Quick-start checklist
This checklist gives you a concrete action plan for your first week. Work through these ten items in order and you will have a fully configured workspace, your first client and engagement active, and a billing pipeline ready to use.
Each item links to the detailed guide if you need step-by-step instructions.
Your first-week checklist
Day 1 — Set up the foundation
Complete your workspace setup
Go to Settings > Workspace and verify that your firm name, logo, currency (CAD), and time zone are all correct. Add your GST/HST registration number under Settings > Tax Profiles so it appears automatically on invoices.
Guide: Create your workspace
Why it matters: Your workspace settings flow into every invoice and every client-facing communication. Getting this right on day one means you never send a client an invoice with the wrong business name or a missing GST number.
Configure your billing rates
Go to Practice > Billing Rates and add at least one billing rate (e.g. “Partner — $300/hr”, “Staff Accountant — $175/hr”, “Bookkeeper — $95/hr”). You can add more rates later, but you need at least one rate before you can log billable time.
Why it matters: Every time entry pulls a billing rate. If rates are not configured, time entries default to $0/hr and you will need to manually fix them later.
Invite at least one team member
Go to Settings > Permissions & Users and send an invitation to the first person who will be using the platform alongside you.
Guide: Invite your team
Why it matters: Collaborative workflows — assigning tasks, reviewing time, approving invoices — all depend on other users being in the system.
Day 2 — Add your first client and engagement
Add your first client
Go to Clients and click Add Client. Fill in the business name, entity type, and primary contact details. Assign a client number.
Guide: Add your first client
Why it matters: Every engagement, invoice, and set of books is linked to a client. The client record must exist before any other work can begin.
Create your first engagement
Go to Practice > Engagements and click Add Engagement. Select the client you just created, choose an engagement type (e.g. “Monthly Bookkeeping”), assign a playbook if you have one, set a due date, and assign it to yourself.
Guide: Create your first engagement
Why it matters: Engagements are where time gets tracked, tasks get managed, and invoices get generated. Everything else in Practice Management revolves around the engagement.
Log your first time entry
With your engagement open, click Log Time and record 15–30 minutes for the setup work you just did. Choose the billing rate, mark it billable, and save.
Guide: Track time on engagements
Why it matters: Building the daily habit of logging time from your first day is the single biggest factor in capturing billable hours accurately. Firms that start logging from day one recover far more revenue than those who try to reconstruct time entries at the end of a month.
Day 3 — Connect banking and set up bookkeeping
Connect a bank account for a client’s books
Open the client’s Books module and go to Bank Accounts > Add Bank Account. Connect via your bank’s secure feed, or import a CSV bank statement to get started immediately while the live feed is being established.
Guide: Connect a bank account
Why it matters: Bank feeds are the engine of efficient bookkeeping. Without transactions flowing in automatically, you are manually re-entering data that already exists digitally.
Day 4 — Send your first invoice
Create and send an invoice from an engagement
Go back to your engagement and click Create Invoice. Kuberan AI pre-fills the invoice with your logged time entries. Review the line items, add your firm’s payment details, set a due date (Net 30 is standard for most Canadian practices), and click Send to Client.
Guide: Invoice clients from engagements
Why it matters: Sending even a test invoice confirms that your branding, GST number, and payment instructions are correct before you send to a real client.
Day 5 — Configure the client portal and notifications
Configure the client portal
Go to Settings > Client Portal and customise the portal with your firm’s branding. Set the welcome message and enable the document request feature. Then send a portal invitation to your first client.
Why it matters: The portal replaces ad-hoc email chains for document collection. When clients can upload directly to a labelled folder, you spend less time chasing documents and more time doing the actual work.
Enable notifications
Go to Settings > Notifications and turn on email notifications for:
- New document uploads from clients
- Overdue tasks
- Upcoming engagement due dates
- Received payments
Why it matters: Kuberan AI can only help you stay on top of deadlines if it can reach you when something needs attention. Configuring notifications on day one prevents important items from going unnoticed.
After your first week
Once you have completed the ten items above, you are ready to go deeper:
- Build your first playbook — Create a reusable task template for your most common engagement type (e.g. monthly bookkeeping, year-end review). See Using playbooks.
- Set up a recurring invoice — If you bill monthly retainer fees, configure a recurring invoice so Kuberan AI generates and sends it automatically. See the reference for Recurring Invoices.
- Add the rest of your clients — Use the CSV import feature (Settings > Import) to bring in your full client list at once rather than adding them one by one.
- Run your first report — Go to Practice > Reports and run the Unbilled Time report to see all time entries that have not yet been invoiced. This quickly reveals revenue you have already earned but not yet billed.
