For accounting & bookkeeping firms
New Bookkeeping Client Onboarding Questionnaire
Bad onboarding is where bookkeeping engagements go wrong before the first close — missing logins, surprise sales-tax obligations, commingled accounts, and prior books that turn out to need months of cleanup. This free New Bookkeeping Client Onboarding Questionnaire is the complete list of what to ask every new client up front, so you can scope the work accurately, price it correctly, and start clean. It's written for owners and staff at small accounting and bookkeeping firms who take on new clients regularly and want a repeatable intake instead of a scramble of back-and-forth emails. It covers entity and tax profile, software and access, every bank and financing account, chart-of-accounts preferences, payroll and contractors, sales tax and compliance, the true state of the prior books, and the exact scope and reporting the client expects. Send it before kickoff, review the flagged risk items together, and turn the answers straight into your engagement letter and recurring close checklist.
1. Business & Entity Profile
- Legal business name, any DBA, and primary contact (name, email, phone)
- Entity type — sole proprietor, LLC, partnership, S-corp, C-corp — and date formed
- EIN, state of formation, and every state where you operate or have sales/payroll nexus
- Fiscal year end and accounting basis you want kept (cash or accrual)
- Industry, plus one or two sentences on how the business actually makes money
2. Software & Access
- Accounting software in use (QuickBooks Online, Xero, other) and current subscription owner
- Point-of-sale, invoicing, and payment platforms (Stripe, Square, Shopify, Bill.com, etc.)
- How receipts and source documents are stored and shared today
- Who currently does the books, and whether they'll keep any access after handoff
- Preferred way to grant us access — we use accountant invites and a password manager, and will never ask you to email a password
3. Bank, Credit Card & Financing Accounts
- Every business checking and savings account (bank name + last 4 only)
- Every business credit card and line of credit (issuer + last 4 only)
- Loans, notes, and equipment financing — lender, original amount, and monthly payment
- Merchant/processor accounts and which bank account they pay out to
- Confirm all listed accounts are business-only, and flag any with mixed personal use
4. Chart of Accounts & Bookkeeping Preferences
- Do you have an existing chart of accounts, or should we build one for your industry?
- How do you want income and expenses tracked — by service line, location, class, or project?
- Specific categories or spending you want watched closely each month
- How owner pay is taken — payroll, owner's draw, or distributions
- Recurring transactions we should expect monthly (rent, key subscriptions, loan payments)
5. Payroll & Contractors
- Do you run payroll? If so, which provider and how many employees?
- Pay frequency and typical payroll run dates
- Do you pay 1099 contractors, and roughly how many per year?
- Are W-9s collected before a contractor is paid?
- Who is responsible for filing payroll tax returns going forward — you, us, or the provider?
6. Sales Tax & Compliance
- Do you collect sales tax? In which states or jurisdictions?
- Filing frequency for each (monthly, quarterly, annual) and the next due date
- Who prepares and files sales tax today, and do you want us to take it over?
- Any open tax notices, back taxes, or audits we should know about now
- Business licenses or permits we should track, with their renewal dates
7. Historical Books & Prior Records
- Are prior periods fully reconciled, or is a cleanup / catch-up needed before we start?
- Date of the last fully completed month-end close
- Access to prior-year tax returns and the most recent financial statements
- Name and contact of the outgoing bookkeeper/accountant — are they available for handoff questions?
- Known problem areas: uncategorized transactions, unreconciled accounts, or commingled funds
8. Scope, Communication & Deliverables
- Services expected — monthly bookkeeping, A/R, A/P, payroll, sales tax, reporting, advisory
- Reports you want and how often (monthly P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, custom KPIs)
- Preferred communication channel and the response time you expect from us
- Best day of the month to receive your financials, and anyone else who should receive them
- Engagement start date and the first period we'll be responsible for closing
This questionnaire is a customizable template for gathering client information, not legal or tax advice, and it does not replace a signed engagement letter — have qualified counsel review your onboarding and engagement documents before use.
Put it to work.
Send this to the client before your kickoff call — as a form, shared doc, or checklist — so onboarding starts with everything in one place instead of a chain of emails.
Walk the answers together on the kickoff call and pay attention to the flag items (commingled funds, open notices, catch-up work); those shape your scope and your price.
Turn the completed answers directly into your engagement letter and the client's recurring month-end close checklist.
Questions, answered.
When should I send the onboarding questionnaire?
Send it after the client agrees to move forward but before you finalize the engagement letter. The answers — especially prior-book condition, sales-tax obligations, and payroll — are what let you scope and price the work accurately instead of guessing.
How do I collect client logins securely?
Use the software's own accountant-invite feature wherever it exists (QuickBooks Online, Xero, most payroll providers), and a shared password manager vault for anything else. Never ask a client to email or text a password, and don't store credentials in the questionnaire itself.
What if the prior books turn out to be a mess?
That's exactly what the historical-books and known-problem-areas sections are meant to surface. If catch-up or cleanup is needed, scope and price it as a separate one-time project before recurring monthly work begins — don't fold an unknown amount of cleanup into a flat monthly fee.
Does this replace an engagement letter?
No. The questionnaire gathers the facts; the engagement letter sets the terms, scope, fees, and responsibilities. Use the completed answers to write an accurate engagement letter — the two work together.
Can I use this for both bookkeeping and tax clients?
Yes, as a base. It covers the entity, access, and compliance facts any accounting engagement needs. For tax-heavy clients, add sections for prior returns in detail, estimated payments, and owner personal-tax coordination on top of what's here.
Stop re-typing it every time.
The Practice OS turns a completed questionnaire into a ready-to-run client file, auto-creating the engagement checklist, close schedule, and document requests from the answers.
Get the operations audit and a free sample skill.
A one-page diagnostic of the three biggest leaks in your operating week, plus one complete Practice OS skill you can run today with nothing but a Claude plan. Emailed once. No nurture sequence.
SENT ONCE · UNSUBSCRIBE IN ONE CLICK · NO CARD · PRIVACY