Ask a bookkeeper where their unbilled hours go and the answer is rarely “the work”. It is the client whose scope was never written down, the file whose opening balances nobody verified, and the payroll that was configured by someone else three years ago and has been quietly wrong ever since.
All three are onboarding problems. They are cheap to prevent in week one and expensive in month three.
The four things that cost the most later
- Unclear scope:
the most expensive words in a practice are “I thought that was included”
- Missing access:
chasing bank feed authorisation during a BAS week costs multiples of setting it up on day one
- Unverified opening balances:
if you did not verify it, you have adopted it
- Inherited payroll:
award classifications nobody has checked since setup — where underpayments hide
Scope it before you price it
The single most useful thing you can do is separate catch-up work from ongoing work, and price them differently.
Ongoing bookkeeping is a predictable monthly service. Catch-up or clean-up is a project of unknown depth. Bundling them means quoting a monthly fee against work you have not yet scoped, which is how a practice ends up subsidising a client’s first six months.
Your engagement letter should name the scope, the exclusions, the fee and how it changes, payment terms, what the client provides and by when, and the monthly cut-off. The exclusions matter as much as the inclusions — most scope disputes are about something nobody wrote down either way.
Check your registration covers the scope
Only a registered BAS agent can charge a fee to provide BAS services — and that includes advising on GST or PAYG obligations, not only pressing lodge. Working under supervision as an employee of the business is a different thing.
Confirm your registration covers what you are agreeing to do before you sign, not after. If you are unsure, check with the Tax Practitioners Board.
Request the records in one go
Send one request with the client’s written authority attached, rather than asking for things in instalments as you discover you need them. The list is short and predictable:
Last two years of financial statements
Last four BAS lodgements
Current chart of accounts
Fixed asset register and depreciation schedules
Trial balance as at the handover date
Prior year tax return and any accountant year-end journals
Loan, finance and lease agreements
Employee records — contracts, TFN declarations, super fund choices, leave balances
The client onboarding checklist covers all of this with owner and date columns, and there is a separate handover checklist for when a file is moving between practitioners.
Verify the opening balances — do not adopt them
This is the step most often skipped and the one that causes the most trouble. The moment you process a transaction on top of an inherited balance, you have adopted it. Every error in the prior period becomes visible in your period, and the client experiences it as your work.
Four checks tie what you have been given to something external:
| Verify | Against | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| Bank balances | Closing bank statements | Unrecorded transactions |
| Opening trial balance | Last financial statements | Missing year-end journals |
| GST control account | Last lodged BAS | A BAS error, or an unposted journal |
| PAYG and super payable | Lodged STP data and fund records | Reporting that has drifted, or unpaid quarters |
Anything that does not agree gets documented and sent to the client in writing before you start processing. That single email is the difference between a known inherited issue and an argument six months later about whose period it belonged to.
The payroll check most practices skip
If the client has staff on rosters, the payroll configuration is the highest-risk thing you are inheriting, and it is almost never checked properly at onboarding.
Modern award rates vary by classification, age, employment type, and the hour and day worked. A setup configured three years ago by someone who guessed at classifications will keep producing plausible-looking payslips indefinitely. Nothing in the file will tell you it is wrong.
Which modern award or agreement covers each employee
How classifications were assigned — this is where most errors originate
Whether base rates match current award rates
Whether penalty rates, overtime and casual loading are actually configured
That superannuation is calculated on ordinary time earnings, not gross
That Single Touch Payroll is connected and reporting successfully
That leave balances carried across correctly
Check a handful of employees across different classifications and shift patterns rather than all of them. If those come back clean the setup is probably sound; if two of five are wrong, you have found a project. The award pay checker and the award rate guides give you current rates by classification.
If you find a historic underpayment
Raise it with the client in writing promptly. Do not quietly correct it going forward as though nothing happened — you now have knowledge of it, and a silent forward fix leaves the historic exposure unaddressed.
Recommend they take advice, and agree the scope and fee for any remediation separately from your ongoing engagement before you start it.
Set the rhythm before month one
Agree what the client sends you and when, set a recurring reminder for the monthly cut-off, and diarise BAS, superannuation and STP finalisation dates. Book a review at the end of the first full period while everything is still fresh.
Then confirm the first invoice has actually gone out on the agreed terms. Practices that are excellent at client work are frequently poor at this one.
Why shift-based clients are worth doing properly
Cafés, venues, shops, clinics and care providers are the clients where payroll goes wrong quietly and takes the longest to unpick. They are also the clients where a bookkeeper who genuinely understands award interpretation is worth a premium — and where getting the rostering and timesheet layer right removes most of the recurring work rather than just documenting it.
If the hours arriving in payroll are already award-calculated, the monthly job shrinks to a reconciliation. If they are not, you are checking rates by hand every pay run, every week, for as long as you hold the client.
Onboarding a client with rostered staff? RosterElf applies award rates, penalties and loadings to every timesheet before it reaches Xero or MYOB — and accredited partners earn recurring income for every employee their clients manage.
Bookkeeping client onboarding — FAQs
What should be in a bookkeeping engagement letter?
The scope of services, what is explicitly excluded, the fee and how it changes, payment terms, what the client is responsible for providing and by when, turnaround times, and the monthly cut-off.
The exclusions matter as much as the inclusions, because most scope disputes are about something nobody wrote down either way.
Should catch-up work be quoted separately from ongoing bookkeeping?
Yes, always. Ongoing bookkeeping is a predictable monthly service; catch-up work is a project of unknown depth.
Bundling them means quoting a monthly fee against work you have not scoped, which is how a practice ends up subsidising a client’s first six months.
What records should I request from the previous bookkeeper?
Two years of financial statements, the last four BAS lodgements, the current chart of accounts, the fixed asset register and depreciation schedules, the trial balance at the handover date, the prior year tax return with any accountant journals, loan and lease agreements, and employee records including TFN declarations and leave balances.
The client handover checklist lists all of them with the verification steps attached.
Why verify opening balances if I was given a trial balance?
Because the moment you build on top of it, you have adopted it. Every error in the prior period becomes visible in yours, and the client will experience it as your work.
Reconcile the bank, agree the trial balance to the last financial statements, and agree the GST control account to the last lodged BAS. Document anything you cannot verify and tell the client in writing before processing.
Do I need to be a registered BAS agent to take on a client?
To charge a fee for BAS services — including lodging a BAS or advising on GST and PAYG obligations — yes. Doing bookkeeping as an employee of the business is different.
Confirm your registration covers the scope before you sign the engagement letter rather than after.
What if I find an underpayment in an inherited payroll?
Raise it with the client in writing promptly and recommend they take advice. Do not quietly correct it going forward — you now have knowledge of it, and a forward-only fix leaves the historic exposure unaddressed.
Scope and price any remediation work separately from your ongoing engagement.
