What to keep on each client record

What a firm should keep on each client record in Achekam, where Client 360 gets its information, and which details still live only in the browser.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Every accounting firm has a client whose details live in five places: the partner's memory, an old engagement letter, a spreadsheet of tax numbers, a manager's e-mail folder and the previous year's working papers. When the partner is away and the client calls with an urgent question, nobody can answer it with confidence.

A client record is only useful if people trust it enough to stop keeping their own copies. That trust depends on knowing what the record holds, where each piece comes from, and which parts are not yet reliable. This article sets out what a firm should keep on each client in Achekam and how Client 360 assembles it.

Services, contacts, timeline and profile

Staff can open any client's Client 360 record, which reads the client's services, contacts, timeline and profile from the server. Those four parts answer the questions colleagues most often ask:

The client directory itself is kept on Achekam's server: clients are added with a step-by-step wizard or a CSV import, edited, and archived when they leave. Because Client 360 reads from that server record, every colleague who opens it sees the same thing, which is the whole point.

Profile facts that drive rules

The profile is not decoration. Some of what it holds drives what Achekam does later, so it is worth getting right.

For a South African client, staff prepare a public interest score for a financial year from the client's records under Client 360 > Profile. A different person reviews it, and Achekam then says whether an audit or an independent review is required. Missing inputs are named, never assumed, and a partner records the engagement type. A profile with the wrong entity type or missing figures therefore leads straight to the wrong conversation about the engagement.

The same applies to registration and tax numbers. The Onboarding page offers "Mark active" for a new client only when its readiness checklist is met, and the client's registration and income tax numbers are among the items. A record without them cannot be completed.

Jurisdiction and identifiers for Nigerian and Kenyan clients

For Nigerian and Kenyan clients, each client's profile has a Jurisdiction section with the client's own country and identifiers, and each Nigerian or Kenyan engagement shows its governing basis: regulator, standards, framework, company law and tax authority. A jurisdiction override is decided by a different person, not the one who proposed it.

The identifiers need care because Achekam cannot confirm them with the authorities:

• Nigeria Tax ID. Achekam checks only that a Nigeria Tax ID has 13 digits; it cannot confirm it with the authority. The user retrieves it on the Tax ID portal and records the evidence. The NRS page on how to retrieve your Tax ID explains how to get or retrieve one from the national Tax ID portal using a NIN for individuals or a CAC registration number for businesses, and why the Tax ID should be validated.
• Kenya KRA PIN. Achekam checks only the shape of a KRA PIN, as a soft check. The user confirms the PIN on iTax's PIN checker and records the evidence.

Make recording that evidence part of setting up every Nigerian or Kenyan client. A plausible-looking number that belongs to someone else is worse than a blank.

Contacts and who may approve

Contacts are added on the client's own record, and staff can see every client contact across the firm in one list and e-mail a contact from it.

Contacts are more than an address book. Some processes depend on knowing which contact has authority. When draft financial statements go to the client for approval, for example, the review link is sent only to the client's authorised review contact, through the firm's own mail connector. If the wrong person is marked as authorised, the wrong person approves.

For each client, record at least:

1. The day-to-day contact for information requests.
2. The person authorised to approve financial statements and sign on the client's behalf.
3. The person who receives invoices and statements of account.
4. For payroll clients, the person entitled to see salary information.

These are often different people, and the record should say so.

Sub-lists that stay in the browser

There is one important limit. Some sub-lists edited in place on the client screens, namely statutory deadlines, accrued hours and KYC fields, still live only in the browser. They are not on the server, so a colleague on another computer does not see them, and clearing the browser loses them.

Treat those fields as personal notes, not firm records, until they move to the server. Keep the firm's authoritative deadlines and hours where they are stored on the server, and keep client due diligence evidence in the firm's own compliance files. Achekam does not keep client compliance profiles such as FICA documents, AML risk ratings or PEP screening; the Compliance Profiles page says so and lists only clients missing a registration or income tax number.

Keeping the record honest

A record people trust is one that is kept current. Three habits help:

• Update at the moment of change. A new financial director goes on the record the day the firm hears about them.
• Review at the annual meeting. Walk through Client 360 with the client's file open and correct anything stale.
• One home for each fact. If a detail has a field on the record, it does not also live in a spreadsheet.

Related entities should be organised as groups rather than as isolated records; see organising related companies as a client group. For the checklist a new client must pass, see client onboarding readiness.

Pick ten active clients at random this week, open each in Client 360, and note what is missing or wrong. The pattern will tell you which habit the firm needs most.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.