Taking on a client
Three ways a client arrives, and they are genuinely different.
| The client | What to do |
|---|---|
| Already uses SBB | Request access — they approve, you never see a password |
| Does not use SBB, and is ready to | Invite them, then request access |
| Does not use SBB, and is not ready | Build it custodially and hand it over later |
Requesting access to an existing business
You ask; the owner approves; they choose what you may touch.
You never receive a password, and the owner can see exactly what was delegated and withdraw it at any time. That is the whole design — an accountant who logs in as the client is an accountant whose work is indistinguishable from the client's own, and no audit trail survives it.
Custodial clients: books before the account
This is the one no incumbent supports, and it matches how firms here actually acquire SMEs — you are there first, and the owner joins later, if at all.
You create the business, configure it, and keep the books. The owner is invited to claim it when they are ready, at which point ownership transfers to them.
Why this is different from delegated access
With a connected client, the business owner is the owner and you hold delegated access. With a custodial client, your firm is genuinely the owner until it is claimed — because somebody has to be, and the client does not exist yet.
The client record shows a clear custodial state throughout. Nobody should be confused about which of the two they are looking at.
Claiming is not reversible by you. Once the owner claims the business it is theirs, and your firm holds delegated access like any other client. That is the point: a custodial business is a stage, not a permanent arrangement.
Engagement letters and AML
In most markets a firm cannot lawfully act without a letter of engagement and identity checks, and must refresh both. Both used to live in a folder somewhere, which meant SBB was the system of record for the numbers and not for the relationship.
Record against each client:
- the engagement — scope, when it was signed, when it lapses
- the KYC check — who verified identity, and when
Both surface on the client record with a visible state, and the compliance screen lists what has lapsed or is about to.
Two things this deliberately does not do
It does not block anyone from working. A client with a lapsed letter shows a state — the same thing an unsigned letter in a filing cabinet tells you — and your firm decides what to do about it. Locking the workspace would be us making a regulatory judgement we are not qualified to make. A firm mid-emergency for a client whose annual re-engagement lapsed last week does not need software refusing to open the ledger.
It does not verify anything. These records say what your firm did and who did it. "Verified" means a named person at your firm checked and said so — never that SBB confirmed it. Software claiming otherwise would be lying about who performed a regulated act.
Chasing what you need from them
Documents are the tax on every engagement: a bank statement asked for, sent to somebody's phone, missed, asked for again.
Document requests put that on the record — what you asked for, when, what came back, and whether it is still outstanding. The client responds without needing to understand your filing system.
It is the single feature most firms recognise fastest, because everyone has lost a statement in a WhatsApp thread.
Setting the client up to be worked on
Once access is in place, three things make every later month cheaper:
- Apply a chart of accounts template so your clients share a structure — see Chart of Accounts.
- Set categorisation rules so the recurring stuff files itself.
- Prove the opening numbers against whatever they came from, before you record anything new. See migration.
Ending an engagement
Hand a custodial business back, or withdraw from a connected one. The client keeps their books either way — access is never taken away as leverage, over billing or anything else.
Related
- For accounting firms — the manual
- Fees & billing — what to charge them
- Practice command centre — the working day