The Client Onboarding Checklist Canadian Accounting Firms Actually Use
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A complete onboarding for a Canadian accounting firm covers seven steps: intake and identity details, CRA representative authorization, a signed engagement letter, service and fee confirmation, document collection, deadline mapping for the client's filings, and an internal kickoff that assigns an owner to every recurring obligation before the first deadline arrives.
Why onboarding failures surface months later, at a deadline
Nothing goes wrong in week one. It goes wrong in month five, when nobody can find the fiscal year-end, the CRA authorization was never completed, and the work that has been quietly performed for four months has no signed scope behind it. Onboarding is where those failures are prevented, and it is the cheapest place to prevent them.
Step 1 — Intake: the fields you will need at filing time
Collect what a filing will need, not what a business card holds: legal name exactly as registered, business number and program accounts, incorporation jurisdiction and date, fiscal year-end, directors and officers, and the contact who can actually answer questions. Anything you skip now becomes a phone call during the busiest week of the year.
Step 2 — CRA authorization (Represent a Client)
Request authorization for every account the firm will need — corporate income tax, GST/HST, payroll — and have the client confirm it. Authorizing a GroupID rather than individual representatives means staff changes do not require re-authorization later.
Step 3 — The engagement letter, before any work
Provincial CPA codes of professional conduct require the terms of an engagement to be documented in writing. Practically, the letter is also the only defence against scope creep and the only clean answer to 'we thought that was included'. Send it before the first project opens, not after the first invoice.
Step 4 — Services, fees and filing cadence
Record each service the firm will provide and the cadence it runs on: the client's GST/HST reporting period as assigned by the CRA, the payroll remitter type, the fiscal year-end that drives the T2. Cadence is what generates dates — record it once and the calendar builds itself.
Step 5 — Document collection and storage
Agree where documents live before the first batch arrives. A client who emails attachments in week one will email attachments forever unless the first request comes through the portal. Set the pattern immediately, while goodwill is high.
Step 6 — Map every deadline the client brings
Write out every obligation the client carries and when each falls: the T2 six months after year-end with its earlier balance-due date, GST/HST on its cadence, payroll remittances on the assigned schedule, slips at the end of February, instalments where applicable. A client is not onboarded until this list exists.
Step 7 — Internal kickoff and ownership
Every obligation on that list needs a named owner and a first due date before the engagement is considered live. Unowned obligations are the ones that get missed, and 'the firm' is not an owner.
Frequently asked questions
What should be in a new client intake form for an accounting firm?
Legal name as registered, business number and program accounts, incorporation jurisdiction and date, fiscal year-end, directors and officers, the operating contact, banking and ledger access details, and the list of services the firm will provide. Everything on that list is needed at filing time.
Should the engagement letter come before or after the work starts?
Before. Provincial CPA codes require the terms of an engagement to be documented in writing, and practically the letter is the only defence against scope creep. Gating the first project on a signed letter also eliminates the worst conversation in practice: pricing work already delivered.
How long should onboarding a new client take?
The firm-side steps can be completed in a day. The elapsed time depends on the client confirming CRA authorization and signing the engagement letter, which is why both requests should go out on day one rather than after the intake meeting has been written up.
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