What do I need to hand over to switch optometry accountants?

Access to your accounting file, bank and card statements, payroll, and your practice management system, plus prior tax returns, the depreciation schedule, loan documents, and leases. Exam volume and optical sales have to reconcile to the accounting.

Do I need everything on the list before starting?

No. Send what you have. The list exists so gaps get identified in week one rather than week four.

Home / Tools / Optometry Intake

Optometry practice intake checklist

An optometry practice runs a clinical business and a retail business under one roof, and the accounting decision that matters most is whether they are separated. The items below make that separation possible.

This is what we ask for when a optometry practice comes on. Send what you have — nothing here is a prerequisite for starting. The list exists so we can tell you early what is missing rather than three weeks in.

1. Access and credentials

Item	Why we need it
Accounting file — admin or accountant access	QuickBooks Online, Desktop, or whatever you run. We work in your file, not a copy.
Bank accounts — read-only access, all accounts	Operating, savings, and any account the practice touches, including ones not currently in the books.
Credit cards used by the practice	Business and any personal card carrying practice expenses.
Merchant processor / payment portal	Deposits net of fees never tie to production without this.
Payroll provider access	Provider compensation is the largest line we have to get right.
Practice management system — reporting access	Read-only is fine. This is how we reconcile clinical activity to the money.

2. Entity, history, and prior filings

Item	Why we need it
EIN letter (CP-575 or SS-4)	Confirms the filing entity before anything else is set up.
Formation documents and operating agreement	Ownership percentages drive distributions and eventual valuation.
S-corp election (Form 2553), if applicable	Determines how owner compensation must be structured.
Business tax returns — prior two years	Our starting point for normalized earnings.
Prior-year financial statements	Tells us what the last preparer did and where they departed from accrual.
Trial balance and general ledger — prior 24 months	The raw material for the cleanup.
Chart of accounts export	Usually the first thing we rebuild.

3. Banking

Item	Why we need it
Bank statements — prior 12 months, all accounts	Reconciliation from a known-good starting point.
Credit card statements — prior 12 months	Where uncategorized and personal spend usually hides.
Most recent completed reconciliations	Tells us how far back the file is actually trustworthy.

4. Debt and leases

Item	Why we need it
Loan agreements and amortization schedules	Principal is not an expense. Without the schedule your profit-to-cash bridge is guesswork.
Equipment financing agreements	Capital vs. operating treatment changes both the P&L and the balance sheet.
Real estate lease or mortgage documents	Occupancy cost is a core overhead benchmark.
Owner loans to or from the practice	Frequently misrecorded as income or expense.

5. Fixed assets

Item	Why we need it
Depreciation schedule from your tax preparer	So book and tax depreciation stop diverging silently.
Equipment list with purchase dates and cost	Feeds the schedule and the eventual valuation.
Leasehold improvement detail	Often expensed when it should be capitalized.

6. Payroll and compensation

Item	Why we need it
Current payroll register	Baseline for provider and staff cost as a share of collections.
Employee roster with role and pay basis	Salary, hourly, production, or contractor — each behaves differently.
Owner compensation history — salary and distributions	The split determines what the practice actually earns without you.
Benefit and retirement plan documents	Real cost per employee, and a planning lever later.

7. Insurance

Item	Why we need it
Professional liability / malpractice	Coverage and premium timing.
General liability, property, workers compensation	Standard overhead lines we benchmark.
Business overhead or interruption coverage	Relevant to the cash forecast.

8. Owner and related-party items

Item	Why we need it
Personal expenses currently run through the business	We are not here to judge. We do need to identify them so earnings can be normalized.
Related-party arrangements	Building owned by you or a family member, family on payroll, management fees between entities.

9. Getting it to us securely

This part is not optional.

Item	Why we need it
Use the secure link we send, not email	Everything here is either financial or protected health information. Email attachments are not an appropriate channel for it.
Business associate agreement signed before access	We execute a BAA with every practice before we touch a system that contains patient or client records. Ask if you have not seen one.
Grant access rather than exporting where possible	Read-only access to your systems is safer than a file sitting in someone’s downloads folder, and it stays current.
Tell us who else has access	Prior bookkeepers, former staff, and old accountant logins should be reviewed and removed as part of onboarding.

10. Optometry specifics

The section a generalist intake leaves out.

Item	Why we need it
Practice management / EHR access — RevolutionEHR, Crystal PM, OfficeMate, Compulink	Exam volume and optical sales have to reconcile to the accounting.
Exam revenue split: vision plan vs. medical — trailing 24 months	These reimburse very differently for the same chair time.
Vision plan contracts and fee schedules — VSP, EyeMed, Davis, Superior	What each plan actually pays after allowance.
Medical payer contracts	Medical optometry is the most common under-developed revenue stream in the vertical.
Optical inventory — most recent physical count by vendor and price band	Usually the largest working capital position in the practice.
Frame vendor purchase commitments and minimums	Obligations that constrain cash before you see them.
Contact lens direct-ship accounts and rebate programs	Revenue that bypasses your inventory but still needs reconciling.
Outstanding annual supply orders	Paid in full, shipped across the year. That is deferred revenue.
Optical capture rate — exams delivered vs. eyewear purchased	The single highest-leverage number in optometry.
Lab invoices — trailing 12 months	Matched against materials revenue for true optical margin.
Diagnostic equipment detail — OCT, visual field, fundus imaging	Capital assets with financing, not monthly expenses.
Lane count and schedule	Utilization against fixed clinical capacity.

Optometry intake checklist

The formatted Word version, ready to use or edit. Nothing to fill in first.

Download .docx

Book a diagnostic coaching call.

A conversation about what you are building, what the numbers are doing, and where it stops making sense. You leave with our read on what is driving it and what to fix first.

Free consult