# What should a bookkeeping checklist used with clients contain?

Applies to: United States · Updated 2026-09-28

A client checklist is a shared working document, not your internal procedure written out. Build it from what the client supplies, does in their own systems and confirms, and what you deliver, across money received, money paid, bank and card activity, payroll and contractors, and amounts collected or withheld for others. Give every item one named owner, a purpose, required evidence, a done-state, timing, applicability and entity, and keep every practice item inside the agreed scope of work.

## How is a client checklist different from your internal task list?

Unlike your internal task list, a client checklist is read and acted on by someone outside the practice who cannot stop to ask what a line means. That changes three things:

- **Wording.** Each item says what to do or confirm in the client's terms: "Upload the March statement for every bank and card account", not "Obtain stmts for recs".
- **Granularity.** Client items are actions the client can finish in one sitting, while your own work appears as outcomes with a status, never as the steps you follow.
- **Content.** It carries both sides of the work and the hand-offs between them, whereas a checklist a business runs alone has one side and never has to show hand-offs to another party.

The Journal of Accountancy's April 2026 article on client accounting and advisory services (CAS) engagement letters tells firms to avoid industry jargon and acronyms, and says that when the terms are written clearly, an independent party should be able to read the scope of services and understand exactly what the firm will provide. Apply that test to every checklist line; your internal procedure fails it.

## What content classes should the checklist carry?

Build each client's checklist from five content classes, not a fixed list:

- **What the client supplies.** Records only the client holds, such as statements, bills and sales reports, must arrive before anything can be recorded.
- **What the client does in their own systems.** Listing work such as sending invoices or attaching receipts in their own tools shows whether each hand-off happened.
- **What the practice performs.** Showing your in-scope work lets the client see what is waiting on you as well as on them.
- **What the client must confirm.** Facts only the client can know, such as whether every account the business used is listed, need the client's own confirmation.
- **The state of each item.** Recording where each item stands and what proves it turns the list from intentions into status.

## Which record classes must the checklist reach?

The IRS's records page ("What kind of records should I keep") says purchases, sales, payroll and other transactions generate supporting documents that contain the information you need to record in your books. State each class as what must be present and confirmed, not how it is processed:

- **Money received.** The checklist asks for sales reports, invoices issued and deposit or payout records; the client confirms no income arrived outside the listed accounts and explains any deposit that was not a sale, such as a loan or the owner's own money.
- **Money paid.** The records page separates purchases (items bought to resell and, for a manufacturer or producer, raw materials or parts), expenses (the costs, other than purchases, of carrying on the business) and assets such as machinery and furniture, and lists proof of payment among the documents for each. The checklist asks for bills, receipts and proof of payment for all three, and the client confirms none is missing.
- **Bank and card activity.** The checklist asks for a statement covering the whole period for every account and card, and the client confirms that list is complete.
- **Payroll and contractors.** The checklist asks for the report for each pay run and a list of contractors paid, and the client confirms none is missing.
- **Amounts collected or withheld for others.** The IRS's trust fund penalty page explains that withheld taxes are called trust fund taxes because the employer holds the employee's money in trust; that page covers federal withheld income and employment taxes and collected excise taxes. The checklist asks, for every pay run, for the record of each amount withheld and of its payment onward, and names who makes each payment. Sales tax charged to customers is outside that page; if the client charges it, put its record and payment in this class too, with its own owner.

How these obligations work, and when anything is due, is a separate subject.

## Who owns each item?

Every item gets exactly one owner: a named person on one side of the relationship, written on the item. "Client" is not an owner; "Dana Ruiz (client)" is. Where two people touch an item, split it at the hand-off: "Upload the March card statement" (client) and "Reconcile the card account" (practice). An item without a single named owner sits between the two sides, and each assumes the other holds it until the period closes.

The owner column depends on how the work is split, so rebuild it whenever the split changes:

| How the work is split | How the owner column reads |
|---|---|
| The client supplies records only; the practice does the bookkeeping | Client: supply and confirmation items. Practice: every recording, reconciling and reporting outcome. |
| The client does part of the bookkeeping in their own system | Each shared activity splits at the hand-off: client "done in your system", practice "reviewed and recorded". |
| The client does most of the work and the practice reviews it | Client: processing items and approval of results. Practice: review items, each naming what it covers. |

## What does a client's tick confirm, and what does it not transfer?

A tick confirms what the item's done-state says, so write each client done-state as a statement the client can know to be true. "Every bank and card account the business used in March is listed" is one; "The books are correct" is not, because the client cannot see your work.

