This release of OnboardMe introduces a range of new features. The changes are outlined below.
Proposals
Request a specific payment method on a proposal
When you require payment details on a proposal, you can now choose which methods to collect for that proposal, instead of always using the practice default.
What's new
Turn on Require Payment Details. Methods to collect appears with Card and Bank account.
Your practice default is pre-selected. You can keep both, or collect only card or only bank for this proposal.
If you change from the system default, OnboardMe asks you to confirm before continuing.
At least one method must stay selected so the client has a way to pay.
How to set it
Open the proposal and turn on Require Payment Details.
Under Methods to collect, choose Card, Bank account, or both.
If you are changing from the practice default, confirm, then save and send as usual.
Custom input fields in Terms and Additional Documents
Proposal Terms and Additional Documents can now include fill-in blanks that are unique to each proposal. Staff can complete them when preparing the proposal. Anything left blank must be completed when the client reviews the proposal, before they accept.
What's new
In the terms and additional document editors, use the toolbar Input field button to insert a blank.
Choose a field type: Text, Long text, Number, Date, Email, or Phone, and give it a label (for example, Commencement date).
When a proposal uses a document with blanks, staff see Fill document details so known values can be written in before send.
During client review, remaining blanks appear in the document. The client must complete them before they can continue.
How to add an input field
Go to Templates > Terms & Additional Documents Management (or open the document on a proposal).
Place the cursor where the blank should appear and click Input field.
Choose the field type, enter a label, and click Insert.
Save the template or proposal as usual.
Use the same label with the same type if the value should appear more than once in the document. Australian practices can use the same input fields in STP authority documents.
Editable proposal reminder emails
Automated proposal reminders now send through the same email template process as your other client emails. You can edit the subject and body of the Proposal Reminder template, and your saved version is what clients receive.
What's new
Open Proposal Reminder under Templates > Email Templates on the Outbound Emails tab.
Saved customisations override the default reminder wording, the same as other outbound templates.
Other automated reminders (onboarding, eForms, identity verification, and ethical letters) will move to this same process soon.
How to edit the reminder
Go to Templates > Email Templates.
Stay on Outbound Emails and open Proposal Reminder.
Update the subject and body, then save. Automated proposal reminders use that wording from then on.
Client Onboarding
Ethical letters during onboarding
You can now include an ethical letter when sending a standalone Client Onboarding, without needing a proposal first. This is for accounting practices that already use Ethical Letters in OnboardMe. UK, South Africa, and New Zealand accounting practices see this as Professional Clearance.
What's new
On each onboarding client, turn on Send Ethical Letter (or Send Professional Clearance).
A second setup step appears so you can complete the letter the same way you do on a proposal: previous accountant, clients, letter template, and any documents you want to request.
The letter is created with status Pending Onboarding. After the onboarding has been sent, it emails the previous accountant as soon as their name and email are saved.
You can review pending and sent letters in Ethical Letters (or Professional Clearance) in the main menu.
How to include a letter
Go to Onboarding and start a new onboarding (full onboarding, not Quick Onboarding).
On the clients you want included, turn on Send Ethical Letter.
Open the Ethical Letter step, complete the previous accountant details and letter setup, then send the onboarding as usual.
Including a letter uses an onboarding request from your subscription or wallet, the same as other paid onboarding options. If the wallet balance is too low, OnboardMe will prompt you to add funds before you can include the letter.
Client Subscriptions
Bill automatically or wait for the monthly import
Practices that recoup vendor subscriptions can now choose when those repeating bills are created, so invoices can use the latest costs from the vendor file.
What's new
Bill automatically: subscription recoup schedules create invoices on the nightly run, as before.
Wait for monthly import: OnboardMe holds those invoices until you import the vendor file for that month, so bills use the updated costs from the file.
Set this under Settings / Business as Subscription repeating billing.
When you choose Wait for monthly import:
Importing the vendor file also creates invoices for that vendor repeating bills that are due in the selected month, not only the rows in the file.
A Pending bills button on Client Subscriptions lets you bill any leftover schedules after the import.
ApprovalMax and QuickBooks subscription imports
CSV and Excel import now supports ApprovalMax subscription files and QuickBooks accountant invoice CSVs, so you can recoup those vendor subscriptions in the same import flow.
What's new
QuickBooks accountant invoice files are recognised automatically, including Company, product, and QBO file ID columns. Related charge lines for the same client are rolled up, and rows billed at $0 are skipped.
ApprovalMax subscription exports can be imported as Excel or CSV. Select the vendor first so matching, missing subscriptions, and import history stay limited to that vendor.
Product names are matched more flexibly (for example QuickBooks Online Plus to QuickBooks Plus).
How to import
Go to Client Subscriptions and click Import CSV.
Select the vendor, choose the invoice month, then upload the ApprovalMax or QuickBooks file.
Review matched clients and products, then import. If the practice waits for the monthly import, confirm Import and bill to create the due invoices for that month.
