Once you've created your Keeper account, follow this guide to get your practice set up and learn how to run a close in Keeper!
If you prefer to play around but want to make sure you got everything, you can also head to the Recap Checklist at the bottom of this page to make sure you got through everything important.
Make sure to check out our Getting Started with Keeper series on YouTube!
Setting up your Practice
Invite Your Teammates
If you have any teammates, you can invite them by
Going to your Practice Settings (βοΈ icon at the top right of the screen)
Selecting Manage Users
Choose Add New
Video: Adding and managing users
All Keeper plans include unlimited users π Read more about user access and roles here: Permissions and Access Controls
Set up Whitelabeling for your Practice
Follow these instructions to set up your whitelabeled client portal (i.e., customize your branding + have it live on your domain). In the same location, you can also integrate your practice email to send emails to your clients directly through Keeper.
Whitelabel is a part of Keeper Premium.
If you don't enable whitelabeling, your client portal will live at keeper.app/client and emails will come from questions@keeper.app.
Once you've set up you're practice, you're ready to dive into a close!
Running a Close
Video: The close page basics
About the Close Page
The Close page is where all of your tasks, reports, and client communication live.
You can get to a client's close page by clicking their name on the Client List.
If you use Class, Location, or Customers/Projects, you should enable those in your client's File Settings (the ... icon at the top of the page). This will allow you to run custom reports like Class Inconsistency and Expenses without a Customer.
Heads up! Before hopping into the file review tasks, make sure to code all transactions from the Bank Feed β since Keeper cannot see any transactions that are still sitting in the bank feed.
How Tasks Work
The core of a close is the month-end tasks you do and reports you run in Keeper.
There are two types of tasks in Keeper: Closing Tasks and Non-Closing Tasks.
Closing Tasks: the monthly work you do for each client in order to close their books and deliver their financials
These are tied to the close, so they automatically repeat each month as you start new closes for your clients
Found underneath non-closing tasks
Non-Closing Tasks: everything else!
These can be anything from one-off tasks you need to do for each client, or they can be recurring tasks that recur weekly, biweekly, etc.
Found at the top of the close page
All Keeper tasks live in sections, and each of these sections live across all of your clients. That means if you add a section, it will show up in every client, and if you delete a section, it will be deleted from every client.
How File Reviews Work
Video: File review closing task basics
File review task reports are designed to help you review the data in your client's books. Keeper has lots of different reports. Here are a few examples:
The Expense Inconsistency report catches transactions coded inconsistently from month to month.
The Uncategorized Transactions report will pull all the transactions you've coded to a suspense account to ask your client about.
The Profit and Loss Review will flag accounts that deviate from their historical trends, and show you which vendors/customers are responsible for those changes.
How Client Communication Works
Communicating with your clients is one of Keeper's core features. You ask questions from their close page, and they'll respond to them (or ask you questions) in your Client Portal.
There are four main components to client communication:
Asking questions
Adding and messaging your contacts
Previewing what your client sees
Handling their responses
Video: Client Communication basics
Interactive Demo
This demo shows how to add questions to your client's portal and email them a notification:
Asking Questions
From any transaction in any report, you can ask questions by clicking the Ask Client button, typing your question, and adding it to the Client Portal.
Once it's in the Portal, your contacts can respond!
We do not automatically email your client about new questions. That way, you can ask as many questions as you want, and then send one email.
You can also enable Automated Reminders
Questions carry over from month to month, so you can still start a new close if there are unresolved questions
If you want to ask your client a question that is not related to a specific transaction, you can do this from the Non-Transaction Questions area of your Client Communications at the top of the page. You can even set these up to be recurring - e.g., for bank statement requests.
Adding and Messaging your Contacts
In order to communicate with your clients from within Keeper, you'll need to add them as a Contact. This also enables them to access the Client Portal via email!
From within the client close page, select Portal and then Add Contact.
Things to Know
First Name and Email are required fields
Financial Access allows this contact to see financial reports posted to the portal
Files Access allows this contact to see any files you make visible in the portal
Add a Phone Number to be able to text your clients!
Texting your clients is only available on Keeper Premium
You can have multiple contacts for each client, and you can have contacts with access across multiple client's.
We recommend sending the Intro Email template to introduce your clients to their new Client Portal!
Previewing the Portal: What your client sees
You can check out your client contact's portal experience by
Navigating to Portal Settings under the Close tab
Selecting the Preview (ποΈ) icon to the right of the contact
Video: The client's perspective
Handling Client Responses
Once your client responds, you'll see their answer under Client Communication and on the Client List.
The close page
The client list
If it's a transaction question, you can reclassify the transaction directly from Keeper. You can also append the client's answer to the memo, or respond if you need more information β just by clicking the client's answer.
Once you have made all the changes you need, you should mark the question resolved by checking the checkmark circle next to their response. This will archive the question in Keeper and remove it from your Client Portal.
That's it for the close - now onto the Management Reports!
Delivering Management Reports
Keeper's Reporting tab is where you can generate month-end management reporting packages for your clients. You can get here by clicking the Reporting tab from the Close page.
Your Client's Report Settings
For each client, you can:
add their logo to the cover sheet
track Key Metrics on the Executive Summary
create custom, trend-based graphs in the Metrics report
enable or disable any reports from the package
Learn more about the Management Reports here: ο»Ώο»ΏManagement Reports.
You can configure the client's Report Settings from the Reporting tab such as
Basis (Cash or Accrual)
Create a template from your current settings
Configure Practice Settings
Before sending out any financials, we recommend configuring a few practice-level settings.
First, to add legal disclaimers to your reports:
Go to your Practice Settings (βοΈ icon)
Select Practice & Statements
Select Legal Disclaimers
Customize your Cover Page and Footnotes options
Second, to customize the accent colors of your reports
Go to your Practice Settings (βοΈ icon)
Select Practice & Statements
Select Statements and Reporting
Select an accent color under your Color Settings
Third, add your practice logo!
Go to your Practice Settings (βοΈ icon)
Select Practice & Statements
Select Logo
Upload from there!
Sending Reports
Once you're ready, you can deliver the Management Report package by clicking Publish. This will let you print the package as a PDF, email it to your client, or upload it directly to the Client Portal.
Recap Checklist
Whew, that's a lot to go through! If you feel good about these five things, you should be well on your way to streamlining your closes in Keeper:
Learn how Keeper's reports work and how to edit transactions (Need help? Click here)
New client onboarding: add a contact & send them an introduction email
Turn on automated reminders
Set up your client's Management Reports
Don't forget to check out the Getting Started with Keeper series on our YouTube channel!