Backed by Y CombinatorThree documents and three sheets that track every access grant a departed client's file leaves open, not just the letter and the invoice.
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What you get
Pack of 6 files: 3 documents, 3 spreadsheets
Client Offboarding Checklist PackAccess Revocation Log
Marrowgate Millwork. Offboarded 2024-03-15. Audited 2026-09-01.
| System | Status | Days |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | Revoked | 5 |
| IRS Form 2848 | OPEN | 900 |
| Bank Feed | OPEN | 900 |
The firm's own system closed in five days. The two systems it never has to open to keep working are still open 900 days later.
Every offboarding checklist on page one covers the same three moves: send the disengagement letter, collect the final invoice, and return the client's records. All three close on their own within days of the paperwork clearing. None asks what else the engagement granted and never took back: a QuickBooks Online login, an IRS Form 2848 authorization, a read-only bank feed connection. A client onboarding and books diagnostic counts what a new client's file contains before quoting it. This pack counts what a departing client's file still leaves open after the invoice is closed.
Kettridge & Sable ran that count against nine of its own closed files. Every one had its QuickBooks Online access removed within ten days, its own system and a reflex to close. Six of the nine still carry an open IRS authorization, averaging 809 days, 2.2 years, past the file's close date, the oldest run 1,198 days, 3.3 years. Seven of the nine still have an open bank feed or payroll admin grant. Across eighteen external grants checked, thirteen, 72.2 percent, were still open, and only two files were actually clean.
An access grant does not close on its own. Waiting on the IRS is not a plan: an authorization purges automatically only seven years after the taxpayer's signature date. Marrowgate Millwork's, open 900 days, still has roughly four and a half years left to run. The Access Revocation Log tracks every grant to a confirmed removal, never a request. The Retention Schedule runs a separate clock for how long the firm keeps its own copies of records; a closed access row and a record inside its retention window are not the same fact.
Offboarding LetterOffboarding Letter
Kettridge & Sable. Sent 2024-03-15, the effective date of termination.
This letter confirms that, as of March 15, 2024, Kettridge & Sable will no longer provide monthly bookkeeping, quarterly compiled financial statements, or business tax return preparation to Marrowgate Millwork.
Three items require action beyond returning files: our staff access to your QuickBooks Online company file, our IRS Form 2848 authorization, and our read access to your operating account bank feed. Each is logged on this file's Access Revocation Log and tracked to a confirmed revocation date, not just to this letter's promise that it will happen.
Sincerely, Kettridge & Sable.
Access Revocation LogKettridge & Sable. Nine closed files, audited 2026-09-01.
| Client | QuickBooks | IRS Form 2848 | Bank / Payroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marrowgate Millwork | Revoked, 5d | OPEN, 900d | OPEN, 900d |
| Costerfield Logistics | Revoked, 4d | Revoked, 9d | OPEN, 1035d |
| Tamblin Auto Group | Revoked, 7d | OPEN, 589d | OPEN, 589d |
| Pemberton Rail Supply | Revoked, 3d | Revoked, 12d | Revoked, 20d |
| Selby Ridge Dental | Revoked, 6d | OPEN, 453d | OPEN, 453d |
| Alder Creek Veterinary | Revoked, 10d | OPEN, 1079d | OPEN, 1079d |
| Renfrow Bakery | Revoked, 8d | Revoked, 14d | Revoked, 25d |
| Hazelmoor Landscaping | Revoked, 5d | OPEN, 635d | OPEN, 635d |
| Brackfield Realty Group | Revoked, 9d | OPEN, 1198d | OPEN, 1198d |
Every QuickBooks column reads Revoked in single-digit days. Six of nine IRS columns and seven of nine Bank/Payroll columns still read OPEN, three of them past three years.
Retention ScheduleFirm-wide policy. Purge review dates set from Marrowgate Millwork's 2024-03-15 termination.
| Record Category | Retention | Purge Review |
|---|---|---|
| Client-provided source records | 7 years | 2031-03-15 |
| Compiled financial statements | 7 years | 2031-03-15 |
| Tax returns and workpapers | 7 years | 2031-03-15 |
| Engagement correspondence | 7 years | 2031-03-15 |
| System and authorization access | Revoked, not retained | See Access Revocation Log |
Retention and revocation run on separate clocks. A record can sit safely inside its seven-year window while the access grant behind it should already be closed.
What is finished and what is not, the final invoice, and a plain statement that every access grant is tracked to a confirmed close, not promised by this letter alone.
Split by ownership: client-provided records go back regardless of the invoice; firm-prepared items are made available on their own timeline, each with a confirmed receipt.
The firm's own internal record of why the relationship ended, what it would repeat, and the one rule that decides whether the file is actually allowed to close.
Every client rolled into one sheet: letter sent, records transferred, invoice paid, access log clean, and whether the file is actually ready to archive.
Every QuickBooks, IRS authorization and bank or payroll grant, tracked from the offboarding date to a confirmed revocation or flagged OPEN until one exists.
How long the firm keeps its own copies of records, on a separate clock from the access log, so nobody confuses a retention window with a revocation.
Take the blank Word and CSV files now, no account required, or open this pack in River and have the agent build the inventory from the engagement record.
Not a generic checklist. Ask what this specific engagement actually touched, from the portal login to the IRS authorization, before assuming a typical list.
Log every removal request, then confirm it through the system's own record, an admin panel export or a refused login, never an email reply alone.
Apply the rule this pack runs on: no file archives while a single row on its Access Revocation Log reads anything other than Revoked.
Yes. Download the whole pack as Word documents and CSV sheets with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path for firms that want the agent to build the access inventory and track it from a real engagement record. The template library holds the rest of the packs.
Word documents (.docx) for the three narrative documents and CSV (.csv) for the three sheets, zipped into one file. They open natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets, with nothing to convert before use.
An onboarding checklist and diagnostic scope a new engagement before quoting it. This pack runs the opposite end: closing an engagement that already existed, including the access it granted along the way, and tracking each grant to a confirmed removal rather than assuming a signed letter covered it.
Because it does not expire on its own. A practitioner authorization stays active until it is withdrawn, and the IRS's own guidance confirms it is otherwise purged only seven years from the taxpayer's signature date. That is why a firm's own periodic self-check catches authorizations nobody remembered to close.
There is no single mandated period. Journal of Accountancy's retention guide notes the period depends on service type and jurisdiction, and recommends firms pick the longest period that applies and use it uniformly rather than tracking each record type apart.
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. It opens ready to read the engagement letter you send it, along with whatever you know about the firm's access into that client's systems. From that, it builds the access inventory the same way the worked example does.
Accounting and bookkeeping firms ending a client relationship, whether the engagement was monthly write-up, a fractional CFO retainer, or a quarterly advisory review. Any of the three can end, and each one accumulates its own access along the way.
Written by
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build your access inventory from the engagement record.
Edit with AI