Project Overview
| Client Industry | Professional Services (Accounting and Tax Advisory) |
| Business Type | Regional accounting firm with 3 offices, ~1,100 active business and individual clients |
| Project Duration | 11 weeks |
| AI Service Provided | Business Process Automation |
| Technologies Used | Node.js, React, PostgreSQL, DocuSign API, Microsoft Graph API (Outlook/SharePoint), AWS (Lambda, S3), Zapier (transitional), Twilio |
The Client Challenge
The client’s accounting firm had grown from a single office to three locations over five years, but its client onboarding and document collection processes were still built around manual email threads, physical document collection, and a shared drive with inconsistent folder structures.
The operational bottlenecks:
- Onboarding a new business client took an average of 12–15 business days, involving a manual sequence of engagement letters, document requests, and follow-up emails handled individually by whichever staff member picked up the new client.
- During tax season, staff spent significant time manually chasing clients for missing documents via email and phone, with no systematic tracking of who still owed what.
- Engagement letters and signed agreements were tracked inconsistently some in email inboxes, some printed and filed, creating real risk of missing signed documentation during a compliance review.
- Client documents landed in a shared drive with no consistent naming or folder convention across the three offices, making it difficult for staff to find prior-year documents quickly.
- The firm’s growth meant onboarding volume had outpaced what the administrative staff could handle manually, and hiring additional admin staff during tax season had become a recurring, costly necessity.
- Partners wanted to grow the client base further but recognized the onboarding and document collection process, as it stood, would not scale without proportionally growing administrative headcount every year.
Our Solution
Air Brite Labs built a business process automation system that manages the full client onboarding lifecycle from engagement letter through document collection to file organization replacing the ad hoc email-and-shared-drive process with a structured, automated workflow.
Key capabilities delivered:
- Automated onboarding sequences — new client onboarding triggers a defined sequence of engagement letter delivery, document requests, and scheduled follow-ups, without a staff member needing to manually initiate each step.
- E-signature integration — engagement letters and agreements route through DocuSign automatically, with signed documents stored and indexed systematically rather than scattered across email and physical files.
- Automated document collection tracking — clients receive a personalized checklist of required documents with automatic reminder emails and texts for anything outstanding, replacing manual staff follow-up calls.
- Structured document organization — uploaded and collected documents are automatically filed into a consistent folder structure by client and tax year across all three offices, eliminating the shared-drive inconsistency.
- Staff dashboard — office staff see a real-time view of every client’s onboarding and document collection status, so anyone can answer a status question without needing to track down whoever originally handled that client.
- Compliance-ready audit trail — every signed engagement letter and document exchange is logged and retrievable, addressing the firm’s compliance review documentation gap.
Technical Approach
Workflow Automation: Built a Node.js-based workflow engine that manages onboarding state per client tracking which stage a client is in (engagement letter sent, signed, documents requested, documents received, complete) and triggering the appropriate next action automatically.
E-Signature Integration: Integrated the DocuSign API for engagement letter and agreement signing, with webhook-based status updates feeding directly back into the client’s workflow state, so a signed document automatically advances the client to the next onboarding stage.
Document Collection & Reminders: Automated reminder sequences (email via Microsoft Graph API, SMS via Twilio) are triggered based on how long a document request has been outstanding, with escalating reminder frequency and a dashboard flag for staff follow-up if a client remains unresponsive after a defined threshold.
Document Storage & Organization: Documents collected through the platform are automatically organized into a standardized folder structure in the firm’s existing SharePoint environment via the Microsoft Graph API, preserving the firm’s existing storage investment while fixing the inconsistent organization problem.
Frontend: A React-based staff dashboard gives office administrators and accountants a real-time, firm-wide view of client onboarding and document status, replacing the need to check individual email inboxes or ask colleagues for status updates.
Infrastructure: Backend services run on AWS Lambda for the event-driven workflow triggers (reminders, status updates), with PostgreSQL storing client workflow state and S3 used for temporary document staging before final filing to SharePoint.
