Accounting Client Intake Form Template

Use this accounting client form template to collect each client’s details, then show only the questions for their entity type. The shared questions stay the same. Separate sections cover individuals, businesses, trusts and other entities without sending every client the whole form.

Questions Every New Client Answers

Start the new client form with the entity type and the services wanted. Collect personal details for people and legal entity details for organisations.

Copy these field labels into your form. Ask the client to add another entity when they need services for more than one.

• Entity type: individual, sole trader, partnership, company, trust, SMSF, deceased estate or not-for-profit.
• Legal name of the person or entity.
• Preferred name for each person.
• Date of birth for each person whose details you need.
• Email address and phone number.
• Residential address for people, business address for organisations and postal address if different.
• Main contact, their role and their authority to instruct the practice.
• Services wanted and any deadlines already known.
• Previous accountant’s contact details and permission to request the relevant records.
• Which records will you send, and which does your previous accountant hold?

Show the privacy notice before these fields. Put the TFN explanation beside the TFN field as well. Make an individual’s TFN optional and give them a way to arrange another secure collection method.

The TFN wording must state the collection authority, purpose, voluntary quotation and consequences of refusal. The OAIC’s TFN guidance sets out those requirements.

For an authorised tax engagement, adapt this wording to the services your practice actually provides:

We request your TFN to manage the tax affairs you engage us to handle under the Taxation Administration Act 1953. Quoting your TFN is not compulsory. Refusing to provide it is not an offence. If you do not provide it, we will discuss another secure way to obtain it or explain which requested services we cannot complete.

A client declining this form field has not necessarily refused to provide their TFN altogether. Record their choice and agree the next step. Keep identity verification separate from collecting their tax identifier.

Use the accounting client onboarding checklist for the acceptance and engagement steps around this form.

Individuals and Sole Traders

An individual’s section collects the personal tax details needed for the services they request. A sole trader completes that section plus a business section.

For individuals, use these questions:

• What is your TFN, or would you prefer another secure collection method?
• Do you have a spouse? If so, give their name and the spouse details needed for your tax work.
• Do you have dependants? Give the details relevant to the services requested.
• Do you have private health insurance? Give the insurer and policy details.
• Do you have a study or training loan debt?
• What types of income do you receive?
• For refunds, give the account name, BSB and account number through the secure bank details section.

Collect income categories here, such as employment, investments, rental property or business income. Keep the yearly evidence list in the separate tax return checklist.

For sole traders, add these questions:

• What is your ABN and registered business name?
• What industry do you work in, and what does the business do?
• Are you registered for GST? If so, what is your reporting frequency?
• What accounting basis do you use for GST, and how are the business accounts kept?
• Do you employ staff, and do you need payroll services?

Ask whether the spouse also wants to become a client. If yes, create their own personal section in the same request. Prefill shared address details for confirmation and let the spouse supply their own private answers. A spouse’s details for one person’s tax return do not create a separate engagement automatically.

Companies and Their Directors

A company’s section must identify the company separately from its directors and the person who instructs you.

Use these company fields:

• Legal company name, ACN and ABN.
• Company TFN for the authorised tax work.
• Registered office and principal place of business.
• Main contact and evidence of their authority.
• Each director’s legal name and relevant personal details.
• Each shareholder’s name, share class and holding.
• Public officer’s name and contact details.
• Will you appoint the practice as the company’s ASIC registered agent?
• If yes, provide the corporate key through the secure form section.

Ask each director for their director ID. Under ABRS guidance on managing a director ID, they can sign in to ABRS using myID. The number appears on the Home screen, and they can download a copy. A director who applied by phone or paper can also look for the original notification in their myGov inbox or postal letter.

Keep the corporate key and director ID as separate fields. The corporate key belongs to the company’s registry dealings. A director ID belongs to the individual director.

Request a current company extract to compare the supplied company details with the register. Collect the client’s authority separately instead of assuming a director’s name establishes who may instruct you.

Trusts and Trustees

A trust’s section needs both the trust’s details and the current trustee’s details. A trust name alone leaves the person or company acting as trustee unidentified.

Ask these questions:

• What is the trust’s name, ABN and TFN?
• Is it discretionary, unit, fixed or another type of trust?
• What is the date of the original deed?
• Who is the current appointor, if the deed provides for one?
• Who are the main beneficiaries, or the current unitholders for a unit trust?
• Have trustees, appointors or other deed terms changed?
• Has a family trust election or interposed entity election been made? If yes, upload a copy.
• Is the current trustee an individual or a company?

