Client Onboarding

Onboarding is complete when the firm can explain who has access, which source owns each account and date range, what data arrived, and what remains before transaction review.

1. Create the client

From the firm's Clients page, add a client workspace with a recognizable operating name. Use bulk creation when onboarding several companies, but review imported names before creating them so duplicates and placeholders do not become active books.

Set the client status, internal assignees, and access deliberately. Owners and managers who are internal firm members have full client access; staff and extended members can have read, write, or no access per client. See Roles and Permissions.

2. Choose the starting ledger

The first time you open the new client workspace, choose the starting ledger:

• Start Fresh to create the opening chart without importing an existing QuickBooks ledger;
• QuickBooks Desktop to set up the desktop-ledger import or connection path;
• QuickBooks Online to authorize and bring in the connected QBO company;
• Xero to connect an organisation and review its imported books;
• Digits to upload a Chart of Accounts, Transaction List, and dated Trial Balance as CSV or XLSX files.

This choice establishes the starting ledger and must be completed before the normal client workspace opens. Bank connections and statement uploads come afterward; they are not additional choices on this first screen.

For Digits, use an empty client with a calendar-year fiscal calendar and upload all three exports. Files upload directly to private storage, with up to 100 MB per file and 1,000,000 data rows per export. Include the full transaction history and opening balances. Choose Validate files, confirm the source company, dates, account count, journal count, and matching Trial Balance, then choose Import books. Wesley verifies opposite journal lines, account identities, hierarchy, and every balance to the cent, including prior-year profit carried into retained earnings. Journals are written in batches within one transaction. Setup completes only after the saved data passes verification. A failed import leaves the books unchanged, and retrying the same files does not create duplicates.

Repeated Chart of Accounts rows are read once when all exported account fields match. If the same account number and name have conflicting parent, type, status, or description values, validation stops for review. Transaction rows are always retained, including repeated payments.

Digits uses Multiple Categories in the split-account column for journals with several lines. Wesley first groups these rows by date, party name, and memo, preserving every amount and line detail, and starts a new journal after the preceding lines balance. Same-party rows can be interleaved with other transactions. Remaining rows with different party names can form a journal only when they are consecutive in the export, share a date and nonblank memo, and balance. If identical journals are interleaved under the same date, party, and memo, the export may combine them into one balanced journal; every repeated line is retained. Incomplete or unbalanced groups block the import.

For two-line journals, Wesley matches reciprocal accounts, amounts, dates, memos, and dimensions. Matching party names take priority. Different party labels can match only when each remaining row has exactly one reciprocal counterpart; ambiguous matches block the import. Both source party labels are preserved in the line details.

Digits party names automatically create payees and link them to every line of each journal. The first nonblank party name in source row order determines the journal's linked payee. Names are matched without case or repeated whitespace differences. An existing payee keeps its type and active status. For new names, Wesley compares total bank and credit-card debits (money in) with credits (money out): more money in creates a Customer; otherwise it creates a Vendor, including ties and names without bank or card activity. Blank party names do not create payees. Payees, accounts, journals, and their audit records are saved in the same transaction.

Digits files import accounting history as journal entries. They do not include reconciliation status, attachments, or invoice and bill payment links. Departments and locations are preserved as source details rather than creating tag records. A future Trial Balance date does not establish transaction coverage beyond the last date in the uploaded list.

3. Define the accounting boundary

Agree on the first period the firm will review. Record the first date for each bank, card, and ledger source, including whether earlier history will be imported, preserved only as evidence, or intentionally left outside the engagement.

After choosing the starting ledger, define the source of truth for each ongoing data set:

• a live bank or card connection for ongoing activity;
• uploaded statements for history, cleanup, or feed gaps;
• the selected QuickBooks source for existing structured ledger records;
• manual setup when no prior system should be imported.

Do not import a statement over a connected period without a duplicate-review plan.

4. Set up accounts and lists

Review the chart of accounts, especially bank and card accounts that should appear in Banking. Prepare the vendors, customers, employees, classes, locations, and projects the client actually uses through Payees and Tags.

Import or enter opening A/R & A/P when those records are in scope. Create Fixed Assets manually or set them up from journal activity when needed. Map opening balances and historical ledger data before starting the first monthly review.

5. Connect or collect source data

Open the client book and use Banking for account sources. Follow Add Data to connect a feed, fetch activity, upload statements or checks, or add a manual transaction.

When the client must authorize a source, send one specific request that names the institution or system and the intended date coverage. Use Client Work and Shared Files to track outstanding answers and uploads.

Integrations is hidden from the client sidebar by default. Use Customize Sidebar to show it when needed.

6. Configure bookkeeping behavior

Add standing client policy in Bookkeeping Guide: normal revenue, common expenses, vendor treatment, account conventions, and exceptions. Choose the appropriate AI Automation setting—On, Experimental, or Off—and make sure the assigned reviewer understands it. See Rules and AI.

Avoid broad auto-coding rules during initial import. Review enough real activity to define narrow conditions and priority.

7. Verify before handoff

For every source, record whether it is connected, requested, processing, blocked, complete, or intentionally skipped. Then verify:

• correct bank/card account and last-four context;
• earliest and latest activity dates;
• statement totals and possible duplicates;
• chart-of-accounts and dimension mapping;
• client and team access;
• unresolved portal, integration, or source requests;
• the first transaction-review period and assigned owner.

Finish by opening Uncategorized and sampling several rows. Do not call onboarding complete merely because a connection says connected; the book must have the expected coverage and a clear path into Transaction Review.