A useful first-week handoff gives a construction bookkeeper a map of the work, not unrestricted access to everything. Start with the active jobs, accounts, source systems, recurring deadlines, and people who can answer questions. Then define what the role prepares and what someone else approves.
Start with the job and account map
Provide a current list of job codes, customer names, project contacts, and status. Explain whether a project code is reused, who creates new codes, and where the cost-category guide lives. Include business bank and card accounts, payment platforms, and the period last reconciled.
A company with five active jobs can still have old jobs receiving supplier credits or late invoices. Identify those records rather than assuming “closed” means no more activity.
Make authority explicit
Write down the recurring duties: document collection, coding preparation, reconciliation, report preparation, and question follow-up. Separately identify who approves payments, payroll inputs, access changes, and accounting judgments.
Do not infer approval authority from a software permission. A user may technically be able to click a button without being authorized to do so under the engagement.
Use a first-week checklist
| Day or stage | Useful outcome |
|---|---|
| Orientation | Job list, account map, and role scope understood |
| Source review | Statements, bills, receipts, and report access located |
| Sample work | One small batch prepared and reviewed |
| Question review | Coding and process uncertainties resolved or assigned |
| Handoff | Next week’s routine and open items documented |
The sequence is illustrative, not a promised five-day onboarding timetable. Access delays or a backlog may change the order.
Review a sample before scaling
Choose a small mix of transactions: a supplier bill, a shared purchase, a transfer, and a receipt with a missing job reference. Have the bookkeeper prepare the work and explain the questions raised. Review the result against the coding guide before moving a large backlog through the same process.
This is also a chance to discover that a rule is missing. If two project managers use different names for the same cost category, fix the instruction before treating the difference as a performance problem.
Leave a visible working list
End the first handoff with completed items, unresolved questions, next actions, and owners. The weekly desk worksheet provides a simple structure to keep that list useful after onboarding.
Keep a sample-work acceptance note
A useful onboarding sample leaves a record of what the reviewer checked. For each selected transaction, note the source document, intended job, proposed cost category, review decision and any instruction that needs updating. Do not score the sample simply by counting completed entries.
For example, a supplier bill with no delivery reference may be correctly left in the question queue. Posting it quickly to the supplier’s usual job would hide the missing fact. The review should distinguish an incomplete source packet from a misunderstanding of an established coding instruction. Once those questions are resolved, retain the accepted sample as a reference for the next handoff.
Sources and further reading
Source links provide background. The workflow and illustrative examples above are original educational material.