Bookkeeping Client Onboarding Form Template

This is the form you send after the engagement letter, not before it. It collects what a bookkeeper actually needs to take the books over: the legal entity and fiscal year end, which platform the client is on and how they will invite you into it, whether the bank feeds are connected, where the payroll and sales-tax position stands, what the previous bookkeeper is handing across, and the filing dates that cannot move. No passwords, no account numbers, no tax identification numbers — the access questions ask which method you will use, and the credentials travel by that method instead.

Use this template

Last updated 21 August 2026

Fields in this template

Registered Legal Namerequired
Trading Name (if different)
Legal Entity Typerequired
Sole trader / sole proprietor · Partnership · Limited liability partnership · LLC · Limited company / corporation · S corporation · C corporation · Non-profit or charity · Trust · Other
Fiscal Year End Monthrequired
January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December
Accounting Platform in Userequired
QuickBooks Online · QuickBooks Desktop · Xero · Sage Business Cloud · Sage 50 · FreeAgent · FreshBooks · Wave · Zoho Books · MYOB · NetSuite · Spreadsheets only · Nothing yet · Other
If 'Other' or the version matters, name the platform and version
How will you give us access to the accounting platform?required
We will invite you as a named user from inside the platform · We will add you through the accountant or advisor portal · You already have access from a previous engagement · We do not have the platform set up yet · To be agreed on the onboarding call
Bank Feed Statusrequired
Feeds are connected and up to date · Some accounts are connected, some are missing · No feeds are connected yet · Not sure
Bank, Card and Payment Accounts in Scoperequired
How will read-only bank access be arranged?required
Bank feed inside the accounting platform only · Read-only or view-only user on the online banking, set up by us · We will export statements and share them each month · To be agreed on the onboarding call
Do you run payroll?required
Yes, in-house · Yes, through a payroll bureau or provider · Directors or owners only · No · Starting soon
Payroll Provider or Software
Pay Frequency
Weekly · Fortnightly · Four-weekly · Semi-monthly · Monthly · Varies · Not applicable
Sales Tax or VAT Registration Statusrequired
Registered · Not registered · Registration in progress · Registered in more than one jurisdiction · Not applicable where we trade · Not sure
Scheme in Use
Standard accrual · Cash accounting · Flat rate · Annual accounting · Margin scheme · US state sales tax · Multiple schemes · Not applicable · Not sure
Who has been doing the bookkeeping until now?required
An in-house staff member · The business owner · Another bookkeeper or accounting firm · Nobody — the records are incomplete · New business, no history yet
Outgoing Bookkeeper or Accountant — Name and Email
Date of the Last Closed Period
Are opening balances available?required
Yes — a trial balance as at the last closed period · Yes — filed year-end accounts only · Partially · No · Not sure
Link to the Trial Balance or Handover File
Known Issues in the Existing Records
Services in Scoperequired
Transaction coding and bank reconciliation · Accounts payable · Accounts receivable and invoicing · Credit control chasing · Payroll journals · Sales tax or VAT returns · Month-end close and management accounts · Year-end pack for the accountant · Budgeting and cash-flow reporting · Other
Chart of Accounts Starting Pointrequired
Keep the existing chart of accounts exactly as it is · Tidy the existing chart of accounts · Start from your standard chart of accounts · Not sure — advise us
Chart of Accounts Preferences
How will you send bills, receipts and statements?required
A shared cloud folder · Receipt capture inside the accounting platform · Email to a dedicated address · Post or hand delivery · Mixed — to be agreed
Shared Folder Link (if you are using one)
Reporting Frequencyrequired
Monthly · Quarterly · Annually · Ad hoc
Preferred Contact Methodrequired
Email · Phone · Video call · Messaging app (Slack, Teams, WhatsApp) · Whichever is quickest
Deadlines That Must Not Sliprequired
Primary Contact Namerequired
Primary Contact Emailrequired
Primary Contact Phone
Who Approves Payments and Journals?required
Completed By (name and role)required
Confirmationrequired
The details above are accurate to the best of my knowledge, and I will grant platform access by invitation from inside each system rather than by sharing a password.
Anything Else We Should Know

Who uses this template

Bookkeeping practices onboarding a client who has just signedAccounting firms with a separate bookkeeping service lineSolo bookkeepers taking over from an in-house staff memberOutsourced finance and controller servicesPractices switching a client from spreadsheets to a cloud platformAnyone inheriting books mid-year from another bookkeeper

About this template

Most bookkeeping forms on the internet are sales forms. They ask how many transactions a month, which software, what the budget is and whether you have a bookkeeper already — because they are written to qualify a lead. formformform has one of those: the Bookkeeping Services Inquiry, which does that job well. This is the form for the next stage, and the questions barely overlap. The client has signed. Somebody now has to open the platform, connect the feeds, agree an opening trial balance and find out when the VAT return is due.