The Journal of Accountancy's article on CAS engagement letters lists, among the client's minimum responsibilities, review and approval of the firm's deliverables and evaluating and accepting responsibility for the results of the firm's services. The same article says the client always has the fundamental and ultimate responsibility for managing their business, a duty that can never be outsourced. On the checklist, client ticks confirm facts within the client's knowledge, and an approval item records the client's review and acceptance of your results.

That article does not address checklist ticks, so the two rules below are practice design built on the client responsibilities it lists. Do not read a tick as moving either of these:

- **Your in-scope work.** Treat a client's approval as acceptance of the results, never as evidence that the client did or checked the work behind them, and never let a tick stand in for doing that work.
- **The client's management responsibility.** A tick by your staff on a practice item never moves the running of the business, or its decisions, to you.

Never ask a client to confirm what only you can know, such as whether your reconciliation is right, and never tick a client's confirmation for them. Who answers for the accuracy of the books belongs to the engagement letter, a separate question.

## How do you handle items that do not apply, or apply to one client only?

Keep one versioned master template, generate each client's checklist from it, and handle exceptions on the client's copy:

- **Items that do not apply to this client.** Mark them "Not applicable to this client" with the reason and who decided, rather than deleting them, so the structure stays common and an event can switch the item back on.
- **Items unique to one client.** Add them in a labelled client-specific section of that client's checklist, with the same columns as every other item.
- **Template changes.** Change the template deliberately, record the new version, and note on each client's checklist which version it came from.

Without these rules, informal per-client edits leave no single current version.

## How do recurring, period-specific and event-triggered items get onto the list?

Only recurring items arrive by copying last period's list; the other two types need their own route:

| Item type | How it reaches the list | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring | Carried forward every period | Statements for each listed account; the report for each pay run |
| Period-specific | Scheduled in advance against the period it belongs to | Year-end: list assets bought or sold; confirm loan balances to lender statements |
| Event-triggered | Added when the event is reported or spotted, from a standing trigger list | A new bank or card account, tax registration, first employee or contractor, location or entity, or a change in ownership |

Give event items two routes in, because a purely recurring checklist cannot admit them:

- **A standing question.** Every period's list carries a client-owned item asking "Did any of these happen this period?" above the trigger list, and a yes adds the linked items to the current period with an owner and due date.
- **What the records show.** When the records show an event, such as a transfer to an account not on the list, you add the item and ask the client to confirm what happened.

## What states can an item be in, and what proves it is done?

Use a small set of states both sides read the same way:

- **Open.** The item is live for this period, with its owner and due date.
- **Waiting.** The item is blocked on the other side, and the question is written on it.
- **Submitted.** The client says a client item is finished, and the evidence is attached for you to check.
- **Done.** The done-state is met and the evidence is attached or linked.
- **Not applicable this period.** The item's owner proposes it with the reason, written on the item; you confirm it against the records before it leaves the outstanding view; the item records who marked it and when.

You move a client item from Submitted to Done after checking its evidence against the done-state; if the evidence falls short, the item goes to Waiting with the question written on it. Each item records who marked it Done and when. Done means the named evidence exists, not that someone said so; an item marked Done without it gives false assurance that the period is covered. For a confirmation item, the named evidence is the owner's dated confirmation of the done-state wording.

Keep the checklist in one place both sides can open, not in copies traded by email. Give the client an outstanding view: the Open, Waiting and Submitted items they own, each with its due date, followed by what is waiting on you. The cycle sets the view, so a monthly client sees this month's open items first.

## What does a populated checklist look like?

This extract is for an invented client, Ruiz Bakery LLC, on a monthly cycle; the client runs payroll through a provider and the practice does the bookkeeping.

