Client Intake Forms for Bookkeepers: Chart of Accounts, Software Setup, and Engagement Scope

By Daniel Akselrod · July 2026

A bookkeeper in central New Jersey took on a new client — a landscaping company with 12 employees and what the owner described as “pretty straightforward books.” No intake form was used. No questionnaire was sent. The bookkeeper agreed to handle “monthly bookkeeping” for a flat fee and started working.

Within the first month, the bookkeeper discovered that the client’s QuickBooks file had not been reconciled in eight months, that 14 bank and credit card accounts were connected (three of which belonged to the owner’s personal accounts mixed in with business transactions), that payroll was being processed by a service the owner could not remember the name of, that sales tax had not been filed for two quarters, and that the prior bookkeeper had left mid-year with no transition documentation. The “pretty straightforward” engagement turned into a 40-hour cleanup before regular monthly work could even begin.

The bookkeeper had quoted a monthly fee appropriate for maintaining clean books. What they inherited was a disaster recovery project. The difference between the two — and the ability to price, scope, and timeline the engagement correctly — is entirely a function of intake. A structured intake form would have surfaced every one of those issues before the engagement letter was signed.

Business Entity and Tax Classification

The entity type determines the chart of accounts structure, the tax filing requirements, and the reporting obligations. A sole proprietorship, an S-Corp, a C-Corp, a partnership, and an LLC taxed as a partnership each have different bookkeeping requirements, and a bookkeeper who does not capture this information at intake is guessing about fundamental structural decisions.

Your intake form should capture:

• Legal entity type — sole proprietorship, single-member LLC, multi-member LLC, S-Corporation, C-Corporation, partnership, or nonprofit. Each has distinct accounting requirements. An S-Corp requires reasonable compensation for owner-employees and separate tracking of shareholder distributions vs. salary. A partnership requires capital account tracking for each partner. A nonprofit requires fund accounting and restricted vs. unrestricted revenue tracking.
• Tax classification — this is not always the same as the entity type. A single-member LLC can be taxed as a sole proprietorship (Schedule C), an S-Corp (Form 1120-S), or a C-Corp (Form 1120). The tax election determines how the books need to be structured and what information the CPA will need at year-end.
• EIN and state tax IDs — the federal Employer Identification Number and any state-level tax identification numbers (sales tax ID, employer withholding ID, unemployment insurance account number). These are needed for payroll processing, sales tax filing, and any tax-related correspondence.
• Fiscal year — most small businesses use a calendar year (January–December), but some use a fiscal year that ends in a different month. The fiscal year determines reporting periods, filing deadlines, and year-end close procedures.
• State registrations — in which states does the business have nexus (tax filing obligations)? A business that sells online may have sales tax obligations in multiple states. A business with remote employees may have payroll tax obligations in states where those employees live. Multi-state obligations significantly increase the bookkeeping scope and should be documented at intake.

Current Accounting Software and Setup

The accounting software environment determines the bookkeeper’s daily workflow, and the state of that environment determines how much cleanup is needed before regular work can begin. This is where intake prevents the most costly surprises.

• Software and version — QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop (Pro, Premier, Enterprise), Xero, FreshBooks, Wave, or spreadsheets. Each platform has different capabilities, different integration options, and different limitations. A bookkeeper who is proficient in QuickBooks Online but takes on a client using QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is committing to a different workflow and potentially a different skill set.
• Access credentials and administrator status — does the client have the master administrator login? Are there other users with access? What permission levels are set? Bookkeepers need accountant-level access (not just standard user access) to perform reconciliations, adjust journal entries, and configure settings. If the prior bookkeeper retained admin access and left on bad terms, getting access may require contacting the software vendor — which adds time to onboarding.
• Connected bank feeds — which bank and credit card accounts are connected to the accounting software? Are the feeds current or have they been disconnected? Are there personal accounts mixed in with business accounts? A QuickBooks file with six connected accounts is a fundamentally different maintenance burden than one with two.
• Last reconciliation date — when was each bank and credit card account last reconciled? This single question reveals more about the state of the books than almost any other. If the answer is “last month,” you are inheriting clean books. If the answer is “I am not sure” or “my last bookkeeper handled that,” you are inheriting a cleanup project and should price accordingly.
• Third-party integrations — does the accounting software integrate with a point-of-sale system, an e-commerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce), a payment processor (Stripe, Square, PayPal), a payroll service, or an inventory management system? Each integration creates transaction flows that the bookkeeper needs to understand, and misconfigured integrations are one of the most common sources of bookkeeping errors.