The fields follow the order a takeover actually happens in. Entity type and fiscal year end come first because every close deadline hangs off them. Then the platform, and immediately after it the access question — phrased as how will you invite us, with named-user invitation as the first option, because a bookkeeper who holds a shared login cannot be revoked cleanly when the engagement ends. Bank and card accounts are collected as last four digits only, which is all a feed needs to be matched, and the read-only banking route is recorded as a separate choice so nobody ends up holding a login that can move money. Then payroll and sales tax, then the handover block: who was doing this before, when the last period was closed, whether a trial balance exists, and what is known to be wrong with the records. That last question saves more time than any other on the form, because clients almost always know.

Two things are deliberately absent. There is no field for a tax identification number, a company registration number or a bank account number, because a web form is the wrong channel for those and the statutory paperwork collects them anyway. And nothing here takes a payment — formformform has no payment field, so the form records who approves payments and journals, and the money moves through the client's own bank and payroll systems. What the form does capture, and what a Word-document onboarding pack usually loses, is the deadline list: the dates that were agreed verbally in a sales call and then never written down anywhere the delivery team can see.

12 form ideas you can build with this template

Mid-Year Bookkeeping Takeover Form

For a client switching bookkeeper part-way through the year, where opening balances, the last closed period and professional clearance are the whole job.

Xero Client Onboarding Form

Narrow the platform dropdown to Xero and use the access question to drive advisor-portal invitations for every new client.

QuickBooks Online Onboarding Checklist Form

A structured setup record for practices standardising on QuickBooks Online, covering feeds, chart of accounts and document delivery.

Catch-Up Bookkeeping Intake Form

For clients who are months behind, where the last closed period and the known-issues field decide how the catch-up work is scoped and priced.

Spreadsheet-to-Cloud Migration Form

For a client moving off spreadsheets, where there is no prior platform and the chart of accounts is being designed from scratch.

VAT-Registered Small Business Onboarding

Uses the registration status, scheme and deadline fields to get the first return right rather than discovering the scheme after the period closes.

Payroll and Bookkeeping Combined Onboarding

For practices delivering both, capturing the payroll provider and pay frequency alongside the ledger setup so the journals line up.

Non-Profit Bookkeeping Onboarding Form

Fund and grant reporting handled through the chart-of-accounts preferences and the deadlines field, where grant reporting dates are as hard as statutory ones.

E-Commerce Seller Bookkeeping Setup

Payment processors listed alongside bank accounts, and multi-jurisdiction sales tax recorded before the first month is coded.

Construction and Trades Bookkeeping Onboarding

Subcontractor deduction schemes, job costing and retentions captured through the chart-of-accounts and scope fields.

Franchise Bookkeeping Onboarding Form

Where the franchisor prescribes the chart of accounts and reporting pack, and the form records the constraint before setup begins.

Annual Bookkeeping Refresh Form

Re-sent to existing clients each year to catch changed approvers, changed platforms and changed deadlines before they cause a missed filing.

What's included

Written for the post-signature moment, so it asks about setup and handover rather than services and budget

An access question that asks how you will be invited into the platform, never for a password or a login

Bank accounts collected as last four digits only, with the read-only access route recorded separately

Opening balances, last closed period and the outgoing bookkeeper captured as a handover block

A required deadlines field for filing dates, lender covenants and grant reporting that a new bookkeeper cannot infer from the ledger

Chart-of-accounts preferences asked before coding starts, not after six months of transactions

No tax identification numbers, no account numbers, no credentials — the form is deliberately short of identifiers

Free with unlimited submissions, and end-to-end encryption can be switched on for the form before you send it

