05 - What to do when you get your first client
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Hey, Hey, we're back today's episode. Uh, we're going to talk about what to do when you get a new bookkeeping client, a few episodes back, or a couple episodes. I've lost count. I've been batching a lot tonight. A couple episodes back. We talked about upleveling, your onboarding game, and we started to get into it, but I wanted to do a whole different episode dedicated just to how to like, just what to do when you first [00:01:00] get a new bookkeeping client.
This is an area, especially if you're just now going out on your own or thinking about going out on your own. This part is a really tripping you up right now. I know who you are. I wasn't. Okay, so let's do this. If you've ever caught yourself feeling like you might be missing something when onboarding a new client or unsure of even where to start.
Once you do land a client, if you haven't launched your business yet you're in the right place today. My brand, I'm going to talk about this initial client work and how to figure out where exactly to start in it all boils down to accounting 1 0 1. But before we get into that, um, We need to clear some other stuff out of the way.
And I'm talking about limiting beliefs, feeling like you don't know enough, or you won't be able to answer all your client's questions that does not serve you or your client you're here because [00:02:00] you already have a base knowledge of bookkeeping and you're resourceful to boot. You might not know the answers right away, but that's okay.
As long as you know where to find them. So I have three tips to start numbered. One, just jump in, just do it. Don't let the fear hold you back. You'll never start your business. You'll never land a client. If you are too afraid to start and you'll never get like the confidence you need. If you don't just try number two, get comfortable with knowing that you're going to have to roll up yourself.
It is a very rare for a set of books to be in good shape. In fact, the only time I've ever seen a set of books that didn't need some degree of cleanup was when it was a blank slate. And I was setting them up for the first time. Uh, okay. Maybe, maybe one client I've had, um, that I've taken over. I didn't have to do any cleanup [00:03:00] on it's pretty rare.
Number three, signed a menu. You're here, you're listening to this podcast. So you're on the right track. You are, I'm here for you. I got you. You'll inevitably get stuck and have questions on how to handle something for your client, or need to bounce ideas off of someone. Your mentor does not have to be much more seasoned than you, unless you have very little experience and will need a lot of.
If this is the case, I'd recommend looking for an actual job, working for another accountant to start. There are some great Facebook groups where you might be able to find a mentor. Alternatively, you can stay in my world, keeps showing up to this podcast. Maybe hang out with me in my mentorship program.
If you're interested, you can, I will drop a link in the show notes. Um, I am now actually offering a one-on-one [00:04:00] mentoring. Uh, there's a couple of different options for that. I will talk about it at the end. So. All right. I'll hop off the soapbox now and just get to it. Diving into your first brick bookkeeping, client.
Number one, first things. First, you need to have some sort of onboarding plan. We did talk about this a little bit, a couple episodes ago about onboarding. Uh, this does not have to be extravagant if you're just starting. You'll find what works every time it will get better. I promise at the very least though your onboarding must include an engagement.
I E a contract. So with your engagement letter, you also want to gather some information, your engagement letter should include among many other things. Exactly what you will and won't do as part of the scope of the engagement. Will you be doing AR and AP? How much are they? Are, will you be doing collections?
Or just customer invoicing. Will you [00:05:00] be doing day-to-day bill payment or just entering historical transactions? Will you go over the reports with them at month end or maybe quarterly? When will you have reports completed? Several resources to find good engagement letters. I'm going to link in the show notes as well.
Uh, or you can head over to the blog. Ambitious bookkeeper.com/blog/first-client. That's a lot as a mouthful. It'll be on the show notes. Once you've got that engagement letter signed and first invoice paid, it's time to gather the information that you need. Um, I have posted about my onboarding process. I used and I also have some email, uh, email templates for you on my website that you can use to onboard your own clients as well.
Within the, in the email templates, I do list out the items that. I'm requesting for my clients. So that's essentially your checklist of things [00:06:00] that you should also be requesting from your clients. So once you have access to your client's books and the bank statements, you can then dive in side note, the bank statements are on that list.
Okay. Number one, I always always start with cash and a diagnostic review. Start with a diagnostic review, then start with cash. Here's where the accounting 1 0 1 kicks in. Always start with cash. This is why the bank statements are the most important thing to get started. Please do not rely solely on bank feeds.
I've seen them screwed up more than once, and I've seen lots of clients get this wrong too. They assume that since they're matching and adding in bank feeds that counts as reconciling in QuickBooks, it does not. Um, even in zero, you still need to go run the report and match it. Just like verify it against your actual bank statements.
