# Bookkeeping Client Onboarding Checklist

- Author: AutoBankConvert (https://www.autobankconvert.com)
- Published: 2026-05-30
- Updated: 2026-05-30
- Category: Client work
- Canonical: https://www.autobankconvert.com/blog/bookkeeping-client-onboarding-checklist

> A bookkeeping client onboarding checklist: accounts to list, statements to request, rules to set up and access to agree in the first two weeks of work.
A bookkeeping client onboarding checklist lists everything you set up when you take on a new client: the engagement terms, every bank and card account, the history you need, the chart of accounts, the first rules and the access you agree. Finish it in the first two weeks so month one runs like month twelve.

## What goes on a bookkeeping client onboarding checklist?

A bookkeeping client onboarding checklist covers five groups of tasks: the agreement, the accounts, the history, the books and the monthly routine. Each group answers a question you will otherwise ask mid-month, when a missing fact slows the work.

The five groups, in the order to do them:

1. **The agreement.** A signed engagement letter that names the services, the fee, the monthly deadlines, who may contact the bank and how client records are handled.
2. **The accounts.** A complete list of every bank, card and loan account the business uses, as covered in the next section.
3. **The history.** Prior statements, the prior bookkeeper's files and the most recent tax return or financial reports, enough to start the books at the right balances.
4. **The books.** A chart of accounts, opening balances and a first set of coding rules.
5. **The routine.** How statements will arrive each month, on what date, and who answers questions.

### A two-week onboarding table

The table below is an example schedule. Move days around to suit the client, but keep the order, since later tasks depend on earlier ones.

| Day | Task | Who does it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Send engagement letter and welcome email with a short list of what you need | Bookkeeper |
| 2 | Sign engagement letter; return the list of accounts | Client |
| 3 | Review the account list; ask about anything missing, such as a card used for business | Bookkeeper |
| 4 | Send statements for the requested history, or grant access | Client |
| 5 | Check the files: right accounts, no gaps in months, opening and closing balances line up | Bookkeeper |
| 6 | Set up the client in your accounting software and workspace | Bookkeeper |
| 7 | Choose a chart of accounts from your template and adjust it | Bookkeeper |
| 8 | Enter or import opening balances and confirm them against the last statement | Bookkeeper |
| 9 | Convert the history and review the first coding pass | Bookkeeper |
| 10 | Send the client a short list of questions about unclear transactions | Bookkeeper |
| 11 | Answer the questions | Client |
| 12 | Write the first rules from the answers; reconcile the first month | Bookkeeper |
| 13 | Agree the monthly request date and method; send the first request on a calendar | Both |
| 14 | Review the first reconciled month with the client; confirm what happens next month | Both |

Print or copy the table into your practice's task tool and give each new client their own copy. A checklist that lives in one person's head fails the day that person is away.

How big a job this is depends on how many clients you take on at once. When two or three new clients start in the same week, the schedule overlaps, and capacity becomes the constraint; [how many clients a bookkeeper can handle](/blog/how-many-clients-can-a-bookkeeper-handle) covers how to size that.

## Listing every client bank and card account at onboarding

Listing every client bank and card account at onboarding means recording each place the business moves money: checking, savings, credit cards, loans, payment processors and any account that mixes business with personal use. A missing account is the most common cause of books that do not balance.

Ask the client to list accounts, then check the list against three sources. Never rely on memory alone.

- **The prior year's tax return,** which shows interest, loans and depreciation that point to accounts.
- **Existing books,** which show which accounts the earlier bookkeeper used.
- **A scan of recent transactions,** where transfers to unfamiliar accounts, card payments and processor payouts reveal what is missing.

### What to record per account

For every account, write down:

- The institution and account type.
- The last four digits of the number.
- The account holder name as printed on the statement.
- The statement day: the date each period closes.
- How statements will arrive, and who sends them.
- Whether the account is business only, or mixed.

The statement day matters more than it looks. It decides which weekly slot the client belongs in, and it decides whether a card cycle that ends mid-month needs its own request.

### Accounts that hide

Four kinds of accounts get missed. Payment processors such as a card reader's payout account deposit money into checking, but the fees may sit inside the processor's own reports. Owner credit cards used for business purchases mix personal and business lines. Old accounts that are closed still have a final statement. And accounts held by a related entity, such as a second company, may pay the client's bills.

Ask each of these by name. "Do you have any accounts you use for the business that we have not listed?" gets a no. "Do you use a credit card for business purchases, even sometimes?" gets a real answer.

Record the list in one place, and send it back to the client to confirm. A confirmed list makes a later statement from an unlisted account stand out as a question, not as a surprise.

## Onboarding history: how many past statements to request?

You should request enough past statements to set correct opening balances and cover the current fiscal year to date. For most clients that is statements from the start of the current year, plus the last statement of the prior year. Request more only when the books are in disarray.

The reasoning is simple. The books need a starting point, and the last statement of the prior period gives closing balances for every account. Statements from the current year to date let you build the year's transactions. Anything earlier is optional unless a specific reason demands it.

