A client onboarding checklist for Canadian accounting firms
Taking on a client in Canada means answering two questions before any work begins: does FINTRAC apply to what you will do, and who at the client can authorize you with the CRA. This client onboarding checklist puts both in order.
Onboarding at a Canadian accounting firm mixes two jobs. One is deciding whether to accept the client, which your provincial CPA code shapes: you communicate with the predecessor before you accept. The other is collecting what the work needs, from CRA access to last year's T2 and GIFI. Doing the second before the first is how a firm ends up holding a client's records without a signed letter.
Last reviewed against 10 primary sources.
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Client onboarding checklist
The Canadian checklist as a printable PDF, as an Excel workbook, and as a CSV you can load into your own task list or send as a request list.
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Next step: send this list to the client as a request list in FirmHello. They upload against each line, and reminders chase whatever is still open.
Get startedThe list below works as an accounting client onboarding checklist for tax and advisory clients and as a bookkeeping client onboarding checklist for monthly ones. Groups 1 to 4 are yours; groups 5 to 8 go to the client. Strike what does not apply, and add your province's rules where they go further.
The checklist
Work through the groups in order. Replace [bracketed] items with your own. Group 2 applies in full only when the engagement includes a FINTRAC triggering activity.
1. Before you accept
- Run a conflict check on the client, its shareholders and related corporations
- Write down the scope you are quoting for, and what is excluded
- Agree the fee, how it is billed and what triggers a change
- The client's written permission to contact the predecessor accountant CPA Ontario's Rule 302.1 requires a successor to communicate with the predecessor before accepting. Check your own province's code for its version.
- Your written request to the predecessor for the prior-year statements and returns The predecessor must supply reasonable information on a written request, and transfer client property promptly.
- Confirm the work is within your competence and capacity this season
2. FINTRAC and identity
- Decide whether the engagement includes a FINTRAC triggering activity Receiving or paying funds, buying or selling property or a business, or transferring funds or securities for the client triggers the obligations. Audit, review and compilation work does not.
- If it does, verify identity before you receive $3,000 or more for an individual For a corporation or other entity, verification is due within 30 days of receiving the funds.
- A government-issued photo ID, a credit file, or two sources under the dual-process method
- For a corporation, its beneficial owners and the confirmation you took
- A politically exposed person or head of international organization determination
- Record which method you used, when, and who did it
3. The engagement letter
- An engagement letter for each corporation, trust and individual you act for
- Scope, exclusions, fees, client responsibilities and how the engagement ends
- The client's signature on the letter before work begins Use your own signing provider or wet ink, and keep the signed copy with the client's file.
- Your privacy notice, and the client's consent to how you will use their information
4. Authorization with the CRA
- Submit an authorization request in Represent a Client, using your RepID or BN The client confirms it in My Account, or in My Business Account for a business. Until they do, you have no online access.
- Choose Level 1 (view only) or Level 2 (view and make certain changes)
- Form AUT-01 only if you also need access by phone, mail, fax or in person AUT-01 authorizes offline access only. It does not give you online access to the client's account.
- Each program account you need, such as corporate income tax, GST/HST and payroll
- Provincial authorization where you will deal with a provincial tax ministry
5. Access to systems
- Accountant access to the ledger software, not the owner's login
- Read-only access to bank and credit card accounts, or the monthly statements
- Access to the payroll provider, or its reports each pay period
- Where the client's ledger software stores the books The CRA expects records kept in Canada unless it gives written permission, and electronic records held abroad do not count.
- A record of every login the client has granted you, to revoke when you part
6. The prior-year file and opening documents
- The last two years of T1 or T2 returns, with GIFI and all schedules
- Notices of assessment and reassessment for the last three years
- The CCA schedule and the undepreciated capital cost by class
- Last year's financial statements and the closing trial balance
- Loss carryforwards, the capital dividend account and RDTOH balances
- The minute book, articles and any shareholder agreement
7. Communication and portal set-up
- A client portal login for each person who will send or receive documents
- Agree how documents will travel, and that SINs will not go by email
- One named contact on each side, and a backup
- Where the client's documents will be stored, and who at your firm can see them
8. The first deadlines
- The T2 filing date, six months after the corporation's year end
- The balance-due date, two or three months after year end depending on the corporation
- Instalments due March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15, if required
- The GST/HST return and payment for the current reporting period
- April 30 for T1 returns and balances, or June 15 filing for self-employed individuals
Before you use this
Supplied as-is, with no guarantee. These templates are general information, not legal advice, and not a substitute for it. Have your own legal adviser review and adapt one to your practice and your jurisdiction before you put it in front of a client. FirmHello accepts no responsibility or liability for any use made of them.
