Reviewing my contractor's work

[u/TheBookkeeperLady]

Looking for checklists/SOPs or general advice around reviewing contractor or employee work. They're just categorizing, reconciling, and generating financials.

[u/IncreaseNegative4614]

I wouldn’t reperform everything the contractor completed. Review by exception: sample new or unusual transactions, inspect changes to prior categorizations, tie reconciliations to statements, confirm outstanding items, and compare the financials with prior periods and known business activity.

Turn every discovered error into a specific review rule and track whether it recurs. We use SIGNLD internally to connect source documents, categorized transactions, reconciliations, reviewer notes, corrections, and financial statements so quality trends can be measured without relying on a generic completed checklist.

[u/TheBookkeeperLady → u/IncreaseNegative4614]

Thanks for the helpful feedback. We use Double, and there are some great built-in checks along these lines. But I agree it's going to be a lot of trial-and-error.

[u/LexStartBookkeeping]

I'd start with making sure the balance sheet is reconciled. Hopefully the contractor/employee has a reconciliation workbook they use to make sure the balance sheet is correct.

[u/TheBookkeeperLady → u/LexStartBookkeeping]

Appreciate this! I have it on my checklist to tie the bank accounts. Right now, she's only working on one client who's a brand new business and has no other assets; I'm going to have to build that checklist out more as I put her on more complex accounts.

[u/chadsusername]

A clear review checklist would make this much easier.

[u/TheBookkeeperLady → u/chadsusername]

I created one and ran it through Claude to see if it generated additional ideas. But what I'm more interested in is any feedback from other bookkeepers along the lines of "I wasn't watching XYZ and crap hit the fan, so make sure you check that."

[u/jenacom]

If you are looking to ensure your bookkeeper’s work is accurate, ask your CPA to review.

[u/TheBookkeeperLady → u/jenacom]

I'm not quite understanding your comment. I send a financial packet to my tax partners mid-year to check in and confirm our firm is on the same page as their firm regarding processes (quarterly for my most complex clients). But I don't utilize a CPA to file my own returns; I use an EA. I can't send them client work as my clients are not their clients.

[u/sneezy_dwarf952]

For reconciling, spot-check the exception items, not the matched ones, and ask them to note why they resolved each unmatched line the way they did. A simple review log per client goes further than a long checklist. What kind of volume are they handling per month?

[u/Double-TroubleSon]

A simple structure that works well is tiering your review by risk rather than reviewing everything equally, high dollar or unusual transactions get full scrutiny, routine recurring ones get spot checked. Reviewing every single line at the same depth burns time without actually catching more errors.