Onboarding Initial Strategy Sessions With CSI: Cost and Process

When you're starting with a new accounting firm, the onboarding period is the most critical for your success. However, some small business owners have hesitations about how much onboarding costs and how much value it will actually provide them. Is it worth it?

At CSI Accounting & Payroll, we’ve fine-tuned our onboarding process for nearly 60 years. We know exactly what small business owners need to know to set themselves up for success when they start with an accounting firm. Prospective or new clients often ask:

• How much does onboarding cost?
• Do I need to go through onboarding?
• What happens during onboarding meetings?

What is CSI’s Onboarding Fee?

Most services have a startup cost, especially ones that require a lot of work upfront. Monthly accounting is a perfect example of that. The following sections will lay out more information about what onboarding entails and its value.

So, how does CSI charge for onboarding? It’s not the same for every business! The formula to find your upfront cost to work with us is:

Onboarding fee = (Monthly fee * 2) + $1,000

Notice the monthly fee in this equation? That means your onboarding fee is heavily based on the number of monthly business transactions you have, plus the complexity of your accounting. Learn more about your monthly fee by clicking the image below:

Can I Skip Onboarding?

Skipping onboarding is not an option. It contains processes that are required to get started with an accounting service. We can't just jump into bookkeeping, tax strategy, and advice that's backed by your numbers and history.

You won’t get nearly enough value if your accountant doesn’t get time upfront to understand your business! Let me walk you through our onboarding process so you can see the benefits.

What Does CSI’s Onboarding Entail?

The onboarding process will vary slightly (depending on your business's needs), but I still wanted to lay out an example of a common onboarding experience.

When you first start with CSI, you’ll have regular meetings and communications with your dedicated onboarding team. These are part of what we call Initial Strategy Sessions (ISS) and usually occur over the first few months but can vary based on the upfront work required.

The First Session: Fact-Finding

The initial ISS is about understanding your business. To figure out your expectations, challenges, and goals so we can hit the mark, your onboarding manager may ask about:

• Your bookkeeping and tax challenges.
• Your short-term and long-term business goals.
• Your short-term and long-term personal goals.
  
• Why you decided to work with us.
• How and when you want us to communicate with you.

We'll also determine or verify the services we'll be providing to you. We may ask you about:

• Getting electronic access to your accounting software (QBO or Xero).
• Getting access to any bank accounts, cards, loans, POS systems, etc.
  
• If applicable, when we will start handling your sales tax or provider tax.
• If applicable, changing your business entity to be more tax-advantageous. This will be handled in the third onboarding session.
• If applicable, which months or years of back work need to be completed. We'll also let you know how long this will take us. Your team will start on this immediately behind the scenes.

The rest of the agenda may include:

• Teaching you how to use our portal system.
• Showing you the importance of keeping your personal and business finances separate.
• Answering your urgent, surface-level questions. We can answer deeper questions shortly – after we've had time to learn about your history, goals, and finances.
• If applicable, discussing payroll setup details. This is only recommended for small payrolls.

After the meeting, you'll also receive a checklist of information to provide us and things we need you to do. If you don't give us the information and access we need, we can't get your work done!

The Second Session: Bookkeeping

Here, we focus on your accounting software and chart of accounts. We'll cover each line of the following documents and see if they look reasonable to you and your accountant:

• Your Balance Sheet. This includes your A/R and A/P aging summaries, if applicable.
• Your Profit & Loss Statement. Can any categories be combined or changed?
• Your Chart of Accounts. Reach an agreed Chart of Accounts and path forward to cleaning up your books, if applicable.

The Third Session: Tax Strategy

In your third ISS, your onboarding manager will learn about your business taxes and individual taxes. We'll review parts of your most recent business tax return and individual tax return, then make sure you know what tax bracket you're in for federal and state and how close you are to moving into a different bracket. If there are any items that are carrying forward to future years, we'll explain this.

We'll ask questions about your tax situation and future, which may include:

• What is your current entity structure? If we considered changing it in an earlier ISS, now is the time to set a game plan. We'll recommend an entity to optimize your tax situation.
• Are you making pre-scheduled estimated tax payments? If so, when back work is completed (if applicable), we will review to see if the estimates are appropriate. If not, we will determine if you need to start making these payments.
• Do you have a home office? If so, we'll review the rules and let you know what you'll need to provide us to benefit from this.
• Do you have a company vehicle or use a personal vehicle for work? We'll cover the best way to deduct vehicle expenses and recommend a mileage tracking app if needed.
• Do you pay your state PTE (Pass-Through Entity) tax through your business? If not, we'll cover the benefits and how it works.
• How are you paying yourself? Is the payroll portion considered reasonable compensation? Will it max out your retirement plan? Will you save on Social Security and Medicare?
• How else are you taking money out of the business? Rent, distributions, repayment of loans you made to the business, maxing out retirement plans, etc. 
• Do you have a group health insurance plan for your employees? What do you do for your own health insurance? If you don't have a plan or want a different one, we can refer you.
• Do you use cash or accrual accounting? We'll help you figure this out and determine if it's ideal for you.
• Do you have employees or contractors? Do you know the difference, and are you in violation of the rules? We will move people to your payroll if necessary to stay in compliance.
• If you're a new business, do you have business liability, cyber liability, and workers' compensation insurance? If not, we can refer you.
• What is your exit strategy? If you don't have one, we can help.
• Do you have a will? If not, have an attorney prepare one (regardless of your age). We can refer for this.
• Do you have any business partners? If so, we may recommend that an attorney prepares a buy/sell agreement and funds it with term life insurance policies. We can refer for this.

• Do you have a retirement plan? What kind? If you don't have one, we provide 401(k) plans. 

• Do you have a spouse? Should they be on the payroll to participate in your retirement plan?
• Do you have kids or grandkids? Should they be on the payroll for family income shifting?
• Do you have a Section 529 college savings plan? If not, we can refer you.

We'll also make sure that you know what kinds of moves you need to tell your accountant about. For example, if you have loans or buy assets that need to be depreciated. And, finally, we'll make sure you really understand what you should be paying for versus what your business should be paying for. 

Subsequent Session(s)

You may have additional ISS meetings, depending on your business's needs and the number of services you signed up for.

Get Started With an Accounting Firm the Right Way

Onboarding is necessary to get you set up for success. Between software setups, introductory meetings, client education, back work, and whatever else is needed for your onboarding, the process is invaluable. 

If you’re interested in onboarding with CSI Accounting & Payroll, click the button below to schedule a free consultation and see if we can be a good fit for your business:

Not ready to talk? That’s okay! First, learn more about what a monthly accountant provides after onboarding is finished.