Clients
Good morning, Kelsey 👋
Here's a quick look at what needs your attention today.
Monthly Revenue (MRR)
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Active Clients
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Unread Messages
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Pending Receipts
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Needs Your Attention
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Missing Last Month's Data
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Upcoming Bookings
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Your Clients
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Update Monthly Data
P&L — Income Statement
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow
Notes & Content
Add New Client
Fill in the form and click Create — they'll receive a login email automatically.
Upload Report
Upload a PDF report for a client — it'll appear in their Reports tab automatically.
Uploaded Reports
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Tax Returns
Upload a completed return PDF — the client can log in anytime and pull it (and prior years) themselves instead of you emailing a password-protected PDF each time.
Uploaded Returns
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Blog Posts
New Post
All Posts
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Social Posts
Draft and schedule posts for Facebook & Instagram. Auto-publishing isn't connected yet — for now, scheduled posts show up here as reminders; mark them "Posted" once you've shared them manually.
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Document Requests
New Request
Add at least one document above
All Requests
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Messages
Conversations
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Select a conversation
QuickBooks Connection
Your Accountant Connection
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Invoice Numbering
The portal assigns its own invoice numbers (e.g. 1022-MBA). If one is ever created directly in QuickBooks instead of through the portal, the two counters can drift and collide. Run this to scan QBO for the highest number actually in use and fast-forward the portal's counter past it.
Client QBO Customer IDs
Link each client to their QBO customer record so the billing tab can pull their invoices. Click Edit on a client, then use the Search QBO button to find and select the correct customer by name — the API ID will be filled in automatically.
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Receipt Review
Expense Categories
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Budget
Set annual budget targets per account. Clients can view by month, quarter, or full year in their portal.
Reimbursement Requests
Review and process employee reimbursement requests across all clients.
Select a filter and load requests.
Billing
Total MRR
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On Autopay
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Auto-Invoice
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Standard Operating Procedures
Click any section to expand the step-by-step process.
👤 1. Adding a New Client
- 1Go to the Add Client tab in the sidebar.
- 2Fill in the Business Name, Contact Name, Email, and Tier. The YTD Goal is optional (Tier 3 only).
- 3Click Add Client (No Invite Yet) to create the record without sending an email.
- 4Back in All Clients, click Edit on the new client to open their profile.
- 5Check Client is onboarding to hide the full portal until you're ready to reveal it.
- 6Use Search QBO to find and link the correct QBO customer record so invoices can be generated.
- 7Click Invite to Portal on the client row to send their login invitation email.
- 8Once onboarding is complete, uncheck the onboarding checkbox to unlock the full portal.
Tip: Connect the client's QBO or Xero books (in the Edit modal) so Monthly Data can pull P&L numbers automatically.
📊 2. Monthly Data Entry
- 1Go to the Monthly Data tab.
- 2Select the client and the month/year you're entering data for.
- 3If the client's QBO or Xero books are connected, click Pull from QBO or Pull from Xero to auto-fill revenue and expense figures.
- 4Review all pulled numbers — correct any mismatched categories if needed.
- 5Enter Accounts Receivable manually (QBO doesn't always surface this cleanly via API).
- 6Add any job costing rows if the client has job costing enabled.
- 7Click Save. The AI narrative will generate automatically within a few seconds.
- 8Review the generated narrative — you can edit it directly before the client sees it.
The client sees their dashboard update immediately after save. The AI narrative appears in their "Kelsey's Notes" section.
🧾 3. Receipt Review & Approval
- 1Go to the Receipts tab. A red badge shows how many are pending review.
- 2Filter by client or status as needed.
- 3Open each pending receipt — the AI has suggested a vendor name, amount, date, and expense category.
- 4Select the correct Bank Account from the QBO chart of accounts (where the money came out of).
- 5Confirm or change the Expense Category (also pulled from QBO chart of accounts).
- 6Click Approve. This posts the expense to QBO with the receipt image attached.
- 7If a receipt is a duplicate or junk, click Reject to dismiss it without posting.
You can manage the dropdown category list using the Manage button at the top of the Receipts tab — add or remove your most-used categories.
📁 4. Generating & Sharing Reports
- 1Go to the Upload Report tab.
- 2Select the client, month, year, and report type (Basic or Detailed).
- 3The report name auto-fills — adjust if needed.
- 4Upload the PDF file and click Upload Report.
- 5The report appears immediately in the client's portal under their Reports tab.
- 6To share a direct link, copy the report URL from the Uploaded Reports list below and send it to the client.
Basic reports are single-page snapshots. Detailed reports include category breakdowns and trend charts. Both formats are supported.
📋 5. Document Requests
- 1Go to the Doc Requests tab.
- 2Click New Request and select the client.
- 3Enter a title and description for what you need (e.g. "January bank statement — Chase checking ending 4521").
- 4Set a due date if applicable and click Send Request.
- 5The client sees the request in their portal and can upload a file or leave a note.
- 6Track status here — requests show as Pending, Uploaded, or Acknowledged.
