About client take-on
When you add a client, Senta normally kicks off a couple of onboarding / client take-on Jobs. These have two purposes:
- to gather extra information about the client, e.g. references, dates, etc.
- to remind you and the client to do things, e.g. AML checks, professional clearance, etc.
The same is true when you add client Services. For example, if you add the VAT Service to a client, Senta will kick off a "VAT setup" Job that will prompt you for VAT details.
Adding clients to Senta
You have two choices about how you add clients to Senta.
- you can add clients by hand.
- you can import from a spreadsheet
Either is fine, and different practices take different views about what is right for them.
Some practices prefer the speed and simplicity of importing: once you've got your spreadsheet together, importing takes only a few minutes, and we can help you with the process (by giving you a master spreadsheet, by checking your master spreadsheet, or even by doing the import for you).
The import spreadsheet can contain client data, contact information, even the Services that you give to each client. Once you import it, Senta will be fully operational.
Other practices like to enter the data client-by-client. It gives an opportunity to make sure you have all the data for each client, that everyone has been properly engaged, that each client has been AML checked, and so on.
The downside is, of course, that you will need to enter the client data, enter the contact details, tick the various Services, etc.
Cancelling client take-on Jobs
Whichever way you add clients to Senta, it will always start these client take-on Jobs. However, you can easily cancel all of them in one go! However, to do that, you must be fairly confident that
- all your clients are engaged, etc. and that you don't need reminders to do any of that stuff
- you have all the key client data added.
"Key data" would really be stuff like:
- name
- company type (limited company, etc)
- prospect / client / former client
- account manager
- services ticked (VAT, payroll, accounts, etc)
- company number
- VAT details (frequency of return, VAT quarter date, etc)
- payroll date / frequency / references
- y/e date / ARD
- etc
Our recommendation usually would be to do an import, i.e. to get all your data into a spreadsheet, sanity check it, then do the import. However add the clients by hand is fine, and we can still cancel all those Jobs.
What if you cancel the client take-on / setup Jobs
It doesn't really matter, provided that you have added all of the key data. The good thing is that you won't have all of the Tasks allocated to the account manager. The downside is that you might potentially forget to add some of the key details, whereas if you leave the setup Jobs, Senta will prompt you for all that stuff. Bear in mind you can always add the missing data in the future though
Testing which way suits you best
Whichever way you go, we would recommend that you add either a couple of live clients or a couple of test clients... tick the various Services (VAT, accounts, etc) and then do all of the client take-on and setup Jobs, so you can see exactly what Senta will do. You can then make an informed decision about which way to go and spot any areas in the Jobs that you want to change - you may decide that you want to add in extra steps, or remove some steps to suit your practice.