A W-9 collection workflow bookkeepers can run before 1099 season

Use Form W-9 so a U.S. person can give the correct taxpayer identification number to the person who must file an information return. About Form W-9 lists examples that include income paid to the vendor. Request the form before the first payment when practical, not in January when the 1099 list is already late. (About Form W-9)

The Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9 say to use Form W-9 to request the TIN of a U.S. person (including a resident alien) and to request certain certifications and claims for exemption. Advise foreign persons to use the appropriate Form W-8 or Form 8233. A signed W-9 is how the requester documents U.S. status for that payee. (Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9)

Put new vendors on the tracker the same week the client (or you) sets them up to pay. A vendor with no W-9 is not ready for 1099. That row stays open until the form is in the file or you have documented why this payee is not a 1099 candidate.

Publication 4557 tells tax professionals to limit access to taxpayer data to people who need to know, to implement multi factor authentication for anyone accessing customer information, and to encrypt sensitive files and email that carry personally identifiable information. A W-9 carries a name and a TIN. Collect it in the portal you already require for other client files. (Publication 4557)

The Taxes Security Together checklist from the IRS, state tax agencies, and the Security Summit puts two factor authentication on the Security Six when a product offers it. Use that as the reason you do not accept a W-9 as an unencrypted email attachment when the portal is available. (Taxes Security Together checklist)

The requester instructions allow an electronic system for payees to submit Forms W-9, including by fax, if that system meets the listed requirements (the information received is the information sent, the person submitting is the person identified, a hard copy can be supplied, and the final entry is an electronic signature under penalties of perjury with the paper form language). Prefer your portal if it already meets how you collect other signed tax forms. How to pick and cut over a portal is the secure client portal guide. (Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9)

Have counsel review this letter before you send it. It is a request for Form W-9, not tax advice and not a substitute for the Form W-9 instructions.

One named request, then chase only the vendors still blank. Copy the same discipline you use for receipts.

The receipt sequence this mirrors is chasing bookkeeping receipts. Do not start a new thread for every nudge. Reply in the same portal request or the same email thread so the vendor sees one list.

This is a completeness pass against the current Form W-9 and the requester instructions. It is not IRS TIN matching, and it is not a legal determination that backup withholding applies. The requester instructions describe IRS TIN matching e-services for certain payors. Do not treat a visual check as a match. (Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9, Form W-9 PDF)

• Name on line 1 is a legal name, not a nickname. For a disregarded entity, the requester instructions say the owner's name goes on line 1 and the disregarded entity's name on line 2.
• TIN is present in Part I and the type is visible (SSN, EIN, or ITIN) from how it is entered.
• Line 3a federal tax classification is checked. An LLC that is not disregarded has the extra classification the current form asks for.
• Part II is signed. The certification is how the payee certifies the TIN and the backup withholding statements on the form.
• Look at the backup withholding language on the form so you know the checkbox and certification exist. If the payee is already under backup withholding, the requester instructions say you must instruct them to strike the underreporting sentence. Do not invent a withholding rate or a match rule here.
• If the payee wrote Applied For in Part I, the requester instructions treat that as an awaiting TIN certificate with its own backup withholding timing. Flag the row. Do not guess the days.

Foreign payees do not belong on this W-9 tracker. Move them to a W-8 row and have a person who does that work look at it. Recurring CAS work around vendors sits in what a CAS firm can automate per client.

Ready for 1099 means the W-9 is in the file, the name and TIN type are filled, and the vendor is on the 1099 season worksheet with the same legal name. A missing W-9 stays a W-9 problem. Do not hide it inside a 1099 amount column.

The tax season operator can draft the named chase when a vendor row is still blank. Your staff approve what goes out. Your CPA reviews and signs every return. Nobody here files the 1099 from a draft engine.

Download the W-9 vendor tracker. Copy the letter above into your portal template after counsel reviews it. Columns are sent, reminded, received, TIN type, and ready for 1099.