A web and mobile platform for a US accounting firm to manage client onboarding and books.

The brief

A US-based accounting firm with a growing portfolio of small-business clients had identified a bottleneck in client onboarding. Onboarding was administered through a chain of emails, PDF intake forms, and a shared drive on which document discovery was difficult. The partners required clients to feel well managed from the point of sign-up, and the bookkeepers required substantial time to be returned to accounting work.

A unified experience was required: web access for bookkeepers and for clients working at desks, and mobile access for clients managing their books from a handheld device between meetings. The platform was to maintain a single source of truth for client documents, books, and conversations.

What we found

• Onboarding was an extended telephone and email process. Five or more days elapsed between sign-up and the first substantive conversation.
• Books were submitted in every conceivable format. CSV files, PDF screenshots, and photographs of receipts. Bookkeepers spent significant time consolidating these documents into a usable format.
• Clients had no visibility into their own engagement status. Clients were required to request status updates from their bookkeeper, who in turn searched email to retrieve them.
• Compliance documents resided in a shared drive. No audit trail, no expiry tracking, and no reminders were maintained, with the consequence that the partner maintained a parallel spreadsheet as a control.

What we did

Delivered a Next.js web platform for the firm and for clients working at desks, in conjunction with a React Native mobile application for clients operating on handheld devices — sharing the same backend, identity, and data layer.

A self-serve onboarding flow guides a new client from sign-up to first book upload in under 30 minutes — including KYC, business profile, banking-feed connection via Plaid, and document checklist, all driven by progress state.

Book intake supports structured paths (CSV, QuickBooks Online, and Plaid feeds) and unstructured paths (photographs, receipts, and statements). Both routes deliver into a per-client document repository with audit trail.

A real-time client view presents open invoices, accounts requiring reconciliation, outstanding document requests, and a chat thread with the bookkeeper.

A bookkeeper console presents case load prioritised by the action each client requires from the firm next, rather than presenting an inbox ordered by date of arrival.

The phased rollout

Every engagement is delivered using The Ascent Method — Map, Architect, Build, Operate.

1. P1
   Map + Architect (weeks 1–4). Discovery with the firm and a representative sample of clients; canonical data model defined for client, books, documents, and conversations.
2. P2
   Build web platform (weeks 3–14). Next.js with SSR for the firm and client-facing portal; role-aware navigation; and document handling with audit trail.
3. P3
   Build mobile (weeks 8–20). React Native application with offline-first uploads, push notifications, and a secure document store synchronised to the same backend.
4. P4
   Operate (weeks 18–28). Phased rollout to 50 clients followed by full firm migration over a three-week window, with daily check-ins and a warranty period.

Outcomes

Onboarding has been compressed from five or more days to a self-serve flow that completes in well under one hour for most clients.

Books, receipts, and statements are consolidated to a single per-client repository. Bookkeepers have transitioned from document consolidation to reconciliation work.

Clients can review the actions their firm requires from them next without exchanging email correspondence, and bookkeepers operate from the same view.

Compliance documents are now governed by an expiry and reminder workflow; the partner has discontinued the parallel expiry-tracking spreadsheet.