Link a new subscription to an existing recurring bill
If you were already billing a client with Recurring Billing before Client Subscriptions, you can now attach a new subscription to that bill instead of creating a second schedule.
What's new
On New subscription, after you choose a client, Link to existing recurring bill appears when that client already has an active recurring bill.
Leave it empty to create a new schedule, as before.
If you select an existing bill, the subscription uses that bill's frequency, next run date, and invoice header.
If the bill already has a line that is not linked to a subscription, that line is reused so you do not double-bill. Otherwise a new line is added.
The billed amount follows Price charged on the subscription.
How to link
Go to Client Subscriptions and click New.
Choose the client and subscription type, then set pricing as usual.
Under Billing grouping, keep Invoice this client selected.
If the client has an existing bill, choose it under Link to existing recurring bill, then click Create.
Bills & Payments
Find clients you cannot collect from
The Bills & Payments dashboard now has a shortcut to clients who have unpaid bills but no payment method on file. Use this to find clients you cannot automatically collect from until they add card or bank details, then send them a payment link.
What's new
On Bills & Payments > Dashboard, click the Unable to collect tile. It is labelled Clients with unpaid bills and no payment method.
Client payment methods opens already filtered to Unpaid bills and No payment method.
The list shows unpaid bill counts, next recurring run date, and payment status (No Payment Details, Card, Bank Account, or both).
Select clients and click Send Payment Link to email them a secure link to add payment details. You can also send a link for one client from the row Actions column.
The same filters are available whenever you open Client payment methods, including from Clients (Payment methods in the options menu) and Client Subscriptions. Under Show clients with, you can combine:
Unpaid bills
Upcoming recurring
No payment method
Unpaid bills and Upcoming recurring include clients that match either option. Turn on No payment method to further limit the list to clients with no card or bank details saved (or who are not yet registered with your payment provider).
How to use Unable to collect
Go to Bills & Payments and stay on the Dashboard tab.
Click Unable to collect.
Review the list, tick the clients you want, then click Send Payment Link.
The tile only appears when your practice has an active payment provider connected.
Create Recurring Billing from a Template Bill
When you create a new Recurring Billing schedule, you can start from a Recurring Template Bill so line items, frequency, due days, and related billing options are filled in for you. You can still edit anything before you save.
What's new
On Bills & Payments > Recurring Billing, click New and choose Start from Template Bill (optional).
You can also start from a template when creating a recurring bill from a client record (New Recurring Bill).
If the template has more than one schedule, choose Which schedule before the form is filled in.
Create or update Recurring Template Bills under Templates > Template Bills. Only templates marked as Recurring appear in this list.
Bulk create Recurring Billing from a template
You can now create the same Recurring Billing schedule for many clients in one pass, using a Recurring Template Bill.
What's new
Each selected client gets their own schedule from the template.
You can filter the client list by entity type, group, partner, manager, office, and custom fields, then search by name, email, or code.
Up to 300 clients can be selected in one bulk create.
How to bulk create
Go to Bills & Payments and open the Recurring Billing tab.
Click Options, then Bulk create from template.
Choose a Recurring Template Bill, set the Start date, and optionally an End date.
Click Choose clients, select the clients, then click Create for X clients.
If some clients fail, OnboardMe still creates schedules for the ones that succeeded and tells you how many failed.
Automated reminders
Find and reset items that have used their reminder limit
When a proposal, onboarding, or eForm has sent the maximum automated reminders allowed for your practice, it stops receiving further automated reminders. You can now find those items in one list and reset their reminder counts in bulk so reminders can continue.
What's new
On Proposals, Onboarding, and eForms, open Advanced filters and turn on Reminder limit reached.
The list shows only items that have used their full reminder allowance.
Tick the items you want, then click Reset reminder counts. Confirm to reset each selected item to 0 so automated reminders can start again.
You can still reset one item at a time from its history view, as before.
Cost
Each item you reset uses 1 subscription request.
If you have no requests remaining, OnboardMe charges your wallet at your add-request rate instead.
The confirm step shows how many requests the selected items will use (for example, 5 selected items use 5 requests).
How to bulk reset
Go to Proposals, Onboarding, or eForms.
Click Advanced filters and turn on Reminder limit reached.
Tick the rows to include. Use the header checkbox to select all loaded rows. Scroll the table to load more if needed.
Click Reset reminder counts, review the request cost, then confirm.
You can reset up to 100 items in one go. Read-only users cannot reset reminder counts.
Ethical Letters / Clearances
File Ethical Response PDF and Documents to FYI
You can now file Ethical Letter PDF's and uploaded documents to FYI directly from the Ethical Response screen.
When uploading to FYI and the previous accountant has shared documents with you, the documents shared can also be renamed before being uploaded to FYI.
eForms
Rename documents before upload to FYI
When connected to FYI and uploading an eForm to FYI with attachments, you can now rename the attachments before uploading to FYI.
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