For individual trustees, repeat the personal-details block for each trustee. For a corporate trustee, collect the company fields and its directors. Identify the trustee’s role so the corporate trustee and the trust remain separate records.

For a fictional example, a discretionary trust has a company as its trustee. The form needs a trust section and a company-trustee section. It does not need a second trust section for the company.

Use the corporate trustee and individual trustee guide when the client cannot identify their trustee type. Request the deed and all amendments so you can confirm the answer against the documents.

Partnerships, Smsfs and Deceased Estates

These entities need questions about their partners, trustees or executor. Their contacts and legal roles differ from an ordinary company’s.

For a partnership, collect these details:

• Partnership name, ABN and TFN.
• Each partner’s name and entity type.
• Each partner’s agreed share and the basis for that share.
• Current partnership agreement and any amendments.
• Contact authorised to instruct the practice.

For an SMSF, collect these details:

• Fund name, ABN and TFN.
• Individual trustees, or corporate trustee details and its directors.
• Members and their relevant personal details.
• Electronic service address, messaging provider and whether the service supports the fund’s required messages.
• Main contact and the services requested.

An electronic service address is a messaging alias, not an ordinary email address. For electronic rollovers, the fund needs an active address that supports rollovers, subject to the ATO’s rollover requirements and exceptions. Ask what the fund needs before treating every messaging capability as compulsory.

For a deceased estate, collect these details:

• Deceased person’s legal name and date of death.
• Executor’s name, contact details and authority documents.
• Has probate been granted? Supply the grant when available.
• Last individual tax return and any outstanding tax matters.
• Estate TFN if issued, estate contact address and services wanted.

Keep the deceased person’s final return and the estate’s work as separate matters. The executor’s personal TFN is not a substitute for the estate’s TFN.

Documents to Request With the Form

Request each document once and connect it to every entity that uses it. A corporate trustee’s company extract can support its company record and the trust record.

Client or entity	Documents to request when relevant
Individuals and sole traders	Identity evidence through the chosen verification method, previous returns and notices of assessment
Company	Current company extract, relevant authority documents and previous returns
Trust	Executed deed, all amendments, trustee changes, election copies and previous returns
Partnership	Partnership agreement, amendments and previous returns
SMSF	Trust deed, trustee documents, previous returns and relevant fund records
Deceased estate	Death certificate, will, probate or other authority documents and the deceased’s last return
Association or other not-for-profit	Constitution or rules, incorporation details, tax endorsement records and minutes naming current office bearers

Send a secure upload link instead of requesting email attachments. Explain on the form where files are stored, which staff can access them and how the practice uses its providers. Collect only the identity evidence required by the verification method you use.

A tax return or notice of assessment can contain a TFN. Keep the whole document inside the secure collection channel. Record documents already held so clients do not upload them again.

The Privacy Notice at the Top of the Form

Put the collection notice before the client begins entering information. Its wording must describe your practice’s actual handling of the data.

The OAIC’s APP 5 guidance explains the notice requirements for practices covered by the Australian Privacy Principles. Use these notice fields to prepare your practice’s version:

Notice field	What your practice supplies
Practice identity	Legal name and contact details for privacy enquiries
Information collected	Client details, entity information, tax identifiers and relevant supporting documents
Collection circumstances	Information from the client, their authorised representative or previous accountant
Purpose and authority	Services the client requests and the applicable collection laws
Consequences of non-provision	Which services depend on the missing information and available alternatives
Usual disclosures	ATO and ASIC where relevant, plus nominated software providers, document providers and other actual recipients
Storage and overseas handling	The actual storage arrangements, likely overseas recipients and countries where practicable
Access, correction and complaints	How to obtain the privacy policy and contact the practice to request access, correction or raise a complaint

Use this starting clause for ordinary client details:

Our practice collects your contact details, entity information and supporting documents to assess and provide the services you request. We disclose relevant information to the ATO and, for company registry work, ASIC. Our privacy policy explains our service providers, storage arrangements and overseas disclosures. Contact our privacy contact to request access or correction, or to raise a complaint. If you do not provide information needed for a service, we will discuss the effect with you before proceeding.

Add the practice’s legal name, real contact details and privacy-policy link immediately beside that clause. Name any other usual recipients and add the actual storage disclosure. Put the separate TFN wording beside the relevant field.

The TFN Rule adds duties for anyone holding an individual’s TFN information, including a small practice. Its recipient definition does not depend on turnover. Access must be limited to staff who need the TFN for an authorised purpose. The rule also requires protection against loss and unauthorised use or disclosure.

