Where does the time go when a new client signs up?
Onboarding looks like one step on a process map. In practice it is a relay. Someone sends the welcome pack. The client returns half the forms. A fee earner or secretary chases the rest, runs the identity check, saves the result, drafts the engagement letter from the last one that looked similar, sends it for signature, chases the signature, then asks accounts to open a billing record and asks IT to set up a folder. Each handoff waits for someone to notice it is their turn.
None of that is billable, and most of it happens at the start of a relationship, when the client is forming a view of how organised you are. A slow start costs goodwill as well as hours.
The way to size it is to count new clients and new engagements in a typical month, estimate the internal hours each one takes across everyone who touches it, and convert that to a weekly figure. Multiply by the charge-out rate of the people doing it and by 46 working weeks. Put your own numbers into the unbillable hours calculator, or take the audit to compare onboarding against your other time sinks.
Why do the same client details get typed in five times?
Because each system in the firm was set up on its own. The identity check wants a name, address and date of birth. The conflict search wants the name and related parties. The engagement letter wants the name, the entity, the scope and the fee basis. The practice management system, the billing system and the document store each want their own copy. The client gave all of it once, on a form, and the firm keys it in again for each destination.
Every rekey is a chance for a spelling to drift, and a mismatched name between the identity file and the engagement letter is exactly the sort of thing that surfaces in a file review.
What does rebuilt onboarding look like, step by step?
- One intake. The client completes a single request, shaped by client type: individual, company, trust or charity. They are asked only for what your policy needs for that type.
- Checks run from that intake. Where your sector requires identity and anti-money-laundering checks, the process sends them through the provider you already use, records the result, and flags anything that needs enhanced due diligence to the person responsible.
- Conflicts are searched against your client and matter records, with possible hits sent to the person who clears conflicts, not to the whole office.
- The engagement letter is drafted from your own templates and the scope agreed, ready for a fee earner to check. The detail of this step is covered under scope documents and engagement letters.
- Systems are set up once the client is approved: the client and matter or job record, the billing record and the folder structure, all using the same details.
- The file is complete. Every check, approval and document is stored against the client with who did what and when.
Nothing here needs a new platform. It runs across the systems you already hold, and the risk decision stays with a named person every time.
How does this feel for the people who onboard clients?
Secretaries and assistants stop keeping chase lists. Fee earners stop drafting letters from old files and start checking prepared ones. Your money laundering reporting officer, or whoever owns risk, sees a queue of decisions with the evidence already attached rather than a queue of incomplete files.
New clients notice too. They are asked for things once, in a sensible order, and they can start working with you sooner.
Which firms is it built for?
Any firm that takes on new clients or new engagements often enough for the set-up to be a steady drain. It matters most where regulation adds checks to the front of the relationship: law firms supervised by the SRA, accountancy practices under ICAEW, ACCA or ICAS supervision, and financial advisers working to FCA rules and Consumer Duty. It also suits recruitment firms setting up new clients and terms of business, where the checks are lighter but the rekeying is the same.
What gets done in each week of the 30?
Week 1: we follow several real onboardings through the firm, from first enquiry to first piece of billable work, and list every form, check, template, system and person involved. Your client acceptance policy is the reference point throughout.
Weeks 2 and 3: the intake, checks, letter drafting and system set-up are built on your own forms and templates, then used on actual new clients as they come in.
Week 4: the people who onboard clients are trained, and the old welcome pack is retired.
Then 30 days of support while it settles, with adjustments as edge cases turn up.