What to inventory before changing bookkeepers

The strongest position for a bookkeeping migration is a written inventory of what the current provider holds, controls, and knows. Doing this before the transition begins turns the project from discovery into a defined transfer.

Start while the current team still has access and context. Once a relationship ends, it can take much longer to identify a missing processor login, an undocumented reconciliation, or the reason a balance has been carried for several months.

List the accounting system of record and every financial source that feeds it. Record who owns the account, who has administrator access, how the connection works, and whether the client can restore access without the outgoing provider.

The new bookkeeper needs more than a login. Collect the most recent reviewed financial statements, trial balance, bank and card reconciliations, fixed-asset schedules, debt schedules, payroll reconciliations, open AR and AP, deferred or prepaid schedules, equity support, and any other workpapers used to close material accounts.

Also document known exceptions. A balance that has been under investigation for two months is part of the handoff even if nobody has resolved it yet.

Prior returns, tax adjustments, state registrations, notices, information-return history, entity documents, and major ownership changes can explain balances that are otherwise hard to interpret.

The incoming bookkeeper does not need to make legal or tax judgments outside the engagement, but the accounting record should preserve enough context for the appropriate adviser to understand what happened.

Agree which provider owns the final close before transition and which provider owns the first close after transition. Avoid splitting a single month across two teams unless there is a deliberate plan for preparation and review.

Keep the old system and workpapers available until the new team has reproduced the opening balances, connected all material sources, and completed the first full reconciliation cycle.

The first close is the practical test of the transfer. Compare opening balances with the prior final trial balance, confirm every material account is present, review recurring entries and classifications, and investigate any balance that changed simply because the provider changed.

Once the first close is reviewed, record the new owners, access model, close calendar, and unresolved items. That turns the migration into a new operating baseline instead of a temporary handoff.