Onboard your first client
The fastest way to learn Assure Pro is to run a real client end-to-end. This guide takes about 15 minutes and uses a test client you can delete afterward.
By the end you’ll have:
- Created a client with one entity and one contact.
- Sent the contact a magic link to upload tax documents.
- Watched Assure Pro classify the documents and match them to a checklist.
- Reviewed extracted data and exported it to a tax software file.
- Sent an engagement letter for e-signature.
- Generated and sent an invoice.
1. Add the client
From the sidebar, click Clients, then New client in the top-right.
For this walkthrough, pick Individual as the entity type, then fill in:
| Field | Value (use your own test data) |
|---|---|
| Primary contact first name | Jordan |
| Primary contact last name | Test |
| Primary contact email | jordan.test@yopmail.com (use yopmail.com so you can read the email at yopmail.com ) |
| Year-of-birth | Any |
| Filing status | Single |
| Tax year | 2025 |
Click Create. Assure Pro opens the client detail page.
[Screenshot: New client drawer with the fields above filled in]
2. Create an engagement
A client is just a record until you create an engagement — the unit of work Assure Pro tracks. From the client detail page, click New engagement.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Return type | 1040 (individual return) |
| Tax year | 2025 |
| Due date | Default — Apr 15, 2026 |
| Preparer | You |
| Reviewer | You (in larger firms, pick someone else) |
| Signer | You |
Click Create engagement. A card appears on your pipeline at the Awaiting docs stage.
3. Send intake
From the engagement, click Send intake. Assure Pro does two things:
- Generates an AI checklist of documents it expects for a 1040 — W-2, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-NEC, 1098, prior-year return, and so on. For returning clients (Year 2+), Assure Pro personalizes the checklist using last year’s data, naming specific employers, banks, and brokerages.
- Drafts a magic-link email to the client. The default subject is “Documents needed for your 2025 tax return.” You can edit the subject and body before sending.
Click Send. The client receives an email with a single button: Upload my documents.
[Screenshot: Send intake dialog with checklist preview]
4. Watch documents flow in
Open yopmail.com , check the inbox for jordan.test, and click the magic link in the email. You’re now on the client portal — no login needed.
Upload a few sample PDFs. You can use any test W-2 or 1099 from your tax-software training files, or download IRS samples.
Switch back to the Assure Pro dashboard. Within a few seconds you’ll see:
- Documents appear on the engagement.
- Each document gets a classification (W-2, 1099-DIV, etc.) with a confidence score.
- The checklist updates — items Assure Pro matched show as Received.
- The pipeline card moves itself: Awaiting docs → Docs received once every critical item is matched.
Assure Pro classifies 25+ tax document types automatically. When confidence is below 80%, the document lands in the Needs review queue for a quick human check.
5. Review extractions
For W-2s, 1099s, 1098s, and a few other forms, Assure Pro also extracts the data — wages, withholding, payer, account numbers — and matches it against the document image.
From the engagement, click any extracted document. You see:
- The document image on the left.
- Extracted fields on the right.
- Highlight boxes showing where each value came from.
Click any field to jump to its source on the image. Correct any values that Assure Pro got wrong — your corrections improve future extractions.
When you’re satisfied, click Confirm extractions. Assure Pro is now ready to export the data to your tax software.
[Screenshot: Extraction review with document on left and fields on right]
6. Export to your tax software
Click Export to Drake (or ProConnect / Lacerte / CCH — whichever you picked during firm setup). Assure Pro generates a file matching your tax software’s import format. Download it, drop it into your tax software, and you’re ready to prepare the return.
You’ll prepare the actual return in Drake / ProConnect — Assure Pro doesn’t compute returns. Once it’s prepared and reviewed, come back to Assure Pro.
7. Send an engagement letter
From the engagement, click Send engagement letter. Assure Pro uses your default engagement letter template, fills in merge fields (client name, entity, services, fees), and shows you a preview.
Click Send for signature. The client gets a second magic-link email — this time for e-signing. Once they sign, the engagement letter PDF is stored on the client record, and the pipeline advances to Awaiting signature → Signed.
For 8879 (the IRS e-file signature authorization), Assure Pro uses Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA) — an extra identity verification required by IRS. Engagement letters don’t require KBA; 8879 does. Both happen in the same e-sign flow.
8. Send an invoice
Click Bill engagement. Assure Pro uses your firm’s service catalog to pre-fill line items based on the return type. Review, adjust, and click Send invoice.
The client receives an email with a payment link — ACH (no fee) or credit card (with a pass-through fee, if you’ve enabled that). Once they pay, Assure Pro marks the engagement Paid and moves the pipeline card forward if you’ve set payment as an advance trigger.
What’s next
You’ve now seen the entire core loop: client → documents → workflow → billing.
To go deeper:
- More clients: Adding clients covers entity types, bulk import, and the onboard wizard.
- Customize your pipeline: Custom pipelines — most firms tweak the default stages within the first week.
- Templates: Templates & library — engagement letters, organizers, folder structures.
- Team: Invite your team — assign preparers and reviewers so you’re not the only person on every engagement.
Cleaning up
To delete the test client: open the client detail page, click the three-dot menu in the top-right, and choose Delete client. This removes the client, the engagement, the documents, and the messages.
Deleting a real client wipes everything tied to them and can’t be undone. For clients you no longer work with, use Archive instead — that hides them from active views without losing the history.