Create a client and engagement

In one sentence

Register the client company first — every accounting record belongs to one — then attach an engagement that records what you charge and how often.

1. Why the client comes first

KaiderBooks is multi-client by design: every journal, invoice and ledger account belongs to a specific client. Without one, nothing in Books can be created — the "New" buttons stay disabled.

Screenshot 01-clients-list — 图 01-clients-list

The list shows every client your firm manages, with UEN, industry, GST registration status and financial year-end.

2. Creating a client

Click New Client in the top right.

Screenshot 02-client-form — 图 02-client-form

Field	Required	Notes
Client name	✅	Registered company name, matching ACRA — it appears on reports and filings
UEN	✅	Singapore Unique Entity Number. An invalid format is flagged immediately
Industry		Retail / F&B / Real estate / Micro / Pre-IPO / Other; drives industry templates in Insights
FY end month	✅	1–12. Determines reporting periods and ECI / Form C-S timing
Contact name / email		Your counterpart at the client; used by communication records
GST registered		Enables the GST registration number field; unregistered clients invoice without output tax

UEN validation

Three formats are accepted: 9 digits + 1 letter (e.g. 202512345K), 8 digits + 1 letter, and a T/S/R-prefixed 10-character form. An invalid value shows Invalid Singapore UEN under the field.

On save a "Client created" toast appears and the list refreshes immediately.

Deactivate is not delete

Deactivate is a soft delete: the client disappears from the list but every journal and invoice is retained for audit. The same UEN can be registered again afterwards.

3. Right after creating a client: the chart of accounts is empty

This is the most common trap. A new client has no ledger accounts, so invoicing or posting a journal fails with "Required system account is missing".

Go to Books → General Ledger → Chart of Accounts and create these first (the codes matter — the system looks accounts up by code):

Code	Name	Type	Used by
1000	Cash on hand	Asset	Default counter-account for receipts/payments
1010	Bank	Asset	Linked to bank accounts
1100	Trade receivables	Asset	Invoice posting
1490	Accumulated depreciation	Asset	Fixed asset depreciation
2000	Trade payables	Liability	Bill posting
2200	GST control	Liability	Output and input tax
2300 / 2310	CPF payable / Salaries payable	Liability	Payroll posting
4000	Sales revenue	Revenue	Invoice line income
5000 / 5100 / 5200 / 5600	Expenses / Salaries / Employer CPF / Depreciation	Expense	Purchases, payroll, depreciation

The chart is a tree — add child accounts under any account for finer analysis.

4. Attaching an engagement

Go to Practice → Clients → Engagements and click New engagement.

Screenshot 03-engagements — 图 03-engagements

Field	Notes
Client	Fixed once saved (disabled when editing) — create a new engagement to change it
Service	Bookkeeping / GST / Tax / Payroll / Secretarial / Audit support
Fee	Entered in dollars, stored internally in cents
Billing cycle	Monthly / Quarterly / Yearly
Start / end date	Leave the end date empty for an open-ended engagement
Status	Active / Paused / Ended

Engagements feed the time-and-billing view and define the scope of work you manage for that client.

Next: Raise your first invoice and collect payment →

Create a client and engagement ​

In one sentence ​

1. Why the client comes first ​

2. Creating a client ​

3. Right after creating a client: the chart of accounts is empty ​