The monthly bookkeeping document checklist (what to ask every client for)

Every experienced bookkeeper carries a version of this list in their head. The problem with heads is that they don't scale, they go on holiday, and they can't be forwarded to a client. Write the list down, once per client, and the monthly close changes character: "did they send everything?" stops being a feeling and becomes a row of ticks.

This post is the list. Use it as a starting template, cut what doesn't apply, and add the client-specific oddities. If you'd rather not build it by hand, our free checklist generator produces a client-ready version in about thirty seconds, downloadable as CSV or printable, no signup.

The core list (almost every client, every month)

Bank statements, one per account. The anchor of the whole close. List each account by name: the main operating account, the savings account, the Wise or Revolut account they opened last year and forgot to mention. Unlisted accounts are where surprises live. A statement per account, covering the full month, as a PDF rather than a screenshot.

Credit card statements. Same rule: one per card, including the owner's personal card if business expenses have a habit of landing on it. Card statements close mid-month for many issuers, so state which statement you mean.

Sales records. What this looks like depends on how they sell. For invoice-based businesses: the sales invoices raised in the month, or a report from their invoicing tool. For shops and restaurants: the POS or till summary. For online sellers: the marketplace payout report, which is the only document that explains why the bank deposit never matches the sales total.

Purchase invoices and bills. Everything they were billed for in the month: supplier invoices, subscriptions, rent, utilities. The recurring ones you can often carry forward from last month's list; it's the one-off purchases that need an explicit ask.

Receipts for card and cash spending. The glovebox category. Be specific about the threshold you care about, for example "receipts over $25," or you will receive either nothing or forty coffee receipts.

Payroll reports. If payroll is run by someone else, the monthly payroll summary and payment confirmations. If you run it, you already have this one, which makes it the rare item you can pre-tick.

Loan and financing statements. Any business loan, equipment finance, or line of credit: the monthly statement showing interest and principal. Small, easy to forget, and the reason the balance sheet won't reconcile in month eleven.

The sometimes list (depends on the client)

• Sales tax and VAT documents, in filing months: the filing confirmation and payment receipt.
• New agreements. Anything signed this month: a lease, a new loan, a big customer contract with unusual payment terms. You need these once, in the month they happen, which is exactly when nobody thinks to send them.
• Asset purchases. Invoices for anything that belongs on the fixed asset register: equipment, vehicles, computers. A concrete prompt works better than the word "assets": "did you buy anything over $500 that you'll use for more than a year?"
• Cash logs, for cash-heavy businesses: the till counts or a simple cash-in/cash-out record.
• Anything unusual. Grants received, insurance claims, disputes, refunds of note. One line at the bottom of the checklist, "anything odd this month?", catches a surprising amount.

Tailoring the list per client

The template above is the starting point, not the checklist. The actual checklist for a given client should be short, specific, and stable.

Name things the way the client sees them. "Wise EUR account statement" beats "bank statement #3". The checklist is a communication tool, and the client is the one reading it.

Cut ruthlessly. A client with no loans, no payroll, and no cash should have neither of those lines. A ten-item list gets done; a thirty-item list gets postponed.

Keep it stable month to month. The power of a checklist is rhythm. Clients learn that the same list arrives on the 1st and the same things are expected. Change it when the business changes, not before.

Review it twice a year. New bank account? New card? Started selling on a marketplace? Ten minutes per client, twice a year, keeps the list honest.

Using the checklist: door, date, ticks

A checklist alone doesn't collect documents. It needs three companions.

One intake door. Every item on the list arrives through the same channel: one email address or one upload link per client. The checklist tells clients what; the door tells them where. Multiple doors is how documents get lost.

A deadline. Send the list at the start of the month, state the date the books close, and hold it. A list without a date is a suggestion.

Visible ticks. As documents arrive, tick them off, and when you remind the client, mention only the unticked items. Chasing someone for a statement they sent last Tuesday costs you more goodwill than any late document ever will. We wrote more about the reminder side in how to chase clients for documents without burning the relationship.

If you've recently lost your collection tooling, for instance because Xero retired Hubdoc, the checklist is the first thing to rebuild. It is the difference between "waiting on clients" and knowing precisely which three documents stand between you and a closed month.

Making the list run itself

Everything in this post works on paper or in a spreadsheet. The manual version has one weakness: the ticking and the reminding depend on you doing them, every month, for every client, on time.

That is the part PapersIn automates. Each client gets their monthly checklist plus a drop link and an email-in address. When a document arrives, it lands in a review queue and ticks its checklist item. When the deadline approaches, clients get polite reminders that escalate gradually, list only what's still missing, and stop the moment the list is complete. At the end of the month you export the lot as a properly named ZIP.

Start with the list itself: the free checklist generator will give you a solid template per client today. If you then want the ticking, reminding, and filing handled for you, PapersIn is a flat price per firm, and founding spots are currently $19 a month. The details are on the pricing page when you're ready.