to your pattern and the answers in a text file. Set up the client's recurring monthly request.
When a welcome email is enough
If you take on two new clients a year, a good welcome email is enough. A request helps when onboarding is frequent, or when missing identity documents hold up the start of work. And Pingtail collects the documents only: it does not sign the engagement letter, take a first payment, or set up the client in your ledger.
See what your client sees on the client upload page, and how files are protected on the security page.