Manage a CoPilot lead

This article explains how to view a CoPilot lead and send them a package proposal within FreeAgent.

CoPilot is a tool that allows your practice to connect with and manage clients all in one place. The service has been designed to give a seamless experience for you and your clients from initial contact, through onboarding with your practice and the ongoing delivery of the CoPilot service. 

As a CoPilot accountant, your practice will be visible to all qualifying FreeAgent customers who are interested in CoPilot, giving your business a real opportunity to grow. When a prospective client sends an enquiry, you’ll be notified via your Practice Dashboard and via email.

1. View the CoPilot lead

Go to the Clients area and select the ‘My CoPilot leads’ tab.

Prospective clients who have sent you an enquiry will be listed, ready for you to contact using their preferred contact method.

You can view further details of a lead by selecting the business name.

This will allow you to gain more information about the client’s business, including a mini Profit & Loss, tax submission history and payroll information, before you have an initial conversation with them.

2. Contact the CoPilot lead

When you’re ready, contact the prospective client using the contact details they provided in their enquiry. This initial conversation allows you to discuss the client’s business needs and establish the details of how you’ll work together.

During your initial conversation, it's important to discuss and come to an agreement on the following: 

• The amount of work required to bring the current accounts up to date in order to begin the provision of the CoPilot services. This is crucial as the ongoing subscription will be used to fund future work on the prospect client’s accounts. Any one-off services can be added on the initial proposal form under the ‘Include additional one-off work’ section. This can be taken on the first subscription payment.
   
• Some clients might want to take advantage of some of the additional services you have available on your CoPilot page.
   
• Ways of working should be agreed between the parties. This might include the method and frequency of communication or whether the management of the services will be undertaken by a dedicated accountant, or be department-led. 

One-off fees and additional services should always be discussed during your initial contact with the client and agreed in advance. If you do decide to charge a one-off fee or additional services, you can set the amount on their package proposal.

You can then either send the client a package proposal or cancel the lead.

3. Send the client a package proposal

If you decide you’d like to go ahead and work with the client, select ‘Create a package proposal’.

This will include any agreed one-off fee covering any work required to get the accounts up to date to start delivering the CoPilot services and any additional services you have discussed and agreed with the client.

You can also enter a package expiry date if you wish. Read more about creating a package proposal for prospective clients.

Once you’re happy with the proposal, select ‘Send package proposal’ to send it to the prospective client. 

If you need to, you can edit the package proposal.

What happens next?

Once you’ve sent a proposal, the prospective client will receive an email to notify them of the invite. This will include the list of services and price to be billed monthly, along with any additional one-off costs to be billed on the day of acceptance.

If they’re happy to work with you, they’ll agree to the proposal package and sign up to CoPilot.

Your new client will then be onboarded and appear under the ‘My clientsʼ tab within your Practice Dashboard. You can use the 'Client relationship' filter above the client list to show your CoPilot clients only.

Cancelling a CoPilot lead

If you decide not to work with the client, you can cancel the lead.

From their client profile, select the ‘More’ button and choose ‘Remove this lead’ from the drop-down menu.

You'll be asked to enter a reason. We won’t share your reason with the client but it’s useful for our support team to have context in case the client gets in touch with us.

Once you’ve chosen a reason, select ‘Remove this CoPilot lead’.

This will send email confirmation to you and the client stating that the agreement will not go ahead. The lead will also be removed from your ‘CoPilot leads’ area.

Lead cancelling an enquiry

The prospective client can also cancel the enquiry from their end. If they do, you’ll receive an email notifying you and they’ll be removed from the 'CoPilot leads' area of your dashboard. This means you won't be able to access their data anymore.