Initial Rollout Approach: Zapier was used as a transitional integration layer during the first few weeks to connect existing tools quickly while the custom Node.js workflow engine was being finalized, allowing the firm to see early automation benefits before the full custom system went live.
Implementation Process
- Discovery & Requirement Analysis (Weeks 1–2): Mapped the existing onboarding and document collection process across all three offices, identifying where the process varied by office and consolidating it into one standardized workflow.
- Prototype / PoC (Week 3): Built the DocuSign integration and reminder sequence for a single onboarding stage, tested with a small batch of real new clients before building the full workflow.
- Development (Weeks 4–7): Built the complete workflow engine, staff dashboard, document organization automation, and reminder system.
- Integration (Week 8): Connected Microsoft Graph API for SharePoint filing and Outlook-based email reminders, integrated Twilio for SMS reminders.
- Testing (Week 9): Ran the system for a cohort of real new clients during a lower-volume period, refining reminder timing and message tone based on client and staff feedback.
- Deployment (Week 10): Rolled out firm-wide across all three offices ahead of the next tax season’s client intake surge.
- Optimization (Week 11 and ongoing): Adjusted reminder cadence and escalation thresholds based on real response-rate data collected during the first weeks of full deployment.
Key Features Delivered
- Automated, stage-based client onboarding workflow
- DocuSign-integrated e-signature process for engagement letters
- Automated document collection reminders via email and SMS
- Consistent, automatic document filing into standardized SharePoint folder structures
- Real-time staff dashboard showing onboarding and document status firm-wide
- Escalation flagging for unresponsive clients requiring staff follow-up
- Compliance-ready audit trail of signed documents and communications
Business Results
- Average client onboarding time dropped from 12–15 business days to 4–5 business days
- Staff time spent manually chasing outstanding client documents decreased significantly, particularly valuable during peak tax season
- The firm avoided its typical seasonal temporary admin hire the following tax season, handling increased volume with existing staff
- Signed engagement letter documentation gaps were eliminated, with 100% of new engagements having a retrievable, timestamped signed record
- Document retrieval time for prior-year client files improved substantially due to consistent, automated folder organization
- Client-reported onboarding experience improved, based on partner feedback citing fewer complaints about slow or confusing onboarding communication
Technology Stack
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Backend / Workflow Engine | Node.js |
| Frontend | React |
| Database | PostgreSQL |
| E-Signature | DocuSign API |
| Document & Email Integration | Microsoft Graph API (SharePoint, Outlook) |
| SMS Reminders | Twilio |
| Cloud Infrastructure | AWS Lambda, S3 |
Why the Solution Worked
The automation succeeded because it was built around the firm’s actual multi-office process variations rather than assuming a single, idealized workflow. Standardizing the process while accommodating legitimate office-level differences meant staff at all three locations could adopt it without feeling like their specific workflow needs were ignored.
Integrating with tools the firm already used SharePoint, Outlook, DocuSign rather than asking staff to learn an entirely new document system, was equally important for adoption. The automation fit into existing habits instead of requiring the firm to change how and where it stored documents.
Future Scalability
The automation platform is built to support the firm’s continued growth, including:
- Extending the same workflow automation approach to annual tax season document collection for existing clients, not just new client onboarding
- Adding a client-facing portal so clients can check their own document status without contacting the office
- Expanding automated reminders to include appointment scheduling for tax review meetings
- Applying the same document organization automation to additional service lines as the firm expands its advisory offerings
Because the workflow engine is built around configurable stages and triggers rather than hardcoded logic specific to onboarding alone, extending it to other recurring client processes builds on the existing system rather than requiring a separate build.
Final Outcome
The firm replaced a slow, manually intensive onboarding process with an automated workflow that cut onboarding time by more than half and eliminated the annual seasonal hiring need for administrative support. Partners can now grow the client base with confidence that the onboarding process will scale alongside it.