So once the bank accounts are reconciled, you can then. Please, please please review the reconciliation report for stale date checks and [00:07:00] expenses, or really, really old uncleared checks and an old uncleared deposits. I think they're called unclear deposits and, and checks in QuickBooks. Um, uncleared deposits usually indicate duplicated transactions unless it's right at the end of the month.
If they're not right at the end of the month, they're probably duplicate. Uncleared expenses could be owner paid business expenses, or also duplicates a stale data checks, uh, could just need some follow-up with the vendor, but could also be duplicated transactions. Do you see where this can go? Very, very wrong.
Okay. Um, w also within the diagnostic review, you want to continue the same process for each balance sheet account. If the balance sheet is right, you know, you've captured everything. So obtains a supporting documentation for each balance sheet item, or if it's obvious that the item should not be on the balance sheet, you'll want to make a new.
That it needs to be reclassified right now. We're just in diagnostic review stage. We're not [00:08:00] actually doing a cleanup, a side note to this. I highly recommend charging for a diagnostic review. Okay. And then number three, step three. You want to view their monthly PDs? So look at the trends and fluctuations month to month.
Uh, this is something that I go, I dive into in my mentoring and in the bookkeeping business accelerator, I help you Uplevel your skills and, um, your analysis abilities in the program. Uh, so you want to look for big jumps or dips that might indicate something being recorded incorrectly or inconsistently, maybe some prepaid expenses, things like.
Um, I always like to look at expenses as a percentage of revenue and compare it to industry standards. If you have that information, I was looking at gross margin compared to prior periods and compared to industry standards. And I look at the net profit as a percentage of revenue and compare it to previous periods and industry standards to see if there's some trends.
[00:09:00] Okay. Step four. I find out if the owners have paid any expenses with their personal funds and not recorded. If so their owner's contributions, if they're an LLC, um, and step five, I look at their corporate formation documents. If it's a corporation, you want to make sure the equity is recorded correctly.
Like if they have issued stock again, if the balance sheet is right, you know, you've captured everything. Um, then. I get into setting up their accounting system and making sure that all the settings in QuickBooks or Xero are up to par, like make sure their EIN is in there, their company name and their address are all correct and filled in.
Um, again, this is. I'm basically verbally telling you how I do a diagnostic review. Um, I'm not going to go into too much detail on this. This is definitely like also something that's in, uh, my accelerator program. And, um, also as a bonus for some people who get in on kickoff with a [00:10:00] sauna. Like I said, this is just kind of a rough outline on how I tackle a new client's books.
Obviously, if they're existing, if they're a brand new client and they don't have any history yet you're doing a brand new setup and it's easy peasy, but you still need that list of documents. So make sure you head over to the show notes, grab the onboarding email templates. I'm dropping the link for you.
You can also just go straight to my website, ambitious bookkeeper.com and scroll down the page a little bit. You'll see them there for download. Um, so we're like midway through the year right now. I hope you find this useful and it gives you the confidence to just start putting yourself out there and getting clients.
Um, pretty soon, it's going to be like the best time of year to be helping businesses get in shape. Like any time of year is great for it. But right now we're midway through the year. People are like wanting to get their stuff together and. They need your help. [00:11:00] Okay. So remember not to let those pesky limiting beliefs get in your way, but if you truly feel that you need some extra support or knowledge around how best to serve your clients, I hope you find the education you need and a mentor.
And. That mentor might be me. I encourage you to send me a message. DM me on Instagram. We can chat about it. Like I said, I guess, I guess I said I was going to talk about it at the end. So I have a couple options. I have opened up two spots for one-on-one mentoring with me. It's three months. We meet two times a month, you get Voxer support, you get access to my accelerator program, resource materials.
And, um, I, you know, we chat for 90 minutes, twice a week about anything that you need help on. It could be client work, it could be mindset. It could be process any of that. Um, the other option is I am offering. Just 90 minute strategy [00:12:00] calls. So if you don't want to lock in for three months working together quite yet, we can hop on a 90 minute strategy call that will also be linked in the show notes.
Ambitious bookkeeper.com/podcast. And, um, the third option is to get on the wait list for the bookkeeping business accelerator. I am doing that quarterly. As of right now, we do a book. Eight week cohort, which involves weekly hot seat calls, where you can ask any question, you need to weekly coworking sessions, where you can bring your client work, and we can go into breakout rooms and troubleshoot stuff together.
So this is really great for skill building, um, and keeping it private. So you're not sharing a screen with everybody in the program. And, uh, of course you can always just check out my website, ambitious bookkeeper.com. I have a couple of them. Mini course options to help get you [00:13:00] started. Um, and if you're not ready yet, that's cool too.
Just keep showing up to this podcast. I hope you found it valuable and I will talk to you next time. Bye.
