For accounting firms
Client onboarding software for accountants
You have been engaged. You cannot start. Somewhere between the signed engagement letter and a workable file sit about thirty documents, most of them with the client, their bank, or their previous accountant. OnboardHive puts all of it behind one link the client can open without an account, and shows you exactly what is still missing.
The problem is not your workflow. It is the waiting.
Ask a firm where onboarding goes wrong and the honest answer is rarely the process. It is that the client has not sent the bank statements, the predecessor has not sent the handover pack, and the fee authority is sitting unsigned in an inbox. The work is blocked on other people, and the tooling most firms use for that part is email.
Email has no state. It cannot tell you that a client has done fourteen of eighteen items, so your reminder restates all eighteen, which reads as though nothing has happened. Two weeks in, the client is embarrassed enough to be avoiding you over four documents.
What OnboardHive actually does
- One link per client. Engagement letter, fee authority, identity documents, the full records request, and every upload, in a single place. No account, no password, no app.
- Resumable. The client completes four items on Monday, closes the tab, returns Thursday to the same link and sees what is left. Abandonment, not refusal, is what kills most document collection.
- Visible progress. You see which items are outstanding without reconstructing it from an email thread, so a chase names two documents instead of restating the list.
- Tracked proposals. Before the engagement, the same link works as a proposal that tells you when it was opened, how long it was read, and when it was re-opened. A re-open is usually a buying signal.
- Your branding. White-label with your own domain on the Scale plan, so the client experiences your firm rather than ours.
What it does not do
It is not practice management and it is not a ledger. It does not run your job pipeline, your deadline tracking, or your year-end workflow, and it will not replace Karbon, TaxDome, or Canopy. It does not file anything, and it does not do your AML checks for you.
It covers the two to six weeks between engaging a client and being able to start. Firms that already run a full practice suite still use it, because those suites are built for managing work, and the pre-work document chase is a different problem.
Built for the way accounting onboarding actually runs
| Onboarding stage | In one link |
|---|---|
| Engagement letter | E-signed, countersigned, stored |
| Fee authority / deposit | Paid in the same flow |
| Identity documents | Uploaded to a password-protected portal |
| Records request | Itemised, resumable, individually tracked |
| Predecessor authority | Signed alongside everything else |
| Chasing | You can see what is missing, so you chase that |
Start with the checklist, not the software
If you want to fix onboarding before you change tools, take the bookkeeping client onboarding checklist — 56 steps from engagement letter to first clean close, free and with no email gate. The seven fixes for getting documents out of clients covers the wording and policy changes that work without any software at all.
Pricing
The free plan covers a full client end to end, which is enough to onboard one real engagement and judge it properly. Paid plans start at $19/mo, and white-labelling with your own domain is on the $49/mo Scale plan. Full detail on the pricing page.
Questions
What is client onboarding software for accountants?
Software that carries a new accounting client from engagement through to a complete file: the engagement letter signed, fee authority set up, identity documents collected, and the full records request completed. It is distinct from practice management, which runs the work after onboarding, and from a ledger, which records the transactions.
Does this replace Karbon, TaxDome, or Canopy?
No, and it is not trying to. Those are practice management platforms that run jobs, deadlines, and workflow across your whole client base. OnboardHive covers the two to six weeks before a client is workable: getting the engagement signed and the documents in. Most firms that use it keep their practice management exactly as it is.
Do my clients have to create an account?
No. Each client gets one private magic link. They open it, complete what they can, close it, and return to the same link later with their progress saved. There is no signup, no password, and no app to download, which is the single biggest cause of abandonment in document collection.
Is it secure enough for client financial records?
Each link is unique, unguessable, revocable, and can be password-protected, and new client portals are password-protected by default. Files are stored encrypted. That said, you are the one with regulatory obligations: review it against your own supervisory requirements before putting client identity documents through any tool, including this one.
Can I reuse the same onboarding flow for every client?
Yes. Build your engagement flow once, covering the letter, the fee authority, the records request, and the uploads, then send it to every new client. Our free bookkeeping client onboarding checklist covers the 56 steps most firms need, and the flow can be built directly from it.
Onboard your next client in one link.
Free plan, no card. Keep your practice management exactly as it is.
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