What do I need to hand over to switch veterinary 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. Invoice-level activity has 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.

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Veterinary practice intake checklist

Veterinary is the practice type where generalist bookkeeping fails most reliably, and inventory is why. The items below let us separate the two businesses you actually run.

This is what we ask for when a veterinary 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. Veterinary specifics

The section a generalist intake leaves out.

Item	Why we need it
PIMS access — Cornerstone, AVImark, ezyVet, Impromed	Invoice-level activity has to reconcile to the accounting.
Revenue split: professional services vs. retail and pharmacy — trailing 24 months	Two businesses, two margins. Most books report one line.
Inventory — most recent physical count by category, with valuation method	Pharmacy, diet, and retail behave differently and hold most of your cash.
Distributor accounts and statements — MWI, Covetrus, Patterson	Purchasing patterns drive both margin and working capital.
Prescriptions written vs. filled in-house	Capture rate is your most direct measure of retail leakage.
Wellness plan roster, terms, and billing basis	Twelve months of care owed. Service delivery is often front-loaded against even payments.
DVM production reports and compensation agreements	Production against comp, doctor by doctor.
Controlled substance log and DEA registration	Compliance record we should know exists and is current.
Boarding, grooming, and daycare package balances	Sold in advance, delivered later — another deferred obligation.
Expired and obsolete inventory write-off history	Cash spent with no revenue behind it, rarely counted until someone counts it.
Equipment detail — imaging, dental, surgical, in-house lab	Capital and financing, separated from operating cost.
Exam room and surgical suite count	Utilization against fixed capacity.

Veterinary intake checklist

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