| Item | Purpose | Owner | Required evidence | Done-state | Timing (checklist due date) | Applicability | Entity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upload statements for every bank and card account | Every transaction can be recorded | Dana Ruiz (client) | One statement file per account | A full-month statement for each listed account | Monthly, by the 5th | All clients | Ruiz Bakery LLC |
| Using the business's own PIN for the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), check that every federal tax amount on this month's pay-run reports was paid | Payments are made on the business's behalf | Dana Ruiz (client) | This month's pay-run reports; the business's EFTPS payment history | Every federal tax amount on each of this month's pay-run reports has a matching payment in the business's EFTPS history; no amount is unpaid or unmatched | Monthly, by the 5th | Clients whose payroll a provider runs | Ruiz Bakery LLC |
| Register the business on EFTPS and get its own PIN | The business can verify its payments itself | Dana Ruiz (client) | Dated confirmation | The business can open its own EFTPS payment history | Once, before the first payment check | Clients whose payroll a provider runs | Ruiz Bakery LLC |
| Confirm the provider pays the business's federal taxes through EFTPS | The business can confirm payments made on its behalf | Dana Ruiz (client) | Provider's dated written answer | The provider has confirmed in writing that it pays through EFTPS | When a provider starts or changes | Clients whose payroll a provider runs | Ruiz Bakery LLC |
| Reconcile bank and card accounts | Records agree with statements | J. Lee (practice) | Reconciliation report per account | Each account agrees to its statement; open items listed | Monthly, by the 15th | Bookkeeping in scope | Ruiz Bakery LLC |
| Review and approve the month's reports | Client accepts the results | Dana Ruiz (client) | Dated approval | Reports approved | Monthly, by the 20th | All clients | Ruiz Bakery LLC |

The payroll row starts from the pay-run reports, not the provider's list of its own payments, because that list shows only what the provider says it did. The IRS's page on outsourcing payroll duties says employers should ensure their payroll providers use EFTPS, so the employers can confirm that payments are being made on their behalf, and should register on EFTPS to get their own PIN and use it to periodically verify payments. An unpaid or unmatched amount keeps the row in Waiting, with the question written on it, until it is resolved; what to do about it belongs to the payroll questions. A payment made other than through EFTPS also sends the row to Waiting with the question written on it. The row checks federal payments only; state withholding and sales tax need rows of their own.

## How does the checklist stay inside the agreed scope?

A client reads the checklist as a statement of what you do, so every practice-owned line reads as a promise. The Journal of Accountancy's article on CAS engagement letters says the firm's responsibilities should be limited to the scope of services outlined in the engagement letter, and tells firms to be detailed and specific about what they will do for the client and how often. Match the checklist to that scope in four ways:

- Tag every practice-owned item with the engagement service it delivers; an item with no tag is either a client item or a scope change.
- Treat a new practice-owned item as a scope change. The same article advises documenting and agreeing on any scope modification; agreeing it with the client before the item goes on the list keeps the checklist from getting ahead of the agreement. How a scope change is documented belongs to the engagement letter, a separate question.
- Treat removing an in-scope practice item, or marking it not applicable to this client, the same way, because it narrows the engagement just as silently. A "Not applicable this period" mark with its reason is not a scope change.
- Word practice items as what you deliver, not help you might give: "Reconcile bank and card accounts", not "Keep an eye on the accounts".

## What changes for clients with employees, contractors or several entities?

If the client has employees or engages contractors, the payroll, contractor and withheld-amount items above join the checklist as a class, each with one named owner. The IRS's page on outsourcing payroll duties says the employer is ultimately responsible for the deposit and payment of federal tax liabilities. When a provider runs payroll, make the owner of each confirmation item a named person at the client, usually whoever deals with the provider.

If the client has several entities or trading locations, run one checklist per entity, or give every item an entity value and never let one tick cover two entities; otherwise one checklist hides which entity an item was done for.

## How do you keep the checklist usable over time?

Keep the client's own items to what they can clear in one sitting each period, merging or retiring the rest. Review the template on a set cadence, such as each quarter, against what went wrong: items late every period, events that were missed, items always marked not applicable.

## Sources

1. AICPA & CIMA, Journal of Accountancy — *Tips for writing CAS engagement letters*, April 1, 2026. https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2026/apr/tips-for-writing-cas-engagement-letters/
2. Internal Revenue Service — *What kind of records should I keep*, Page last reviewed or updated 03-Aug-2026. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/what-kind-of-records-should-i-keep
3. Internal Revenue Service — *Employment taxes and the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP)*, Page last reviewed or updated 10-Oct-2025. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/employment-taxes-and-the-trust-fund-recovery-penalty-tfrp
4. Internal Revenue Service — *Outsourcing payroll duties*, Page last reviewed or updated 04-Mar-2026. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/outsourcing-payroll-duties

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