Industry service
Client onboarding automation for accounting firms
Onboard new clients in days, not weeks: engagement letters, identity and anti-money laundering checks, document requests and HMRC authorisations sent, tracked and chased automatically.
VAULT 33|27 · Updated 12 November 2026 · 1 min read
Onboarding is where new clients go cold
A prospect agrees to engage you, then waits for an engagement letter, then forgets to send ID, then the authorisation stalls. Weeks pass before any work starts, and some prospects quietly go elsewhere. As Making Tax Digital for Income Tax brings in waves of sole traders and landlords, firms with slow onboarding will feel it most.
The onboarding pipeline
| Step | Automated | Your team |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement | Letter sent for e-signature the moment a prospect agrees | Approves scope and fee |
| Identity and AML | Secure request for ID and the information your checks require, with reminders | Reviews and decides |
| Documents | Checklist per client type (sole trader, landlord, limited company) with upload links and reminders | Reviews completeness |
| Authorisations | Step-by-step prompts for agent authorisation and MTD sign-up where relevant | Completes the authorisation |
| Kick-off | Welcome message and first deadlines once everything is in | Starts the work |
What you see
Prospects at each stage, days to fully onboarded, and which items most often stall, so you can fix the process, not chase people one by one.
Done properly
Anti-money laundering obligations, your professional body's rules and UK GDPR shape the process. The system collects and reminds; your firm makes every compliance decision. This is not legal or tax advice.
Next step
Book a free audit and we will map your current onboarding from first enquiry to first piece of work.
Open your vault.
A free systems audit: where enquiries leak, what each channel is worth and exactly what we would build.
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