To ensure merchant acquisition compliance, the invention enables creation of merchant selection criteria that are used to query a database of acquired merchants. A set of acquired merchants is randomly compiled based on the selection criteria and is entered into a workflow to determine compliance with a set of rules that are represented by a checklist. A checklist corresponding to the set of acquired merchants is retrieved. The set and the checklist are combined to create a case, which is assigned to a representative. The representative ensures that a merchant acquisition form for each merchant in the set complies with a checklist item. When a merchant acquisition form is found to be non-compliant, then it is either corrected by the representative (if the error is minor), or sent to an acquisition manager (when more substantive errors are found). The acquisition form is then corrected and the case is closed.