Accounting desk procedures template: document each finance workflow step by step

When CAS teams need desk procedures

Write a desk procedure whenever a recurring task lives in one person's memory. In client accounting services the usual moments are onboarding a new client, a staff change on the engagement, a move to a new system, preparation for an audit or due diligence, and standardizing the close across a client book.

A good procedure lets a qualified accountant who has never touched the client complete the task correctly. It also records how the client's finance work is actually done, which matters for controls and, as covered below, for whether the client's records have value beyond the engagement.

The desk procedure template

Copy one block per procedure and keep each procedure to a single task.

Sample procedure: vendor invoice processing

Illustrative, for a fictional client using a cloud accounting system and a shared payables inbox.

1. Each morning, move new invoices from the payables inbox into the automation queue.
2. Check vendor name, invoice number, date, amount and remit-to address; reject duplicates the system flags.
3. For inventory purchases, match to the purchase order and receiving record; for services, route to the budget owner named in the vendor record.
4. Code to the general ledger account and class from the vendor default, overriding only with a written note.
5. Confirm the budget owner's approval in the system; invoices above the client's threshold also need controller approval.
6. Post the bill and attach the invoice and approval evidence.
7. Verify any change to vendor bank details by phone with a known contact before posting, never by replying to the email that requested it.
8. Every Friday, run the aged payables report and send exceptions to the controller.

Adapting the template to each client

Review and update cadence

• After each month-end close, the preparer notes any step that changed.
• Each quarter, the reviewer folds those notes in and bumps the version.
• Before any system change goes live, rewrite the affected procedures.
• Once a year, the client's controller, CFO or owner signs off the full set.

Who owns the procedures your team writes

Settle ownership in the engagement letter. According to the Copyright Office's Circular 30, a work prepared by an employee within the scope of employment is a work made for hire owned by the employer, while a commissioned work from an outside party is a work made for hire only in listed categories and only when both parties agree in a signed writing. Procedures your firm's staff write for a client may therefore belong to your firm unless the engagement letter assigns or licenses them. Say which it is, so the client can keep using them after the engagement ends. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel before acting.

What never goes in a desk procedure

• Passwords, MFA codes, or full bank and card numbers.
• Screenshots showing Social Security numbers, customer personal data or payroll detail.
• Vendor bank details beyond the last four digits.
• Confidential client figures the task does not need.

The same discipline applies if a client turns out to be a licensing candidate. You describe fit in general terms and never send procedures, records or screenshots to SourceX or anyone else, and nothing you write to the client should promise a payment or type out a reward amount.

Why procedures plus records signal a licensing candidate

A desk procedure describes a multi-step task; the ledger, the payables queue and the approval history show that task performed thousands of times, each with an outcome. AI developers building agents for finance and back-office work need that pairing of documented workflow and real records, and it rarely exists in public. Clients with years of procedures and matching transaction history across several systems are stronger candidates to license data through SourceX.

For a CAS client the screen runs like this: the client is a US business that has had 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded); its ledger and procedures cover several years, not one; the transactions and documents are its own to license; and the owner, CEO or CFO would sponsor the decision as an authorized signer. The company fit checker is a quick, non-binding first pass that asks for no contact details, and who qualifies has the detail. If you also build the client's IT budget template, its system list shows where the matching records sit.

CAS practices sit inside CPA firms, so check referral-fee rules before anything else. Some states adopt the AICPA provisions on commissions and referral fees by reference, as Kansas does in K.A.R. 74-5-103, while others set CPA referral-fee rules in statute, as Florida does in section 473.3205 (the linked page is the 2017 text, so check the current version). Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company, and rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee. The guide to CAS growth at Top 100 accounting firms and the fractional CFO partner page cover how advisory teams approach introductions.

Next step

Write the first three procedures for your largest CAS client this month, then ask whether the client fits. If it does, register as a partner and introduce the owner, or have them apply at sourcex.si/apply.