Reasons to ask for more:

- **The prior books are unreliable.** If last year's reports do not tie to the bank, you may need a full year of statements to find out why.
- **A tax filing is open.** A late or amended return may need the full period covered.
- **The client is applying for a loan.** A lender may ask for twelve months of clean books.
- **Prior balances are unknown.** With no prior books, you rebuild from bank history.

Reasons to ask for less: a new business with few months of activity, or a client whose tax preparer holds the prior year's final reports and will share them.

Ask for months in full, from first day to last day, with no gaps. Check each file after it arrives. Confirm the account holder and last four digits, the period dates, and that each statement's opening balance matches the earlier statement's closing balance. A gap shows up as a break in that chain.

If the history is months behind, the work is a catch-up project more than onboarding. Treat the catch-up as its own job with its own schedule. Do the first weeks of the checklist, then clear the backlog in monthly steps.

AutoBankConvert converts a folder of statements across banks and months at once, and flags any statement whose opening balance plus transactions does not equal its closing balance instead of exporting it. On a year of history for a new client, that check catches a missing page that is easy to miss by eye.

## First month rules set up during onboarding

First month rules set up during onboarding are the coding rules you write from the new client's real transactions so the second month needs far less review. Write them from patterns you can see in the history, and keep each rule narrow and specific to that client.

Work from the history, not from guesses. After the first conversion, sort the transactions by description and group them by payee. The payees that appear most often are your first rules.

A practical sequence:

1. **Start with the obvious.** Bank fees, interest, rent and recurring software subscriptions. These rarely vary.
2. **Add the client's regular vendors.** Suppliers, utilities and insurance, each coded to the account the client's chart uses for them.
3. **Leave the ambiguous alone.** A retailer where the client buys many kinds of things should not get a rule yet. Ask the client first.
4. **Mark questions.** Keep a list of payees to ask about, and send it to the client in one email.

Ask the client targeted questions. "What is the monthly payment to J. Rivera?" is better than "Can you explain the transactions?" Limit the first list to the ten or fifteen largest unknowns; you can chase smaller ones later.

Keep each rule as narrow as you can. A rule keyed to "AMZN" will catch everything from office supplies to equipment. A rule keyed to a specific payee and amount range is safer. Narrow rules mean more review in month one and fewer wrong codes in month twelve.

Rules must also stay with the client. A rule that fits this client's inventory purchases should not exist in another client's books. If you use a practice-wide set, keep it limited to payees whose meaning cannot change, as discussed in the post on [bookkeeping for multiple clients](/blog/bookkeeping-for-multiple-clients).

In AutoBankConvert, rules you write once plus each client's past coding assign accounts, and uncertain lines go to a review queue with a suggested category. Approving a suggestion teaches that client's rules, so a vendor you approve in month one is coded automatically in month two.

## Onboarding a client who changed banks mid year

Onboarding a client who changed banks mid year means treating the old and new banks as two accounts with a gap or an overlap between them, and proving that every dollar is accounted for across the switch. Collect statements from both banks, and check the transition month closely.

Changes of bank rarely happen cleanly. A client may open the new account in March, keep the old one open through May for stragglers, and close it in June. In the middle, money moves between them, and some payments go to the old account by habit.

Steps for a mid year switch:

1. **List both accounts** with the dates each was open and the date of the last transaction on the old one.
2. **Request every statement** for both accounts across the overlap, plus the final statement of the closed account, which shows the closing balance.
3. **Treat the transfer as a transfer.** Money moved from the old account to the new one is neither income nor expense. Match the two sides, one outgoing and one incoming, so they cancel.
4. **Check the chain of balances** in each account separately. Each account's statements should link opening to closing with no gap.
5. **Update rules and request templates** to use the new account's description style. Banks print payee names differently, so a rule that matched the old bank's text may need a second pattern for the new one.

Statement layouts differ between banks, so a client who switches will send a new format. If the tool you use reads the layout of each statement rather than relying on a list of banks, the switch causes no setup work; if not, check the first new statement carefully.

Also look at outstanding items. Checks written before the switch may clear after it, on the old account, and automatic payments may keep drawing from the old account until the client updates them. Ask which payments are still pointed at the old bank.

Finally, update the confirmed account list and the collection method. The new bank may offer a different download process, and the monthly request should name the new account.

### Before you finish onboarding

A few items sit outside the five groups but belong on the checklist. Agree on confidentiality terms in the engagement letter, covering how files are stored and how long they are kept; the details are in [confidentiality terms in a bookkeeping engagement letter](/blog/client-confidentiality-in-bookkeeping#confidentiality-terms-in-a-bookkeeping-engagement-letter). Set the monthly request using the template in [a statement request email clients actually answer](/blog/how-to-collect-bank-statements-from-clients#a-statement-request-email-clients-actually-answer).

As the client list grows, a repeatable onboarding becomes the base of the practice. The ideas in [how to scale a bookkeeping practice](/blog/how-to-scale-a-bookkeeping-practice) build on it. To see how a new client's statements move from upload to export-ready files, look at [AutoBankConvert](/).