Welcome to Jetpack Workflow! This article walks you through the four steps to get your account set up and your first projects running.

Here's how setup works:

The order matters - templates come first because you'll use them to create projects, and clients come before your team so you have work ready to assign. It shouldn't take long to get through all four.

A template is a standardized process you use again and again to create projects for clients. Think of it as your blueprint - it holds the tasks that need to happen for a given type of work, in the right order.

The key thing to know upfront: templates shouldn't be client-specific. Build them around the type of work (e.g. Monthly Bookkeeping, 1040 Tax Return, Payroll Processing) and you'll customize the individual project for each client once it's created.

Don't worry about getting them perfect on the first pass - templates can be edited any time, and changes will flow through to active projects built from them. Just get the core tasks in place and refine from there.

👉 How to Create & Duplicate Templates

Not sure where to start? Download these 32 free accounting workflow templates for inspiration.

Good to know: If you edit a template after projects have been created from it, those changes will update any projects that haven't been started yet. See Impact of Edits to Templates, Series, and Individual Entries so this doesn't catch you off guard later.

With your templates ready, it's time to add the clients you'll be creating work for. You have two options:

Once your clients are in, you can also add contacts - the individual people associated with each client, like a bookkeeper or office manager. A contact can be linked to multiple clients, which is handy if one person is your point of contact across several businesses.

👉 How to Import Clients and Contacts 👉 How to Create an Individual Client

Before you start creating projects, get your team into the account so you can assign work to the right people from day one.

To invite team members, go to Account → Members & Permissions and click Invite Member in the top right corner. Enter their email address and hit send - they'll receive an invitation in their inbox with instructions to get started. If they don't see it, ask them to check their spam folder.

Once they've accepted, you can manage their access and permissions from the same Members & Permissions page. Permissions control what each team member can see and do in the account, so it's worth reviewing these before they dive in.

👉 Add, Edit & Remove Team Members 👉 Permissions Overview

Now the fun part. A project is a specific job you're doing for a client - a monthly bookkeeping engagement, a 1040, a payroll run, a one-off onboarding. Projects house all the tasks, notes, and communication for that piece of work in one place.

To create projects, navigate to the Clients page, select the client (or clients) you want to assign work to, and click Assign Work at the top of the screen. From there you'll choose a template, set the assignee, and decide whether this is a one-off project or a recurring series with a set schedule.

Once a project is created, you can customize it for that specific client - editing task details, adding checklists, setting due dates, and assigning individual tasks to team members.

👉 How to Create a Project Using an Existing Template

Before you start working through your projects, take a moment to set up your notification preferences. Notifications let you know when tasks are due, when you've been mentioned in a comment, and when work is ready to be handed to you - all things that are easy to miss without them.

Each team member sets their own preferences, so encourage your whole team to do this during onboarding too.

👉 Notifications Overview

That's everything you need to get up and running. If you'd like a guided walkthrough, check out the New Account Setup Video Course - it covers all of this and more.