Legal
Law and accountancy firms: client paperwork
Requesting it, keeping it findable, and handing it back whole when the time comes.
A firm lives on other people's paperwork: it requests it, keeps it, uses it and one day gives it back. All three moments have friction, and the last one leaves the worst impression when it goes badly.
Requesting it
Each type of engagement always needs the same things. Built as a process, the client receives the list and works through it, instead of an email chain where nobody knows what is outstanding.
Keeping it
Organised by client, not by year or by who uploaded it. That is how people ask for it: nobody phones asking for "the 2024 stuff".
Giving it back
When a client leaves — and some do — being able to hand over their whole file with its dates in one download says more about your firm than any brochure. The alternative, two weeks gathering paper, is remembered badly.
| Moment | What usually fails | What avoids it |
|---|---|---|
| New engagement | An email chain with no view of what is missing | A process per engagement type |
| During | Documents sitting in a partner's inbox | Having them in the client's case |
| Client leaves | Two weeks gathering | One download |
Important
Client documentation belongs to the client. Withholding it or delaying its return over an unpaid invoice is delicate ground; check with your professional body before doing it, not after.
Watch out
A firm holds documents for clients who compete with each other. Scoping each case to whoever handles that client is not internal bureaucracy: it is what prevents a serious problem.
Worth knowing
An engagement letter signed electronically before work starts avoids the sector's commonest scope dispute.
›Can I give the client access to their own?
Yes, read-only and only to their case.
›Does it serve for anti-money-laundering files?
Identification documents are requested and kept like everything else, with their dates.
›What if the client sends everything by WhatsApp?
You can request there too, but the document ends up in the case, not on someone's phone.
A real case
The situation
An accountancy firm loses a twelve-year client who asks for their whole file.
What you do
- Downloads the complete file with its dates
- Hands it over in two days
What you get
The client returns eighteen months later, and says so: it was the way they were let go.
The situation
The client sends their papers through four channels.
What you do
- Agrees a single delivery channel
What you get
Deliveries stop getting lost.
The situation
A client asks what they are missing.
What you do
- Shows them their own outstanding list
What you get
They answer without a phone call.
The situation
The documentation lives in the inbox of whoever handles the client.
What you do
- Gathers the file in a shared place
What you get
The answer does not depend on who is in.
The situation
A client document expires.
What you do
- Records expiries per client
What you get
The warning arrives before it bites.
The situation
A client leaves and asks for everything of theirs.
What you do
- Checks their complete file
What you get
The handover is prepared in hours.
This article answers
- request documents from clients law firm
- accountancy client document management
- hand over the file when a client leaves
- engagement letter signing