Chart of Accounts Review

The chart of accounts is the structural foundation of the entire bookkeeping system. A well-organized chart of accounts makes monthly close efficient and tax preparation straightforward. A disorganized one — with duplicate accounts, miscategorized items, personal expenses mixed with business expenses, and account names that mean nothing to anyone except the person who created them — turns every month into a detective exercise.

Your intake form should capture:

• Industry-specific account needs — a construction company needs job costing accounts. A restaurant needs food cost and beverage cost as separate cost-of-goods categories. A professional services firm needs time-based billing accounts. A retail business needs inventory accounts. The chart of accounts should reflect the business’s actual operations, and the intake form should capture enough about those operations to build or evaluate the chart.
• Current chart of accounts status — has the chart been professionally set up, or did the business owner create it by accepting QuickBooks defaults and adding accounts randomly as needed? A chart with 200 accounts when 40 would suffice, or one where “Miscellaneous Expense” is the largest expense category, needs restructuring before meaningful reporting is possible.
• CPA requirements — if the client has a CPA who handles tax preparation, the chart of accounts should align with how the CPA expects to receive the data. Some CPAs want the books organized by tax return line item. Others want a clean trial balance and handle the mapping themselves. The bookkeeper’s intake should capture the CPA’s name, contact information, and any specific chart-of-accounts requirements they have communicated.

The chart of accounts is also where the line between bookkeeping and accounting can become blurred. A bookkeeper who restructures the chart of accounts is making decisions that affect tax reporting. Understanding where that line falls — and documenting the CPA relationship at intake — prevents scope confusion and ensures the bookkeeper and CPA are working from the same playbook. For more on how accounting professionals structure intake, the principles overlap significantly with bookkeeping.

Bank and Credit Card Account Inventory

Every bank account and credit card that touches the business needs to be documented at intake. This seems obvious, but it is routinely incomplete because clients forget about accounts, do not think certain accounts are relevant, or have personal accounts that they occasionally use for business expenses.

• Business checking and savings accounts — bank name, last four digits of account number, approximate monthly transaction volume. Multiple checking accounts (one for operations, one for payroll, one for taxes) are common in well-organized businesses and need to be tracked separately.
• Business credit cards — issuer, last four digits, cardholder name(s), and whether the card is used for specific expense categories (travel only, supplies only) or general business use. If multiple employees have cards on the same account, document who holds each card.
• Personal accounts used for business — this is the question clients are most likely to answer incompletely, and it is one of the most important. If the business owner uses a personal credit card for business purchases, those transactions need to be captured and categorized. The intake form should specifically ask whether any personal accounts are used for business purposes, and if so, how those transactions are currently tracked.
• Payment processors — Stripe, Square, PayPal, Venmo for Business, Zelle. Each of these creates its own transaction trail, and the deposits that hit the bank account may be net of fees and refunds, which requires reconciliation against the processor’s records, not just the bank statement.
• Loan accounts — business loans, lines of credit, equipment financing, SBA loans. Each has its own payment structure (principal plus interest), and the interest portion is a deductible expense that needs to be separated from the principal reduction. Document the lender, the original amount, the current balance, the monthly payment, and the interest rate.

Payroll Status and Compliance

Payroll is the highest-risk area of bookkeeping because errors create immediate tax liability, employee disputes, and potential penalties from federal and state agencies. The intake form must establish the payroll landscape before the bookkeeper takes responsibility for any payroll-related tasks.

• Payroll processing method — in-house (processed by the bookkeeper or the business owner), outsourced to a payroll service (ADP, Gusto, Paychex, OnPay), or not applicable (no employees, sole proprietor with no payroll). If outsourced, document the service name and whether the bookkeeper will need access for reconciliation and reporting.
• Employee count and classification — number of W-2 employees and number of 1099 contractors. The distinction matters for tax withholding, benefits compliance, and workers’ compensation. Misclassification of employees as contractors is one of the most common and costly compliance errors in small business, and the intake form should capture enough information to flag potential issues.
• Pay frequency and structure — weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly. Salaried vs. hourly. Commission structures. Bonuses. Tips (for restaurant and hospitality businesses). Each pay structure has different withholding and reporting requirements.
• Payroll tax filing status — are federal payroll tax returns (Form 941 or 944) current? Are state withholding returns current? Are unemployment insurance returns current? Has the client received any notices from the IRS or state agencies regarding payroll tax? Payroll tax delinquency is the single most dangerous financial issue a small business can face because the IRS treats trust fund taxes (employee withholding that was not remitted) as personal liability of the business owner.

