PBC list template

A PBC list — "prepared by client" or "provided by client" — is the request list an auditor sends before fieldwork: every schedule, statement and contract the client has to produce, grouped by account area, with an owner and a due date for each. The list itself is the easy half. The half that slows audits down is how the files come back.

Every firm has its own template, but they all have the same bones. Items are grouped by the area of the financial statements they support, so the client's controller can hand whole sections to the person who holds them, and so the audit team can see at a glance which areas are still waiting.

The builder above gives you the first two columns. "Copy for a spreadsheet" pastes straight into Excel or Google Sheets with the owner, due and status columns empty and waiting.

1. 01Send it early. Two to three weeks before fieldwork is the usual target; a list that arrives on the first day of fieldwork is a list of delays.
2. 02Trim it to this client. An item that does not apply is not neutral — it makes the client wonder what they are missing. Untick it.
3. 03Name an owner for each section. The controller forwards sections; a section with no owner stays in the controller's inbox.
4. 04Give every item one destination. If the list says what to send but not where, the answer is email attachments, and you rebuild the list from a thread.
5. 05Agree on a status rhythm — a short call or one updated sheet per week — instead of chasing item by item.

The usual answer is "email them over", which works until the general ledger export is 60 MB, the bank statements arrive as fourteen separate messages, and the fixed asset register is attached to a reply about something else. Shared folders fix the size limit but need the client to have the right account and the right permission, and nobody files into them the way you would.

Drive File Request gives the client one upload link for the whole engagement. They open it without an account, choose what each file is from a short list, and upload. The files land in your own Google Drive, and each answer can route to its own folder — the bank statements in Cash, the payroll register in Payroll — so the audit file assembles itself as the documents arrive.

To set it up, create a link, add a dropdown question such as "Which area is this for?", and add a folder rule per answer. You get an email when something arrives. A link can be password-protected or limited to the client's email domain, and closed when fieldwork ends — the details are on the secure file upload portal page.

• Review engagement: fewer items than an audit. Keep General, Cash, Receivables, Payables and Revenue; most of the detail testing items fall away.
• Compilation or year-end close: the bookkeeping version of the list — statements, reconciliations, payroll and the items the books are missing.
• First-year audit: add the prior auditor's report, opening balance support and the documents for any account the predecessor did not test.
• Tax engagement: switch on the Tax section, or use the tax preparer checklist for individual returns.

To send the list itself, the document request email templates have a first request, a follow-up and a final reminder you can paste the list into.