- Have the client's contact info ready (name, email, phone, address) - Know which services they need (Tax / Accounting / Audit / Cleanup) and the details - For business clients: entity type, EIN, fiscal year end - For tax clients: which return types (1040 / 1120 / 1120S / 1065 / 990) and how many returns

- Go to Clients → click + New Client - Step 1 — Primary Contact: enter name, email, phone, address; for business, choose entity type and EIN - Step 2 — Secondary Contact: optional — co-owner, spouse, controller, etc. - Step 3 — Service Selection: pick which services this client needs - For Tax: choose return type(s) and number of returns to be filed; for multi-year, indicate single or multi - For Accounting: choose frequency (Monthly / Quarterly / Yearly / Custom / One-Time Cleanup) and scope - For Audit: choose Audit / Review / Compilation / AUP / Single Audit - Click Create — engagement letter generation kicks off automatically - After EL is signed, the client portal account auto-creates and welcome email goes out

- One client can have multiple services — you'll get separate ELs (or combined if you choose) — combined works well for multi-entity related clients - Last 4 of SSN only — never store full SSN (privacy by design) - Tags help with filtering later (e.g. tag "Construction" or "S-Corp 2024 prospects") - Bulk import from TaxDome or Karbon: Clients → Import — column mapping wizard with presets

- Form rejects EIN: check format — 9 digits, no dashes - Multi-entity client confusion: each entity = separate Client record; consolidate in your accounting view, not at the Client level - Bulk import duplicates: pre-process the CSV to remove duplicates by EIN before importing

- Send an engagement letter for signature - Connect QuickBooks Online or Xero (per-engagement linkage) - (Run a monthly close — for accounting clients post-onboarding)