Create your first client in Ledger
A client in Ledger is the corporate entity you work for : one client holds one or more engagements (fiscal years). Everything that must persist from one year to the next (chart of accounts, configurations, contact info) lives on the client card, not on a single engagement. Getting the client right up front pays off at every rollover.
Open the Clients page
In the left menu, click Clients. Ledger shows the list of your firm's clients with their client code, legal name, engagement lead and fiscal year end. Click New client in the top right corner.
Fill in Identification
The client sheet opens on the Client tab. Fill in the identification block :
Add address and contact info
Below identification, enter the client's address, phone, and one or more emails (you'll use these when sending financial statements, tax remittances, invoices).
The Province selector is important : it drives Québec-specific behaviour (QST worksheets, RQ payment code, French letters for compilation engagements).
Assign engagement leads
Section Engagement leads. Choose :
- Partner in charge (required) : the partner who owns this client and sees them on their dashboard.
- Corresponding accountant : the accountant who liaises with the client on operations.
- Signatory : who signs the financial statements. Often the same as the partner.
Each list only offers members of your firm with the appropriate role. See Assign engagement leads for the full picture.
Currency, shareholders, mission
Three optional but useful blocks :
- Currency : CAD or USD. Determines how amounts are displayed and formatted throughout the file.
- Shareholders / Owners : add each shareholder with their name and share count. Used later on the shareholder schedule and on some notes.
- Mission : the fiscal year (start and end), and the engagement type (Compilation NCSC 4200 or Internal financial statement). The Start a fiscal year now checkbox, at the top of this section, is ticked by default and creates the first engagement. Uncheck it to create a plain contact card with no engagement, for example a client you only do bookkeeping for. You can add a fiscal year later, from the client's card.
Mark First year as Yes if this is a new client (no prior fiscal years in Ledger), so the tool knows there's no N-1 comparative to expect.
Save
Click Save at the top. If you kept the fiscal year, Ledger creates the client and its first engagement and opens the engagement, ready for the trial balance. If you unchecked it, Ledger opens the client's card, where you can add a fiscal year whenever you need one. The QuickBooks connection card appears on the right, ready to be linked whenever you have the client's credentials (see Connect a client to QuickBooks).
You can edit any field later. Right on the client's card, the Client information block has an Edit button, so you can keep the address, emails and phone up to date without opening an engagement, handy for bookkeeping-only clients. The same fields are also editable from the engagement view.
What's next
- Assign engagement leads : set up who owns the client and who works on it.
- Import the trial balance : from Excel/CSV or directly from QuickBooks.
- Connect the client to QuickBooks : one-time OAuth, per client.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to enter the client code manually ?
No. Leave the field empty and Ledger auto-generates one based on your firm's counter. You can override it later if you have your own naming convention.
Can two clients share the same NEQ or BN ?
Not usually : a corporation has one NEQ and one BN. If you find yourself typing the same number for two records, you probably meant to create two engagements on a single client, or you have a real edge case (a corporation with two business divisions, for example).
Delete a client I created by mistake ?
Yes. On the client card, action « Delete this file » removes the engagement. If the client itself has no other engagement, it disappears from your list. Deletion is permanent (a confirmation dialog asks you to type SUPPRIMER / DELETE).