Five Tips for Disengaging With a Client

Issues with clients often happen, but when it becomes disruptive to a positive working relationship, it is usually best to move on and hopefully amicably. In this blog post, Jody Linick shares her personal experience about the right things to do when it comes time to disengaging with a client.

In her case, she spent over a year of back and forth over the aforementioned workflow disagreements and finally decided it was time to disengage.

Here are 5 tips on how to start the separation process if and when it happens in your practice:

1. Notify Your Client You Wish To End the Engagement

I emailed the client to let them know I had decided to end our working relationship. I did not get into specifics, and did not cast any accusations. Instead, I used neutral language along the lines of “it seems we are at odds with each other” and “now appears to be a good time to end our working relationship.”

2. Set a Specific Date for the Engagement To End

In that same email, I proposed (mid-month) that we continue working together until the last day of the month. My Service Agreement says either party may end the relationship with five days written notice, but I provided more time.

3. Offer To Assist the Client in Finding a New Provider

I offered to help find my replacement, through my network of colleagues. In the end, this client said they already had a provider in mind, which streamlined the separation process.

4. Outline Separation Steps With a Checklist

Once we had agreed to separate, I sent a To Do list for each party. For my part, I was to continue in my regular role and duties until the last day of the month. At that time, I would then return to the client any documents I had in my possession, and I would cancel any third party apps the client no longer wished to use.

The client’s To Do list included:

• Changing all login passwords which had been provided to me for banks, credit cards, vendors and third party software
• Removing my access to the QuickBooks Online file and payroll service
• Inviting the new provider to the QBO file
• Changing the QBO monthly billing from my QBO Master account to the new provider’s account

I also asked the client to let me know if I had left anything off the list.

5. Send a Disengagement Agreement

Once I completed all my steps, I sent the client a disengagement letter via U.S. Mail. This letter makes official what each party needs to do to complete the working relationship (repeats the steps from the checklist above), and also thanks the client for the time we worked together.

Conclusion

Deciding to drop a client can be a tricky process. Avoid present and future pain by thinking through all the steps required to close out an engagement, on both your side and the client’s side.

The most important thing is to remain polite and professional. In the event the relationship has soured, there is nothing to gain by pouring oil on the fire. Maintaining a neutral tone and sticking to the high road benefits both parties, and makes the entire process run more smoothly.

Jody Linick is an AIPB Certified Bookkeeper, a QuickBooks® Certified Pro Advisor, and a member of the Intuit Trainer/Writer network.  Her company, FitBooks Pro [www.fitbookspro.com] (formerly called Linick Consulting), specializes in remote bookkeeping services for professional services firms using QuickBooks Online. You can find her series of Blog posts here.