Companion & communication
Onboarding assistant for new clients
Taking on a new client almost always starts the same way: an email with half the information missing, three rounds of follow-up questions and a client who has no idea what a permanent VAT deadline extension is. For the firm, the process is routine – it's only new to the client.
You'll get …
- 1
A guided start for new clients
Switching adviser, new business or personal return: after two or three questions, new clients see what matters for their case.
- 2
Engagements that start complete
The right document list, portal access and type of appointment for each case – no more back-and-forth in the first few weeks.
- 3
New clients at a glance
Every new client appears in your overview with their case type and the status of their documents.
01Intro
The onboarding assistant turns this first step into a guided path: two or three questions establish the situation – switching from another adviser, setting up a business, a personal tax return – and the new client then gets what matters for their case: the right document checklist, portal access and the right type of appointment. For the firm, that means new clients start with complete paperwork instead of gaps, and the back-and-forth of the first few weeks disappears.
The assistant guides clients BEFORE and AT the start of the engagement – it takes them through the admin, not through tax law. Initial professional advice (legal form, tax planning) is still a matter for the appointment with the tax adviser.
02How it works
- 01
Map your onboarding cases
How do new clients come to you – switching adviser, starting a business, by referral, for a personal return? For each case: which documents, access and steps are needed? That gives us the map the assistant works from.
- 02
Find the deciding questions
Two or three are usually enough: where are you coming from, what should we take over, what's your situation? Worded the way clients talk – not the way an intake form thinks.
- 03
Build the checklists and paths
A tailored document list for each case, portal access at the right point and the right type of appointment at the end. No path is a dead end – and none asks for documents that are irrelevant to the case.
- 04
Embed it in your website and workflow
The assistant becomes part of your website ("become a client") and hands over to your team in a structured way: every new client appears in your overview – with their case type and the status of their documents.
- 05
Observe and refine
After a few weeks you can see where new clients drop out or end up calling anyway. We then adjust the questions, lists and wording – the assistant improves with real clients.
03Stages
The entry level needs no AI at all – and still saves the firm the back-and-forth of a new client's first weeks straight away.
Starter: the guided path
A rule-based flow with fixed questions and tailored checklists for each case type. Reliable, quick to build, noticeable from day one.
Next step: it understands free text
New clients can just describe their situation ("I started a business last year and now the tax office is after me…") – an AI works out where they stand and drops them into the flow at the right point.
Full build: deeply connected
The assistant hands over straight to the portal and your internal workflow: access is set up, document status is tracked, and the team sees which new client is ready to go.
04Try it yourself
You're a new client of the fictional “Reiter Tax Firm”. Instead of “call us”: two questions – and you know which documents and steps matter for your situation. Try different paths through.
No magic: behind it is a switch – questions with clear branches. That's exactly why Tier 1 is so reliable: no AI that could guess. Only when visitors are meant to phrase things freely (Tier 2) does a language model classify the entry point – the switches stay.
Play a path through in the “try it out” tab – it lights up here.
05Technical implementation
- The assistant lives on your website – no external widget window, no third-party branding.
- Tier 1 is a decision tree: fixed questions, fixed branches, tailored checklists. Unexciting, which is why it's reliable.
- From Tier 2, a language model helps at the start: it interprets situations described in the client's own words – the branching behind it stays rule-based and predictable.
- The underlying data model: your case types, document lists and processes in a clean structure – the same foundation a client FAQ assistant can build on.
- Handovers as needed: portal access, appointment booking, a structured message to the member of staff responsible.
- Built on your website's existing stack; Tier 2 adds a small back end.
for context · This shows how something like this usually gets built – not how it has to be built for you. What actually fits is worked out in the project: around your existing setup, your team, and what stays easy to maintain.