How to prepare for bookkeeping onboarding
Think you need to clean up your books before a bookkeeper sees them?
Please don’t.
The most useful thing you can bring to bookkeeping onboarding isn’t a perfectly organized file.
It’s an honest picture of how money moves through your business and the records you already have.
Here’s what to gather—and what you can leave for me to figure out.
You do not need to clean up your books before onboarding
When I onboard a new client, I need to see the books as they are. This helps me understand what has already been completed, what may be missing and where the monthly bookkeeping should begin.
If your bookkeeping has fallen behind, tell me. I can review the records and determine whether cleanup is needed before monthly bookkeeping can begin.
Trying to fix unfamiliar entries yourself may create more work or make it harder to understand what originally happened. It’s more helpful to provide the records you do have and tell me what you know.
Know how money moves through your business
Before I start working in the books, I need to understand how the business makes and spends money.
I may ask questions such as:
What services do you sell?
How do you invoice your clients?
How do clients usually pay you?
Do you accept cash?
Do you use Stripe, PayPal or another payment processor?
How do you pay business expenses?
Do you ever pay business expenses personally?
Are you registered for GST/HST?
Do you have employees or pay contractors?
You don’t have to explain the bookkeeping behind each activity. I ask these questions because it’s important to understand the path the money takes.
For example, a client of yours may pay a $1,000 invoice through Stripe, but a smaller amount will reach the bank after Stripe deducts its fee. Knowing that Stripe is part of the payment process helps me trace the original sale to the deposit.
List your business bank accounts, credit cards and payment processors
We need to know every place business money may come in, go out or move between.
Your list may include:
Business chequing and savings accounts
Business credit cards
Lines of credit
Business loans
Stripe, PayPal, Square or other payment processors
Bookkeeping and invoicing software
Payroll services
Personal accounts used for business transactions
Personal accounts matter only when business activity appears in them. If you occasionally pay a business expense with a personal credit card, tell me. I don’t need access to all of your personal transactions, but I do need the information supporting the business expense.
A complete account list helps prevent transactions from being missed or counted twice. It also shows me which balances will need to be reconciled each month.
Gather your statements, receipts and previous bookkeeping records
I’ll tell you which records are needed and the period they should cover.
These records may include:
Bank and credit-card statements
Sales invoices
Bills and receipts
Payment-processor reports
Loan or line-of-credit statements
Previous profit and loss statements
Previous balance sheets
Filed GST/HST returns
Payroll reports, if applicable
Your existing bookkeeping file
Worried some things may be missing or incorrectly recorded?
Don’t. Start with what you already have and let me know about anything you’re unsure of.
We’ll take it from there.
Provide secure access without emailing your passwords
Many bookkeeping systems allow you to invite a bookkeeper without sharing your personal login.
Depending on the system, I may ask you to:
Invite me to your bookkeeping software
Add accountant or read-only access
Connect a bank or credit-card feed
Upload statements to a secure folder
Export a report from a system I cannot access directly
I will not ask you to send a bank or credit-card password through ordinary email.
The type of access I need will depend on the account and the work being completed. In some cases, you may need to connect an account. If you’ve never done that before, don’t worry, I’ll guide you through the process. In other cases, statements may provide everything we need.
Our goal is to have sufficient information so we can complete the bookkeeping without sharing more information than necessary.
Point out missing records and transactions that need explanation
You know things about your business that will not be obvious from a bank statement.
Tell me if:
A business expense was paid from a personal account
Personal money was deposited into the business
You withdrew money for personal use
A client paid you in cash
You bought equipment
You received or repaid a loan
You opened or closed an account
A customer payment was refunded or disputed
Money was transferred between accounts
A receipt or statement is missing
A transaction has an unusual explanation
You do not need to explain every transaction before I review the books.
Part of my work is identifying the items that need more information and returning them to you in one organized list. This saves you from having to respond to questions one at a time.
And don’t worry if you don’t remember what a transaction was for, just say so. It’s always better to identify an unanswered question than to guess.
What happens after I receive your records and access?
Once I receive the available records and access, I review the starting position.
I look at:
Which accounts need to be included
How far the existing bookkeeping has been completed
Whether the account balances agree with the statements
Whether any accounts or periods are missing
Which transactions need more information
Whether cleanup work is required
The date monthly bookkeeping can begin
If cleanup is needed, I'll explain what needs to be corrected before that work begins. Cleanup is separate from ongoing monthly bookkeeping and may require a separate quote.
If the books are ready for monthly service, I’ll confirm the starting month and the routine we will follow. You will know where to provide documents, when to send them and how I'll send questions about anything I cannot resolve from the records.
Now we get to the good stuff
Once onboarding is complete, we settle into a predictable monthly rhythm: you send the new records and answer any outstanding questions, and I handle the categorization, reconciliation and monthly reports. You get your monthly summary and know where your business stands each month.
And now you can get to the good stuff.
Knowing what your financial position is means you can start planning properly for what comes next—whether that’s hiring someone to help with your growing client roster or taking off for an extended wine tour through Bordeaux.
You don’t have to do next month’s bookkeeping yourself.
Keep your books current with a fixed-price monthly bookkeeping package—month to month, cancel any time before your next billing date.