In this video:

Before we jump into the client list let's take a quick minute to review the organizational structure for clients, contacts, and contact groups in Canopy.

Clients are the entity for whom you are completing work. We have two different client types:

Clients can be organized into client groups, allowing you to seamlessly invoice, or share documents with multiple clients under the same organization.

Finally, we have contacts. Contacts are the people associated with each client. These are the people you interact with, and can be associated with multiple different clients.

To navigate to your client list:

Your client list is a one-stop shop to view and edit all your clients. It is divided into columns that organize all of your client’s attributes.

You can also move the columns around to reorganize the list. Click and drag a column to the left or right to move it where you need it. You can also resize it by hovering between two columns until the icon changes and sliding it to the size you want.

You can filter each column or attribute in your client list. For example, let's say you wanted to filter by a state.

This will bring down the filter options.

Each column will filter slightly differently depending on the data type. For example, categories with dates will have the option to sort by different periods.

I can now save this filtered list.

Filtered lists can be exceptionally helpful when you want to perform a bulk action.

As you can see we can create a task, send a client request, send an organizer, add a folder template, copy files, and by clicking these three dots we have a few more options. I will go ahead and add a Colorado tag to these clients.

Click on the blue Add Client button. The add client window pops up and you are ready to add in your client's information.

The first section you need to fill out is the Client Type.

As a reminder, we have two types of clients, Individual and Business. For this client, I will select Individual, but I will point out a few differences in the individual and business client as we go along.

Next, Client Info.

Most importantly you need to name your client. It is best practice to choose a naming convention that works for your firm. This could be last name, comma first name (or names). Keeping things consistent throughout your firm will make it easier to find and manage clients in your client list.

You do, however, have the opportunity to check the box to add a different client-facing name. This name will show up on any client-facing items.

Below you can assign the client owner, add an external id, filing status, source, client since date and type.

Active vs. Inactive

One thing to note is this active box right here. When this is toggled off the functionality of your client record is going to be reduced to notes and email sync. Inactive clients will not count toward your client billing tier. You can come back into the record at any time to activate or deactivate this toggle.

Business Info

There is an extra section after client info for business information. This includes the Business name, which will likely be the same as the client name but you can change it.

You can add additional information like: Business type, industry, and EIN. You want to make sure you include a business email. This email will be used as the primary email for the account. Ok Let’s head back to the Individual Client.

Next, you will add contacts.

Each Individual client needs to have at least one contact added to the account.

You can add an existing contact or create a new one.

You can continue to add as many contacts as needed for each client.

You don’t have to add any contacts to a business account, as the business email will act as the main source for any communication, however, you can add as many contacts as you wish here too.

Custom fields, roles, tags

When you are done adding in your client details click Save Client or Save and Manage at the top.

You can view a client record by clicking on the client’s name in the client list.

Again there is a lot you can do within the client record and you can learn more by checking out our knowledge base, but I want to touch on a few key things.

You can dive deeper into your client record by using the tabs at the top to navigate to different areas within the client record.

The home dashboard offers a glance at some of the current tasks and their status, any recent files, notes, and resolution cases. As you scroll down you can also see any upcoming events.

At the very top, you can click on the little blue button to manage your team assignments. Roles are a great way to quickly give client access to your team members. If you want to learn more about managing and assigning roles you can check out this article linked here.

Now that we have explored the Client list and client record, let's take a look at our contact list.

This list is set up essentially the same way as the client list but with the information for each client. You can search, filter, and customize this list just like we did before, however, you can not complete any bulk actions from this list as the bulk actions are associated with the client account.

We can add a new contact by clicking on the Add Contact button at the top.

Begin by adding the contact details. We will start with our contact's name, and then fill in the rest of their contact information. Don’t forget an email address. You can also add multiple email addresses and then use the star symbol to select the primary one.

Down at the bottom, you have the option to assign this contact to a Client or clients. Since this contact is associated with the client we created earlier I will go ahead and add them. You can always do this from the client record as well under the contact section.

Click save when you are done.

There is one more way you can manage your clients and that is with client groups.

Client groups allow you to create groups of clients to help organize clients with the same organizational structure. You can use client groups to easily share files in Canopy and to bill multiple clients to the same person.

To create a new group select the blue button at the top to Create Client Group.

You will need to name this group.

Then you will use the drop-down to select the clients you want associated with this group. You will notice that any clients already in a client group will be grayed out as each client can only be in one client group.

When you are done adding your clients select Save client group.

Let's take a minute to show you how clients, contacts, and client groups work together.

For this example, we will be looking at Kim Costa.

Kim uses your firm for her family taxes and so you have an individual client Costa, Kim & Alessandro. On their client record, you can see all three contacts associated with this client record, including Kim who is listed as the primary contact.

Kim also has a cafe named “Kim’s Cafe” and your firm does taxes and bookkeeping for her cafe. So you have a business client, Kim's cafe. Here you will once again see Kim as the primary contact but listed are also the managers of the cafe.

Both clients are a part of the Kim Costa Group in Canopy, allowing you to create an invoice for both clients and send it to Kim in her client portal. This is a simple example but gives you an idea of how to use this structure as you are building your Client list.