--- title: "Bookkeeping subcontractor agreement | Ledgerbrook" source: https://ledgerbrook.com/bookkeeping-subcontractor-agreement/ description: "The ten clauses a bookkeeping subcontractor agreement contains, and seven things to check before a client file changes hands." --- [Ledgerbrook](/) / Subcontractor agreement # What to check before subcontracting a client file Seven things to ask any bookkeeping subcontractor before a client's file goes to them, phrased as what a good answer looks like instead of a contract to copy. The checklist ## Seven things to confirm Is the fee fixed and published, and is delivery scheduled to a date? Settled: Engagement terms Is the subcontractor barred, in writing, from contacting or taking your client? Settled: Non-solicitation Do they work inside the client's own QuickBooks file, or does it move? Settled: Access model Does the subcontractor's name appear anywhere the client can see it? Settled: What the client sees When the client has a question, who do they hear from? Settled: Who answers the client What comes back to you if the relationship ends, and from where? Settled: End of engagement Whose NDA governs the engagement: theirs, or yours? Settled: Confidentiality 1\. Engagement terms ## Is the fee fixed before you commit? Ask whether the fee is published and flat per file, or quoted after you've already sent the client's file. The second version is a number that can move once you're committed. Ask the same of delivery: a subcontractor working in scheduled batches against a delivery date can tell you before you commit whether they can hit yours; one accepting work open-endedly usually can't. 2\. Non-solicitation ## Will they ever contact your client directly? Get it in writing, not a verbal assurance: no contact with the client outside the engagement, no marketing to them, and no direct engagement with them, including after your firm's relationship with the client ends. A subcontractor who also sells direct to small businesses isn't automatically a conflict, but one who won't wall off your client list from that direct business permanently is. 3\. Access model ## Does the file ever leave the client's own QuickBooks company? It shouldn't. The access model to look for is an accountant-level user added to the client's own QuickBooks Online file, which is enough to categorize, reconcile and run reports and not enough to touch billing or delete the company, with the role visible in the client's own user list and revocable by your firm at any time, without asking the subcontractor. 4\. What the client sees ## Does the subcontractor's name appear anywhere? Check the deliverables, not just the sales pitch: reports, working papers and any summary should come back unbranded, with no logo, footer or signature block. The one exception worth allowing is a genuine emergency needing the client's own action, and even then, your firm should decide whether the message comes from you or from the subcontractor with your firm named as the reason, not have that decided for you. 5\. Who answers the client ## When the client has a question, who hears it? Your firm should. A flagged question about the file comes back to you, and your firm decides what reaches the client and how, not the subcontractor deciding whether to answer the client themselves. 6\. End of engagement ## What comes back to you if the relationship ends? Ask where working papers actually live during the engagement, not just what's promised at the end. If documents stay in the client's own QuickBooks file or in a folder your firm already controls, there's nothing held in a separate archive to hand back, which is a safer answer than a subcontractor promising to return files they held somewhere of their own. 7\. Confidentiality ## Whose NDA governs the work? Prefer signing your firm's own NDA over the subcontractor's boilerplate. Your firm is the one accountable to the client for the confidentiality of their records, so the terms should be the ones your firm wrote, not ones handed to you to accept. In the document itself ## What a subcontractor agreement actually contains The seven questions above are what to ask. A written agreement is where the answers end up, and it usually carries ten clauses. The first six are the checklist in contract language; the last four are the ones a firm reading a subcontractor's boilerplate is most likely to skim past. Which files, which months, and what counts as finished Settled: Scope of work The figure, what triggers it, and when it is due Settled: Fees and payment terms No contact, no marketing, no direct engagement, during and after Settled: Non-solicitation Whose NDA governs, and how long it survives the engagement Settled: Confidentiality The named access model, and who can revoke it Settled: Access and systems Who owns the working papers, and where they live meanwhile Settled: Work product States plainly that this is not employment: no benefits, no withholding, their own tools Settled: Independent contractor status Notice period, what happens to work in progress, and what a closed month means Settled: Term and termination How client records are stored and transmitted, and who is told if that fails Settled: Data protection What each side is answerable for, capped how, under which state's law Settled: Liability and governing law Two of those are worth slowing down on. **Independent contractor status** is boilerplate that stops being boilerplate if the arrangement looks like employment in practice. A subcontractor working set hours under the firm's direction on the firm's equipment is a classification question regardless of what the document says.**Data protection** is the clause most often missing entirely: ask what happens if the subcontractor has a breach, how quickly your firm hears about it, and whether that is written down or assumed. Your firm is the one that has to tell the client either way. Ledgerbrook Extra QuickBooks capacity, under your firm's name Monthly close From $99 a client file a month Cleanup or catch-up $99 per month of backlog, 20% off 6+ months Year-end handoff pack $199 a client, one-time [Get a free file review](/contact/?from=bookkeeping-subcontractor-agreement) Free, no card. A written answer within about 48 hours. [See every price](/pricing/) Certified - [![Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 1](/_astro/level-1.BokmyvzE_Z2cyGo6.webp)](https://www.credly.com/badges/7ceaf1c4-83da-4a1b-b19f-7e15cb5c0ac7/public_url "Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 1. Verify on Credly.") - [![Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2](/_astro/level-2.D-GWLUNI_Z1Sh5RD.webp)](https://www.credly.com/badges/02426568-00bb-46e1-a939-9063497c54d6/public_url "Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2. Verify on Credly.") - [![Intuit Bookkeeping Certification](/_astro/bookkeeping.C82JE0Dn_Z1YzPBj.webp)](https://www.credly.com/badges/30b70ae2-e369-4a8b-9fee-d6db3a47b70c/public_url "Intuit Bookkeeping Certification. Verify on Credly.") - [![QuickBooks Online Payroll Certification](/_astro/payroll.r5Yo2XnL_VxspM.webp)](https://www.credly.com/badges/2fc8fb7d-90d1-43ba-961b-aff161fe8491/public_url "QuickBooks Online Payroll Certification. Verify on Credly.") Issued by Intuit, verified by Credly. Start ## Ready to send a file? See [how it works under your own name](/for-bookkeeping-firms/), with every figure on [the pricing page](/pricing/). What a white-label arrangement covers day to day is on [white-label bookkeeping services](/white-label-bookkeeping/). Still deciding whether to subcontract at all? See [when it makes sense](/subcontract-bookkeeping/). For the steps from scoping a file to delivering it, see [how to subcontract a QuickBooks cleanup](/blog/how-to-subcontract-a-quickbooks-cleanup/). Published August 12, 2026 ยท Updated September 28, 2026