- 7A red badge on the Doc Requests tab alerts you when a client has responded.
💳 6. Billing Management
- 1Go to the Billing tab to see all clients with their billing settings in one place.
- 2To set a custom price for a client, click the price field in their row and enter a dollar amount. This overrides their proposal price.
- 3Toggle Auto-Invoice on to send a branded invoice on the 1st of each month, with a reminder on the 10th if unpaid.
- 4If a client has set up autopay, their row shows a green Autopay On badge and their payment method.
- 5Click Resend Payment Link if a client needs to re-enter their card.
- 6Click Cancel Autopay to turn off automatic charging (their card stays on file).
- 7The MRR, Autopay, and Auto-Invoice counts at the top update in real time.
🔗 7. QBO / Xero Connection
- 1Go to the QuickBooks tab.
- 2Your Accountant Connection is Mahala's own QBO firm account — used for billing, creating invoices, and searching the QBO customer list. Connect this first.
- 3To pull a client's P&L data, connect their individual QBO books: open their Edit modal and click Connect Client's QBO. This is a separate OAuth connection per client.
- 4For Xero clients: same process — click Connect Client's Xero in their Edit modal.
- 5Each client's books connection only lets you read their P&L — it does not post anything to their books (except receipt approvals, which post to their QBO).
- 6QBO tokens expire — if pulling data fails, re-connect the relevant account.
The QBO Customer ID (linked in the Edit modal) is separate from the QBO books connection. The Customer ID is used for invoicing; the books connection is for reading financials.
✅ 8. Month End Checklist
- 1Go to the Month End tab at the start of each close cycle.
- 2Select the month being closed.
- 3Work through each client row — click to expand their checklist.
- 4Check off each task as you complete it: pull financials, enter monthly data, approve receipts, upload report, send invoice.
- 5The row turns green when all tasks are checked for that client.
- 6Add custom one-off tasks using the text field at the bottom of any client's checklist.
- 7Progress is saved automatically — you can close the tab and come back.
Aim to have all clients completed by the 15th of the following month. Use the status badges to quickly see who still needs attention.
📐 9. Setting Up a Client Budget
- 1Go to the Budget tab in the sidebar.
- 2Select the client and the budget year from the dropdowns.
- 3Make sure Enable Budget is turned on for the client — check this in their Edit modal if the Budget tab isn't showing in their portal.
- 4Enter monthly budget amounts for each revenue and expense line item. You can type directly into any cell.
- 5Add an overall Budget Note at the bottom (optional) — this appears in the client's portal as "Notes from Kelsey."
- 6You can also add a per-line note to any individual row to explain assumptions or flag items.
- 7Click Save Budget. The client's portal immediately shows actuals vs. budget with progress bars.
- 8Actuals are pulled live from QBO each time the client (or you in preview) loads their Budget tab. No manual entry needed for actuals.
The budget view shows Month, Quarter, and Annual views. Clients can toggle between them. Unbudgeted QBO expense categories automatically appear as extra rows at the bottom so nothing gets hidden.
💸 10. Reimbursement Requests
- 1Make sure Enable Reimbursements is turned on in the client's Edit modal — this shows the Reimbursements tab in their portal.
- 2When a client submits a reimbursement, you'll receive a push notification and can find it in the Reimbursements tab in the sidebar.
- 3Review the request — it shows the employee name, expense date, amount, description, and any attached receipt.
- 4Click the receipt thumbnail to open and verify the attached image or PDF.
- 5Select Approve to mark the reimbursement as approved, or Reject to decline it. The client sees the updated status in their portal immediately.
- 6Use the Push to QBO button to post the approved reimbursement as an expense in the client's QuickBooks account.
- 7Add an internal note if needed — this is visible only to you, not the client.
Clients can attach a receipt image or PDF when submitting. The submission form asks for employee name, date, amount, and purpose — all required fields.
Time Tracking
Log billable hours per client. Generate printable invoices or reports.
00:00:00
Manual Entry
Or log time directly if you forgot to use the timer.
Time Entries
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🏦 Reconciliation
Upload bank statements and reconciliation reports for each client.
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Email Templates
Save reusable email copy. Click to copy to clipboard when you need it.
New Template
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Tax Deadline Calendar
Federal deadlines pre-loaded. Add custom recurring or one-time deadlines below.
Federal
Custom
Urgent (≤7 days)
Scheduling
Manage your availability and view upcoming bookings.
Weekly Availability
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Google Calendars
Connect Google Calendar, then select which calendars to cross-reference for availability (e.g. personal + business).
Connect / Reconnect Google CalendarCRM — Lead Pipeline
Total Leads
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New
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In Progress
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Won
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Books Health Check — Interest Tracking
Every visit to the free public Books Health Check (mahalaadvisors.com/health-check) lands here, whether or not they finished connecting QuickBooks.
Started
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Connected QBO
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Completed
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Started → Completed
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Month End
Total Clients
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Complete
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In Progress
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Not Started
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Proposals
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📧 Gmail
Portal Email Log
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All Posts
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