When a new client comes on board, there’s a temptation to start fresh.

Pick up where things are today. Move forward from here.

That’s not how we do it.

We asked our newer team member to walk us through what happens when a new client comes on board.

“We usually go back and look at the books for the last 12 months. That’s the first thing I do. I take a look at the bank recs then are there any outstanding checks, why aren’t we closing on time. Then you go to the balance sheet and take a hard look at what accounts aren’t supposed to be there. Then the P&L. From that point, you start getting familiar with the client, the billing process, the invoice process, the AP runs.”

A full year, before a single new entry gets made.

Why go backward before going forward?

Because the last twelve months tell you things the client may not think to mention:

• Which accounts have been quietly accumulating things that don’t belong there
• Whether closes have been timely, or consistently late for a reason nobody’s addressed
• What the real billing and invoicing rhythm looks like not the version described in an onboarding call, but the version that actually happened
• Where the gaps are, before those gaps become the client’s problem to explain to a board or funder

Skip that step, and you’re building on a foundation nobody actually checked.

By the time the review is done, something shifts. Our newer team member put it this way:

“You become a tool for the company. They can feel more freely about their own business without thinking about accounting in the process.”

That’s the point of the lookback. Not just accuracy, freedom for the client to stop thinking about it.

So the question is: When your accounting team took over, did they actually look at where things stood or did they just start counting forward from day one?