Clients, Contacts & Groups
A client directory built for tax entities, households, and billing—not cold sales
Sales CRMs revolve around "leads" and "deal stages." CPA Relay organizes the clients you actually serve—tracking entity types, EINs, fiscal year-ends, family and business Groups, billing contacts, internal sticky notes, and account statements in one clean record.
Import up to 5,000 clients at once via CSV · Unlimited free client portal logins
Built for accounting records
Why do CPA firms need an entity directory instead of a traditional sales CRM?
Sales CRMs center on speculative leads and sales deal stages. CPA firms require entity directories centered on legal tax entities, formatted EINs, fiscal year-ends, billing contacts, and multi-entity household groups. CPA Relay tracks actual ongoing client compliance without bloated pipeline stages or sales funnel overhead.
Every client gets a clean ID (like CL-01) and six organized tabs:
Details, Proposals, Projects, Invoices, Documents, and Notes.
Link a family's 1040 household and their S-Corps together in a Group (`GR-01`)
for instant filtering—knowing that Groups never accidentally grant cross-access to client logins.
- Accounting-native fields: Legal name, DBA, Entity Type (Individual, Married couple, LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp, Partnership, Trust, Estate, Nonprofit), formatted EIN, Fiscal Year End, and Formation State.
- Protected Billing Contact: The primary contact carries an orange Billing contact badge and receives proposals, invoices, and statements—protected so only Admins and billing staff can change it.
- Custom Client Tags: Tag clients as
1040,1120-S,Bookkeeping, orHigh touchand filter your directory as you type.
Notes, statements & CSV import
How does forgiving 5,000-row CSV import safely migrate client records without overwriting data?
CPA Relay's CSV importer automatically normalizes natural entity spellings (like "S-Corp" or "Married"), validates formatted EINs, and matches existing clients by identifier or legal name. It intelligently fills in blank fields without overwriting established firm data, allowing small practices to migrate thousands of records in under 60 seconds.
Keep permanent institutional knowledge on the client's Notes tab, generate month-by-month billing statements in two clicks, and bring your existing client list over from a spreadsheet without retyping.
- Internal sticky notes with @mentions: Leave yellow internal notes on the client record and
@mentionany teammate at the firm to notify them. - Monthly client statements: View or email a month-by-month statement showing Opening Balance, Invoiced, Collected, Written Off, and Closing Balance.
- Forgiving 5,000-row CSV import: Recognizes plain-English entity spellings ("S Corp", "Married couple", "LLC"), validates EIN formats (`12-3456789`), and safely fills in blank fields on existing clients without overwriting your data.
Entity relationship mapping
How do Client Groups map households and multi-entity businesses without leaking data?
CPA Relay organizes related clients into Groups—connecting an owner's personal Form 1040 with their S-Corporations, rental LLCs, and family trusts for firm-wide filtering and billing. Crucially, group membership never grants cross-entity portal access automatically, preventing unauthorized business partners or family members from viewing private returns.
| Client / Entity Name | Entity Type & Tax Form | Group Relationship (GR-01) | Primary Login & Contact Role | Portal Access & Visibility Scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitfield Household | Married Couple (Form 1040 MFJ) | Whitfield Family & Holdings Group | Dana Whitfield (Primary) & Robert Whitfield (Spouse) | Personal 1040 tax vault, household PBC requests, independent dual-spouse Form 8879 signing |
| Larkspur Landscaping LLC | S-Corporation (Form 1120-S) | Whitfield Family & Holdings Group | Dana Whitfield (Managing Member / Billing Contact) | 1120-S workpapers, monthly bookkeeping PBC checklists, company Stripe invoices and Auto-Pay |
| Whitfield Commercial Properties LLC | Multi-Member Partnership (Form 1065) | Whitfield Family & Holdings Group | Dana Whitfield (Tax Matters Partner) & Outside Partner | Strictly isolated 1065 files; outside partner cannot view Dana's personal 1040 or Larkspur LLC |
| Whitfield Irrevocable Family Trust | Fiduciary Trust (Form 1041) | Whitfield Family & Holdings Group | Dana Whitfield (Sole Trustee) | Trust accounting records, K-1 distribution approvals, and fiduciary tax filings |
Frequently asked questions
Client management & directory questions
Can one client user access multiple business entities and personal tax returns?
Yes. A business owner can use a single email address to access their family 1040, partnership, and S-Corporation portals. In the client portal, they view a unified to-do checklist tagged by entity and switch between entities without logging out.
Are internal sticky notes and partner @mentions visible to clients?
Never. Yellow sticky notes on the client Notes tab and internal @mentions are strictly firm-only. They are completely hidden from the client portal and accessible exclusively to authenticated firm team members.
Is there a limit on how many client records or contacts our firm can create?
No. CPA Relay includes unlimited client profiles, unlimited contacts, and unlimited free client portal logins on every seat. You are never penalized with contact-tier pricing as your firm grows.
Related guides & features
Client operations without software bloat
Practitioner Guide
CRM for Accountants & CPAs
Why traditional sales CRMs fail CPA firms and what practitioners actually need from client records.
Read CRM guideCompanion feature
Deny-by-Default Client Portal
Give every household and business entity a unified login with strict Amber/Sky visual boundaries.
Explore portalSoftware Comparison
CPA Relay vs. Karbon
Compare unified client records and tax-year project tracking against inbox-driven workflow suites.
Compare CPA Relay vs. KarbonBring your client list over in minutes
Request an invitation for your firm and import your existing client spreadsheet on day one.
Unlimited client records · Unlimited contacts · Free portal logins