How to run onboarding without it running you
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1
Decide before you collect
Finish groups 1 to 3 before you ask for a single bank statement. A client who has uploaded two years of records feels engaged whether or not the letter is signed.
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2
Send the client's half as one list
Authorizations, logins and opening documents go out together, with a date. Five separate emails over three weeks are how items get lost.
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3
Keep what you received and when
The identity documents, the signed letter and the predecessor's reply are the file you will want if the engagement is ever questioned. Keep them with the client, in one place such as a client portal for accounting firms, not scattered across staff inboxes.
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4
Close onboarding on a date
Pick the day onboarding ends and the first period's work starts. An onboarding that never formally ends turns into unbilled set-up work.
What changes when onboarding a client in Canada
FINTRAC treats a CPA, and any firm with a CPA among its partners, employees or administrators, as a reporting entity only for certain activities: receiving or paying funds or virtual currency, buying or selling securities, real property or business assets, and transferring funds or securities. Audit, review and compilation work is excluded. A firm that only prepares returns and statements may never trigger the regime.
So the first onboarding decision is which side of that line the engagement falls on, recorded on file. Paying a client's suppliers from their account, or handling the funds on the sale of their business, moves you across it.
The obligations once triggered
A compliance program, client identification, beneficial ownership, politically exposed person determinations, record keeping, and reports: suspicious transactions at any amount, and large cash or virtual currency transactions of $10,000 or more.
Identity at $3,000
When a triggering activity applies, verify a person's identity at the time you receive $3,000 or more in funds from them, and an entity's within 30 days. FINTRAC accepts a government-issued photo ID, a credit file at least three years old, or the dual-process method.
Represent a Client, then the client
Online access starts with your request in Represent a Client, using your RepID. It is not complete until the client confirms it in My Account or My Business Account, so put that step on their list with a date.
The predecessor first
CPA Ontario's Rule 302.1 has the successor communicate with the predecessor before accepting, and Rule 303 obliges the predecessor to supply reasonable information, ordinarily last year's statements and returns, on written request.
Where onboarding goes wrong
Work before the letter
The client needs something urgently, so a junior starts on it while the letter is still with them. If they never sign, the scope of that work is whatever they remember asking for.
The predecessor nobody asked
A client moving firms in the middle of a dispute brings the dispute with them. One enquiry to the previous accountant, with the client's permission, is cheap insurance.
Logins that outlive the client
Bank, ledger and payroll access granted at onboarding is rarely revoked at the end. Keep a list of what you were given so offboarding can undo it.
The client's half, as a request list
Groups 5 to 8 are what FirmHello is for. Save them as a request list template, send it when the engagement letter is signed, and the client sees one checklist with your firm's name on it, with reminders going out until each item arrives. The signed engagement letter, the ID documents and last year's returns sit in the client's vault with everything they send later. FirmHello does not sign anything: the letter and any authorization forms are signed in your own signing tool or on paper, then kept in the vault. More on the client portal for accounting firms page.
Related templates and guides
Questions about onboarding new clients
Does FINTRAC apply to every accounting firm?
No. It applies to accountants and accounting firms when they engage in a triggering activity on a client's behalf, such as receiving or paying funds or buying or selling property or a business. Audit, review and compilation engagements are excluded.
Is Form RC59 still used?
Business authorizations now go through Represent a Client, with the owner confirming the request in My Business Account. Form AUT-01 covers offline access by phone, mail, fax or in person, and does not give online access.
What if the predecessor does not reply?
Record your written request and the date, and follow it up once. Consider what the silence tells you before you accept, and ask the client for the prior-year documents directly.
Is this checklist enough on its own?
It is a template supplied as-is. Your provincial CPA body's rules, Québec's privacy law and your insurer's conditions may add to it. Have your own adviser review it before you rely on it.
Sources
The primary sources this page is written against, last read against it on . Check them before relying on a detail; rules and thresholds change.
- FINTRAC FINTRAC obligations for accountants
- FINTRAC Accountants verify the identity of a person from whom they receive $3,000 or more in…
- FINTRAC Identity verification methods
- Government of Canada Representative with a RepID submits an authorization request in Represent a Client
- Government of Canada Representative authorization levels of access
- Government of Canada RC59 no longer used for online business authorizations after May 2017
- CPA Ontario CPA Ontario Code
- Government of Canada Records kept in Canada unless the CRA gives written permission
- Government of Canada Instalments March 15, June 15, September 15, December 15
- Government of Canada T1 filing and payment April 30
What changed
- Added an Excel (.xlsx) copy of the checklist beside the PDF and CSV.
Send the list once, and let it chase
Each line becomes something the client uploads against. Reminders go out on your schedule until the list is complete, and every file lands in the client's vault.
No card and no sales call. If you would rather tell us about your firm first, use the longer form.