# Bookkeeping Client Onboarding Questionnaire (Template)

> A ready-to-use bookkeeping client onboarding questionnaire: business details, accounts, access, payroll, history and preferences — plus how to turn it into a form that fills your systems.

Source: https://tribehq.ai/guides/bookkeeping-client-onboarding-questionnaire/

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# Bookkeeping Client Onboarding Questionnaire: Free Template

A ready-to-use bookkeeping client onboarding questionnaire: business details, accounts, access, payroll, history and preferences — plus how to turn it into a form that fills your systems.

By the TribeHQ team · Updated October 3, 2026

A good onboarding questionnaire saves weeks of back-and-forth. Instead of emailing a new bookkeeping client one question at a time, you ask everything once — in a structure that maps directly onto how you’ll set up their books.

Below is a **free bookkeeping client onboarding questionnaire** you can copy into a form. It’s grouped into sections so clients can complete it in one sitting, and every question exists because you’ll need the answer in the first month.

## Section 1: Business details

1. Legal business name and any trading names
2. Entity type (sole proprietor, LLC, S corp, C corp, partnership, nonprofit)
3. Employer Identification Number (EIN)
4. Business address and the states you operate in
5. Industry and a one-line description of what you sell
6. Fiscal year-end
7. Owners and ownership percentages

## Section 2: Contacts and communication

1. Main contact for bookkeeping questions (name, email, phone)
2. Who approves payments and signs off on reports?
3. Your CPA or tax preparer, if different from us
4. Preferred way to reach you (email, text, portal) and best times

## Section 3: Bank and financial accounts

1. Business bank accounts (bank name, account type, last four digits)
2. Business credit cards
3. Loans, lines of credit and equipment financing
4. Payment processors (Stripe, Square, PayPal, Shopify and so on)
5. Any personal accounts used for business — and how often

## Section 4: Software and access

1. Accounting software in use (QuickBooks Online, Xero, other or none)
2. Payroll provider
3. Invoicing, point-of-sale or e-commerce platforms
4. Expense and receipt tools
5. Please invite us as an accountant user to your accounting software and confirm when done

> **Tip:** never ask clients to send passwords by email. Use accountant-user invitations and the platforms’ own access features instead.

## Section 5: Revenue and expenses

1. How do customers pay you, and how often do you invoice?
2. Do you collect sales tax? In which states?
3. Your largest regular expenses
4. Do you track inventory? How?
5. Any expenses you want tracked by job, project or location?

## Section 6: Payroll and contractors

1. Number of employees and pay frequency
2. Do you pay contractors who may need 1099s?
3. Any owner draws or owner payroll?

## Section 7: History and catch-up

1. Date of the last reconciled month
2. Are prior years filed? Any open notices from tax authorities?
3. Months or years that need catch-up work
4. Prior financial statements or tax returns we should review

## Section 8: Goals and preferences

1. What reports do you want each month (profit and loss, cash flow, job costing)?
2. What decisions do you want your numbers to help with this year?
3. Anything that went wrong with previous bookkeeping we should know about?

## Documents to request with the questionnaire

- Last year’s tax return and year-end financial statements
- Recent bank and credit card statements (usually the last three months to start)
- Loan statements and agreements
- Payroll reports
- Entity documents and EIN confirmation letter

## Turn the questionnaire into a system

A questionnaire in a PDF still means someone copies answers into five places. The better setup:

1. **Send it as an online form** with conditional questions (for example, payroll questions only appear if they have employees).
2. **Push answers automatically** into your practice management tool, CRM and client folder.
3. **Create the access requests and document checklist** from the answers — and send reminders until everything’s in.
4. **Flag gaps** (no EIN, catch-up needed, sales tax in several states) for a person to review.

For the full process around the questionnaire, see our [client onboarding checklist for accounting firms](https://tribehq.ai/guides/client-onboarding-checklist/). And if you’d rather have it built for you on QuickBooks or Xero, that’s what [client onboarding automation](https://tribehq.ai/services/client-onboarding-automation/) and our work with [bookkeeping firms](https://tribehq.ai/industries/accounting-bookkeeping-firms/) cover.

## Want this done for you?

Custom client onboarding automation: engagement letters and e-signature, intake forms, document collection that chases itself, folders, portals and kickoff — built on your tools, owned by you.

[See client onboarding automation](https://tribehq.ai/services/client-onboarding-automation/)

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