Engagement Scope: Defining What You Are and Are Not Doing

Scope creep is the number-one profitability killer for bookkeeping practices. A client who hired you for “monthly bookkeeping” will inevitably ask you to file sales tax returns, prepare year-end 1099s, set up a new employee in the payroll system, create a budget, generate a custom report for a loan application, and answer questions about whether an expense is deductible. Each of those requests is reasonable in isolation. Collectively, they can double the time spent on the engagement without a corresponding increase in the fee.

Your intake form should explicitly document what is included and what is not:

• Monthly close services — bank and credit card reconciliation, transaction categorization, accounts receivable and accounts payable review, month-end journal entries, and financial statement preparation (profit & loss, balance sheet, cash flow statement). This is the core of most bookkeeping engagements, and documenting it at intake establishes the baseline.
• Quarterly services — sales tax filing, estimated tax payment calculations, quarterly payroll tax reconciliation, and quarterly financial review with the client. These are periodic tasks that are not part of the monthly close and should be separately identified.
• Year-end services — 1099 preparation and filing, W-2 reconciliation (if payroll is in-house), year-end adjusting entries, and CPA package preparation. Year-end is the most labor-intensive period for bookkeepers, and clients who expect comprehensive year-end services as part of a “monthly bookkeeping” fee are the source of most scope disputes.
• Excluded services — tax preparation and filing (that is the CPA’s job), tax advice (bookkeepers cannot provide tax advice unless separately licensed), financial planning, audit support, business valuation, and forensic accounting. Documenting exclusions at intake is as important as documenting inclusions. A client who understands from day one that you do not file tax returns will not be surprised when you refer them to a CPA in March.

The engagement scope section of the intake form becomes the foundation of the engagement letter. Everything documented here gets formalized in the contract. Everything missed here becomes an expectation gap that breeds frustration on both sides. For broader perspective on how service professionals define scope at intake, our guide on recurring service agreements covers the pattern across multiple industries.

Previous Bookkeeper Transition

If the client is coming from another bookkeeper — or from no bookkeeper at all (the dreaded shoebox of receipts) — the transition process needs to be documented at intake because it directly affects the onboarding timeline and the amount of cleanup work required.

• Reason for leaving the previous bookkeeper — this reveals potential issues. If the prior bookkeeper “stopped responding,” the books may have been abandoned mid-year. If the client fired them for errors, there may be corrections needed. If it was a mutual parting, the transition may be orderly.
• Access to prior records — does the client have the QuickBooks backup file or accountant’s copy? Are prior-year financial statements available? Are prior-year tax returns available? Without access to historical records, the bookkeeper may need to reconstruct opening balances, which is time-consuming and should be scoped as a separate project.
• Outstanding items from the prior bookkeeper — unfiled returns, unreconciled periods, unresolved discrepancies, pending IRS or state notices. Each of these creates work that is distinct from ongoing monthly bookkeeping and should be identified, scoped, and priced separately.

Bookkeeping Intake vs. Tax Preparation Intake

Bookkeepers and tax preparers serve different functions, and their intake forms should reflect that difference. A tax preparation intake is focused on the information needed to prepare a specific return for a specific tax year: income sources, deductions, credits, estimated payments, and prior-year return data. It is backward-looking — what happened last year?

A bookkeeping intake is forward-looking — what systems, accounts, and processes need to be in place for the next 12 months of ongoing work? The bookkeeping intake captures the infrastructure (software, accounts, integrations, payroll setup) that the tax preparer takes for granted. When the bookkeeping intake is thorough, the CPA receives a clean set of books at year-end with a well-organized trial balance, properly categorized transactions, and a chart of accounts that maps to the tax return. When the bookkeeping intake is incomplete, the CPA receives a mess and charges the client accordingly to sort it out.

This is the practical connection between bookkeeping intake and the broader bookkeeper client onboarding process: a thorough intake today prevents expensive year-end surprises for both the bookkeeper and the CPA.

The Onboarding Investment

Bookkeeping intake takes time. A comprehensive intake form followed by a review of the client’s existing books can take two to four hours. That feels like a lot for a client who might be paying $300–$500 per month for ongoing services. But compare that investment to the alternative: discovering mid-engagement that the books are a disaster, that the scope is twice what you quoted, that the payroll taxes are delinquent, and that the prior bookkeeper left no documentation.

The intake form is not overhead. It is the process that ensures you know what you are taking on, that the client knows what they are getting, and that the fee reflects the actual scope of the work. Every bookkeeper who has lost money on an engagement that turned out to be more complex than expected has the same story: “I did not ask enough questions before I started.” The intake form is how you ask all of them before the engagement letter is signed.