---
id: KB-CS-009
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/legal/law-and-accountancy-firms-client-documents
idioma: en
categoria: sector-legal
subcategoria: despachos
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CS-005, KB-CO-012]
citadoPor: [KB-CS-022, KB-LE-001]
---

# Law and accountancy firms: client paperwork

_Requesting it, keeping it findable, and handing it back whole when the time comes._

**Responde a:** request documents from clients law firm · accountancy client document management · hand over the file when a client leaves · engagement letter signing

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.

> [!WARNING]
> 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.

> [!NOTE]
> 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.

## Ejemplos

**An accountancy firm loses a twelve-year client who asks for their whole file.**

- Downloads the complete file with its dates
- Hands it over in two days

→ The client returns eighteen months later, and says so: it was the way they were let go.

**The client sends their papers through four channels.**

- Agrees a single delivery channel

→ Deliveries stop getting lost.

**A client asks what they are missing.**

- Shows them their own outstanding list

→ They answer without a phone call.

**The documentation lives in the inbox of whoever handles the client.**

- Gathers the file in a shared place

→ The answer does not depend on who is in.

**A client document expires.**

- Records expiries per client

→ The warning arrives before it bites.

**A client leaves and asks for everything of theirs.**

- Checks their complete file

→ The handover is prepared in hours.