How to create a bookkeeping client onboarding form

1
Click "Use this template" to start from the Bookkeeping Client Onboarding Form in formformform.
2
Edit the Legal Entity Type list to the entity types that exist in your jurisdiction — the shipped list mixes UK and US wording on purpose so you can see both.
3
Rename the sales tax scheme options to the schemes your clients actually use, and delete the ones that do not apply where you practise.
4
Trim the accounting platform dropdown to the platforms you support, and add any you specialise in.
5
Decide whether the Services in Scope checklist matches your engagement letter; if the two differ, fix the engagement letter rather than the form.
6
Add branching in the editor after cloning if you want the payroll block to appear only when the client answers yes — the template ships flat because seeded templates cannot carry conditional logic, but the editor supports it.
7
Add an Upload field in the editor if you would rather receive the trial balance as an attachment than as a link.
8
Turn on end-to-end encryption for the form in your account before you send it — it is per form and opt-in, and it locks once the first response arrives, so choose before you share the link.
9
Send the link with the engagement letter, and set your notification email so the onboarding lead sees the submission the moment it lands.

Best practices for your bookkeeping client onboarding form

Send it after the engagement letter, never before. A signed client will answer questions about opening balances that a prospect will not, and asking a prospect them makes you look like hard work.

Insist on a named-user invitation. Named access is logged and can be revoked on the last day of the engagement; a shared login cannot, and it makes every audit trail in the platform useless.

Never accept a banking password, even offered. If a client sends one, ask them to change it and set you up as a read-only viewer instead

a bookkeeper who can move money is a bookkeeper who can be blamed for money moving.

Treat the deadlines field as the deliverable. Turn it into calendar entries the same day the form arrives, before anyone starts coding transactions.

Ask for the last closed period, not just the year end. The gap between the two is the real size of the first month's work, and it is the number most often underestimated at quoting stage.

Read the known-issues answer before you price any catch-up work. Unreconciled since March and personal spending mixed with business are two very different jobs.

Agree the chart of accounts before the first transaction is coded. Re-cutting it after six months is the most avoidable rework in bookkeeping.

Collect registration numbers and tax identifiers in your statutory paperwork, not here. This form is designed to hold as few identifiers as possible.

Ask who approves payments and journals even on a one-person business, because the answer is sometimes the accountant rather than the owner, and that changes your workflow.

Re-send the form at the start of each year for long-standing clients. Platforms, payroll providers and approvers change quietly, and an out-of-date onboarding record is how a deadline gets missed.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the form ask how we will grant access instead of asking for the login?

Because a password in a form submission is a password in an inbox, a database and a backup. Every accounting platform supports inviting a bookkeeper as a named user or through an advisor portal, which can be logged and revoked. The form records which route you will use; the access itself is granted inside the platform.

Can I attach the trial balance instead of pasting a link?

Yes. Add an Upload field in the editor after cloning the template. formformform supports file uploads of up to 2 MB per file, and encrypts them on forms where end-to-end encryption is switched on. The template ships with a link field because seeded templates cannot include an upload field, not because uploads are unavailable.

Can the payroll questions appear only if the client runs payroll?

Yes, but you add that after cloning. The editor supports conditional logic; the template generator does not, so every template arrives flat and you set the rules up in the editor in a couple of minutes.

Does this form collect the client's first payment?

No. formformform has no payment field of any kind. The form records who approves payments and journals so your team knows whose sign-off to seek; the money itself moves through the client's own bank, card or payroll systems.

Is it safe to collect bank details on this form?

The form deliberately does not ask for them. It asks for the last four digits of each account, which is all you need to match a bank feed, and it records how read-only access will be arranged. Full account numbers, sort codes and banking logins should never be entered into a web form.

How does formformform handle the data this form collects?

formformform is GDPR-compliant and hosted in the EU, and any form can have end-to-end encryption switched on before you share it. Encryption is per form, opt-in and frozen once the first response arrives, so decide before you send the link. SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications belong to the hosting provider rather than to formformform, and no form makes a practice compliant with anything on its own.

The form is long. Should I cut it down?

Cut anything you already know. It is written for the hardest case — a mid-year takeover from another bookkeeper — and a client on a fresh set of books can skip the whole handover block. Deleting fields you do not need is the point of cloning it.

Can two people fill this in?

Not in one submission. In practice the office manager fills in the platform and document sections and the owner answers the approvals question, so either send it to the person who knows most and let them ask internally, or send it twice and keep the two submissions side by side.