Firm owner onboarding guide

Firm owners, managing partners, and senior practice administrators can use this guide as a master onboarding roadmap to configure Assisterp for your accounting practice. Work through these five sequential phases before inviting your full team into daily work.

Onboarding overview: The 5 setup phases

[ Phase 1: Firm Foundation ] ──► [ Phase 2: Team & Security ] ──► [ Phase 3: Client Import ]
           │                                 │                               │
   Profile, branding,               Roles, permissions,             Bulk CSV import,
   hours, due-date offsets          staff, multi-branch             tags, custom fields
                                                                             │
[ Phase 5: Billing & Portal ] ◄── [ Phase 4: Workflow Engine ] ◄─────────────┘
           │                                 │
   Invoices, retainer wallets,      Service templates, job
   contracts, client portal         templates, triggers

Phase 1: Establish your firm foundation

Set up your firm identity, regional display preferences, business operating hours, and tax due-date offset rules.

Open Settings > Organization.
Profile: Update your firm’s legal name, primary contact email, phone number, website, business registration number, and default industry.
Addresses: Add your main office address. Select Add More if your firm operates multiple locations, and mark your primary location as the default address.
Branding & Logo: Upload your firm Logo and Favicon Image to brand client portal headers, invoice PDFs, and outgoing email templates.
Display Setting: Set your firm’s date format, time format, week start day, currency code, currency symbol, and decimal precision.
Business Hours: Select your firm’s primary time zone, enable operating days, and define daily opening and closing hours.
Service Settings: Configure government due-date offsets (such as setting sales tax filing deadlines to 30 days post-period end).

For step-by-step field details, see Firm Setup.

Phase 2: Configure team security, roles, and branch offices

Establish access controls and invite your team members.

Open Settings > Employees & Roles.
Roles: Review default roles (Administrator, Manager, Staff). Select Add Role if your firm requires custom permission tiers (such as Tax Senior or Payroll Specialist). Set granular view, edit, and delete permissions for each role.
Branches (Optional): If your practice operates separate offices or brand divisions, open Settings > Organization > Branches. Select Add (the plus icon) to create branch offices and assign a Branch Admin.
Add Staff: Open Employees & Roles > Employees and select Add Staff. Enter employee details, assign them to a branch office, set their Designation, and assign their Role And Permission.

For permission hierarchy details, see Employees and Roles.

Phase 3: Import client data, tags, and custom fields

Populate your client database, set up tags for client segmentation, and add firm-specific custom fields.

Lists & Tags: Open Settings > Lists & Categories > Tags. Create client tags to categorize your customer base (such as Corporate, Individual, VIP-Client, HST-Quarterly, or Audit-Risk). See Lists and tags.
Custom Fields: Open Settings > Customization > Custom Fields. Create firm-specific client fields (such as CRA Business Number, WorkSafeBC Account Number, or Corporate Incorporation Date). See Custom fields.
Bulk Client Import: Open Clients, select Import Clients, and download the CSV/Excel template. Map your existing client records, contact details, tags, and custom fields into the template, then upload the file to import your client roster in bulk. See Import clients or contacts.

Phase 4: Configure service templates and the workflow automation engine

Build your service catalog and configure automated pipelines so work moves smoothly from period end to filing.

Service Templates: Open Settings > Templates > Service templates. Set up reusable templates for your firm’s core offerings (such as HST/GST Filing, T2 Corporate Tax, Payroll Processing, and Monthly Bookkeeping). Define allowed reporting frequencies, fiscal year rules, and meta fields. See Service templates.
Pipelines & Stages: Open Settings > WorkFlow Setting > Pipelines. Build pipeline boards for your service lines (such as an HST Filing Pipeline or Corporate Tax Pipeline). Create sequential stages, set up Task, Invoice, and Email stage automations, and turn on Auto-move where appropriate.
Job Templates: Open Settings > WorkFlow Setting > Job Templates. Build service-recurring job templates for each filing type. Attach checklist tasks, invoice templates, shortcode title tokens, and due-date offsets. See Job templates and stage automation.
Pipeline Triggers: Open Settings > WorkFlow Setting > Pipeline Trigger. Create On Service Update rules matching service tags (HST-Q, T2-ANNUAL, PAYROLL-BW) to their respective pipelines and job templates. See Pipeline triggers.

Phase 5: Configure billing and launch the client portal

Prepare billing items, retainer wallets, engagement contracts, and activate client portal access.

Billable Items: Open Accounting > Items. Create standard billing items for your services and link them to service templates. See Items.
Email Templates: Open Settings > Templates > Email templates. Customize automated email notifications (such as document requests, payment receipts, and meeting invitations). See Email templates.
Contracts & Custom Forms: Open Settings > Templates > Contract Templates to set up engagement contract templates, and Settings > Customization > Custom Forms for client intake forms. See Contracts and Custom forms.
Client Portal Activation: Send client portal onboarding invitations so clients can view invoices, pay bills online, upload documents, e-sign contracts, and view scheduled meetings.

Pre-launch firm owner checklist

Before handing Assisterp over to your team for daily work, verify this checklist: