What to send your bookkeeper

The first week

This list sets the starting point. Most of it is a one-time job, and you can send it in pieces as you find it.

• User access to your accounting software as an accountant or advisor, so the bookkeeper signs in under their own name
• Every business bank account, credit card, loan, line of credit and merchant account, with the last four digits of each
• Statements for each account back to the last month you trust
• Last year's filed business tax return, which gives the opening balances
• Loan agreements and the latest loan statements, so payments can be split into principal and interest
• Access to your payment apps and processors, such as Square, Stripe, Toast, Shopify or PayPal
• Payroll registers from your payroll provider, or a view-only invite to it
• A list of contractors you pay, with W-9s if you have them
• Your CPA's name and email

Every month

With working bank feeds, the bookkeeper already sees the amounts. What a feed cannot show is the reason for a charge. So most monthly questions ask why, not how much.

• Replies to the question list on unclear transactions
• Receipts for big-ticket items, business meals and trips, plus any charge with a cryptic name
• A heads-up about new things: a new card, a new loan, a vehicle, equipment or a new partner
• Copies of invoices you sent outside the accounting software
• Statements for any account whose feed broke or was never connected

After December closes

• December statements for all accounts as soon as they post
• Year-end loan statements that show interest paid
• Purchase invoices for equipment, vehicles and other larger assets bought in the year
• Any 1099 forms you received from customers or platforms
• Details your CPA wants that never touch the bank, like mileage logs or home office square footage

Extra items by industry

Some San Diego County businesses need a few more documents. Send the ones that fit.

• Funded startups: the cap table, SAFE or note documents, grant award letters and any board reporting template.
• Defense and government subcontractors: contract or purchase order numbers, so costs can be tracked by contract.
• Short-term rental hosts: monthly payout reports from each platform and any city occupancy tax filings you made.
• Breweries and restaurants: POS end-of-day reports and delivery app statements, so sales can be matched to deposits.
• Contractors: a job list with contract amounts and the subcontractors on each job.

What you can skip

You do not need to print anything that already arrives through a bank feed. Small routine purchases that the statement describes clearly do not need a receipt. Personal statements are not needed either, unless business money passed through a personal account. If it did, tell the bookkeeper, because those transactions have to be found and recorded.

Changing bookkeepers

While the previous bookkeeper is still around, request their last reconciliation for every account, their notes on repeating entries and anything left unfinished. Ask them to keep their file access until the handover ends.

If they have stopped answering, the work can still go on. Most of the history survives in the bank records and the accounting file. The new bookkeeper checks the last reconciled month against the statements and continues from there. Once the handover is done, remove the old bookkeeper from your accounting file, payroll and bank.

Sending documents safely

Share documents through your accounting software's upload feature or the team's secure link. Do not email full account numbers, Social Security numbers, EIN letters or passwords. You never share your own login, because the bookkeeper gets a user of their own.

Questions