Before you start
Set Balansix up around the way the practice intends to work, not around the limitations of the previous software. Before importing clients, decide who should have access, which roles exist in the firm, which services are offered and which first client cohort will be used to validate the workflow.
1. Set up the practice
Confirm the practice identity and the senior users who will administer Balansix. Directors and Practice Managers should agree the operating conventions that affect the whole firm, including client ownership, team roles, read-only access and who can see fee or profitability information.
- Confirm the practice details used across client and document workflows.
- Create senior administrative users first.
- Define the roles used by the firm: Directors, Practice Managers, Managers, Staff and Contractors as applicable.
- Agree how client-level access will be assigned.
- Decide who can see commercial information such as fees and profitability.
2. Create staff users and permissions
Every staff member should use an individual account. Do not share credentials between team members. Individual identity allows the permissions and audit trail to reflect who actually performed the work.
- Create the staff account using the appropriate work or approved email address.
- Assign the correct role.
- Enable the required multi-factor authentication process.
- Allocate client access according to responsibility.
- Use read-only rights where the person needs visibility without edit access.
3. Add the first clients
Create or migrate the first client cohort with the information required for live work. The client record should become the core operational record, so take time to confirm names, entity details, registrations, contacts and active services.
- Check legal/entity details.
- Confirm services and relevant fees.
- Set engagement information.
- Assign the responsible staff or team.
- Review upcoming deadlines and recurring work.
- Bring across opening accounting information only where the client is also starting in the Accounting Workspace.
4. Validate one full workflow
Before scaling up, take one client through the activities that matter to your practice. For example: engagement → client request → record upload → bookkeeping → year-end schedule → final accounts. This exposes configuration decisions that are difficult to spot by looking at setup screens alone.
Record any practice-specific conventions agreed during the pilot so the next cohort can follow the same process.
5. Expand in cohorts
Once the first group is operating correctly, move further clients in staged groups. A sensible cohort might be based on service mix, responsible manager or accounting period. The important point is that each group follows a validated process rather than creating a new implementation each time.
Continue with the guides for Practice Management → and Bookkeeping →.