Legal
Tax and payroll advisers
Hundreds of clients sending the same things every month, and always late.
An accountancy firm's problem is not complexity: it is that two hundred clients have to send the same things before the 15th, and thirty do not. Chasing those thirty consumes more time than doing the other two hundred's work.
The three modules
| What | Module | Rhythm |
|---|---|---|
| Each client's monthly or quarterly documents | Trackline | Recurring, with automatic reminders |
| Engagement letter and authority to represent | Consigne | At client onboarding |
| What was filed on time | SmartCheck | On filing, where it may be disputed later |
Important
An engagement letter signed before starting avoids the sector's commonest scope dispute: what the retainer covered and what it did not. Signing it is faster than arguing about it on the first extra invoice.
Frameworks cited
Client identification duties under anti-money-laundering rules, data protection when handling third parties' information, and — depending on the service — authority to act before the authorities. Specific identification and retention requirements depend on your activity and professional body; confirm them with your adviser.
Watch out
A firm holds documents for clients who compete with each other, and often personal data about their staff. One team per client is not internal tidiness: it is what stops an account manager seeing a competitor's material.
What gives back the most time
Recurrence. A scheduled monthly request with reminders at days 3, 7 and 12 turns "chase thirty" into "phone four". It is the same work repeated twelve times a year: that is where automation pays most.
Worth knowing
When a client leaves, being able to hand over their whole file with its dates in one download says more about your firm than any sales argument. And some come back.
›Can I give the client access to their own?
Yes, read-only and scoped to their case.
›Does it serve for the identification file?
Documents are requested and kept like the rest, with their dates and expiries.
›What about clients who send everything by WhatsApp?
You can request there, but the document ends up in the case, not on an adviser's phone.
A real case
The situation
A firm with 180 clients spends the first week of each month chasing documents.
What you do
- Schedules the monthly request with automatic reminders
- Filters for who has not delivered by the 10th
What you get
Goes from chasing thirty to phoning four, and gets back a week a month.
The situation
Chasing clients for their papers takes up the month.
What you do
- Requests and chases automatically
What you get
The team reviews instead of nagging.
The situation
A client asks what they are missing and it has to be checked by hand.
What you do
- Shows them their own outstanding list
What you get
They answer without a phone call.
The situation
A client's documentation lives in the inbox of whoever handles them.
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 leaves and their material must be handed over.
What you do
- Checks their complete file
What you get
The handover is prepared in hours.
The situation
Every close-out chases the same things from the same clients.
What you do
- Reuses the process from one period to the next
What you get
The second close costs a fraction.
This article answers
- request documents from accountancy clients
- collect payslips and invoices monthly
- clients who send documents late
- accountancy client document management