The OAIC distinguishes individual TFNs from entity TFNs. The TFN Rule covers individuals’ TFN information. Other taxation restrictions still apply to entity TFNs. Do not treat a company or trust TFN as ordinary unrestricted contact information.

How Accounting Firms Turn the Template Into a Working Form

Choose a format that shows the right entity questions and prevents avoidable gaps before the form reaches staff.

Format	What the practice can do	What needs attention
PDF or Word form	Edit the wording and distribute a familiar document	Staff must find skipped answers, number errors and missing documents
General online form builder	Show conditional sections and require selected fields	The practice must configure entity rules, checks and secure file handling
Guided onboarding form	Adapt the questions and check answers as part of collection	The practice chooses the checks and reviews issues needing a staff decision

A PDF lets a client skip a trustee name or type a swapped digit in an ABN. A general online form can require an answer but still accept the wrong entity or an inconsistent answer. Write the rules around the meaning of the answer, not just whether the field contains text.

For example, a trust section needs a named trustee and the right trustee-details section. A GST-registered business needs the relevant reporting details. Use the ABN and TFN checking guide for the separate number-checking task.

Tax Genie’s guided client form shows the questions that apply to the client. Number and register checks catch errors during collection. After the client sends the form, cross-field and missing-document checks run before AI reviews the answers. Tax Genie removes every TFN before AI review.

Tax Genie emails fixable issues to the client and reopens only the affected sections on the same private link. Staff choose which checks run. This saves the practice time spent finding gaps and writing follow-up emails.

Staff can also request changes to specific sections. Corrections made by staff record who changed what and when. Alerts and replies reach the staff members working with that client.

This template suggests questions across a wider range of entities. Select the fields your practice needs when building its form. Tax Genie’s separate entity registration form collects setup details for the practice to lodge a registration. Keep that request distinct from collecting details for an existing client entity.

Explore AI client onboarding when you want collection and review in the same request.

Download the New Client Form

Copy the field lists on this page into Word or your form builder. You can also print the page or save it as a PDF through your browser’s print menu. The lists remain readable on the page so you can edit them without extracting text from an attachment.

Use this client instruction block at the top of your adapted form:

Complete the shared questions and the sections for each person or entity receiving services. Have your contact details, entity numbers and relevant documents ready. Use the secure upload link for files and the secure TFN field for tax numbers. Leave a note if you cannot find a detail. Tell us if another person or entity also needs our services.

If you tell clients how long completion takes, measure your own configured form first. Timing depends on their entity group and whether the required documents are ready.

Hide sections using this selection table:

Client type	Sections to show
Individual	Shared questions, personal details, relevant documents and privacy notice
Sole trader	Individual sections plus sole trader business questions
Company	Shared questions, company and director questions, relevant documents and privacy notice
Trust	Shared questions, trust questions and the selected trustee block, documents and privacy notice
Partnership	Shared questions, partnership questions and relevant partner details, documents and privacy notice
SMSF	Shared questions, fund questions and the selected trustee block, documents and privacy notice
Deceased estate	Shared questions, estate and executor questions, documents and privacy notice
Not-for-profit	Shared questions, association or other entity questions, documents and privacy notice

For a client group, combine the applicable sections and reuse confirmed shared contact details. Before sending the form, check that each entity has its own legal name and contact authority. Confirm that TFNs and uploads use the secure channel and the privacy notice matches the practice’s handling.

Clubs, Associations and Not-For-Profits

A club or not-for-profit needs questions about its legal entity, office bearers and tax position. Its name or not-for-profit purpose alone does not establish tax exemption.

Add these fields for an incorporated association or other not-for-profit:

• Legal name, entity type, ABN and relevant TFN.
• Incorporation number and state or territory regulator.
• Current office bearers and their roles.
• Main contact and public officer where applicable.
• Who may instruct the practice, with the supporting authority.
• Is the organisation registered with the ACNC?
• What income tax exemption or DGR endorsement does it hold?
• Does DGR endorsement cover the entity or a particular fund it operates?
• Is it registered for GST?

Request the constitution or rules and the latest minutes identifying office bearers. Compare incorporation details with the relevant state register and charity registration with the ACNC Charity Register. A charity register record does not replace the minutes showing who currently has authority to instruct you.

Use ABN Lookup to compare tax concessions and DGR endorsement. DGR status can apply to an entity or a particular fund. The ACNC explains that charity registration and tax endorsements are separate decisions.

Keep the client’s claimed status beside the supporting record. If the answer and register differ, resolve the difference before deciding the services and tax treatment. Then send only the sections and document requests that apply to that organisation.