How to set up TaxDome for a new firm

Start with your workflow on paper, not in the software

Before you touch a single setting, sketch how a client actually moves through your firm: lead, onboarding, documents in, work, review, delivery, invoice, done. TaxDome is a workflow engine, and everything below is easier once you know the flow you are automating. Ten minutes with a pen saves you hours of rework.

1. Firm settings and branding

Set your firm name, logo, colors, time zone, and your custom domain for the client portal. This is what clients see first, so make it look like you. Add your working hours too, so automations and reminders fire at sane times.

2. Add your team and set access

Even if it is just you today, decide your roles now. TaxDome lets you scope what each team member can see and do. Getting this right early avoids a painful cleanup later when you hire your first preparer or admin.

3. Build your CRM foundation: account types and custom fields

Decide your account types (individual, business, the entities you serve) and the custom fields you will actually use for filtering, like entity type, return type, or software. Do not over-build this. Three or four fields you will really sort by beat twenty you will never touch.

4. Create your first pipeline (this is the engine)

A pipeline is how work moves, stage by stage, with automations at each step. Start with one. A 1040 season pipeline is a great first build. Map the stages to the flow you sketched: Not started, Docs requested, In prep, In review, Ready to file, Filed. Then add automations one at a time. Do not try to automate everything on day one.

Rule of thumb: build one pipeline, run five real clients through it, then automate the steps that annoyed you. That beats designing the perfect pipeline in a vacuum.

5. Set up your templates

Templates are where the time savings live. Build the ones you use every week first: the client organizer, a document-request task, your engagement letter, and two or three canned emails (welcome, docs reminder, return ready). Every template you make is time you never spend again.

6. Turn on invoicing and payments

Connect your payment processor, set your services and prices, and decide your policy: invoice on delivery, or require payment before you release the return. TaxDome can automate invoices inside a pipeline, so billing stops being the thing you forget.

7. Configure the client portal and mobile app

This is the client's entire experience of your firm. Test it as a client: send yourself an organizer, upload a document, sign something, pay an invoice. If it is confusing to you, it is confusing to them. Fix the friction before a real client ever sees it.

8. Set up Inbox+ (email)

Connect your email so client messages live next to the client record instead of getting lost in a personal inbox. This is one of the biggest quality-of-life wins in TaxDome, and it is easy to skip during setup. Do not skip it.

9. Nail your document and e-signature flow

Set up your folder structure, your document templates, and your e-signature process, including KBA where you need it on signed returns. Decide how married-filing-jointly signatures work before tax season, not in the middle of it.

10. Import your clients and go live

Bring in your client list, assign account types, and drop them into the right pipeline. Start with a small batch, confirm everything looks right, then import the rest. Send your first real organizer, and you are live.

The mistakes I see most

• Over-building the CRM before running a single client through it.
• Automating everything at once, so when something breaks you cannot tell which automation did it.
• Skipping Inbox+ and the portal test, then wondering why clients are confused.
• Treating setup as one weekend instead of a system you refine over your first season.

You do not need it perfect to start. You need one clean pipeline, your core templates, and payments working. Refine from there.

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