The details everyone relies on
Your practice tool holds each client's company number, year end, VAT number and scheme, registered address, directors, main contact and email. Deadlines, letters and reminders all run from it. It was accurate on the day each client joined.
Since then, one client moved their year end. Another changed their registered office. A director resigned. A finance assistant joined and became the person who actually answers your emails. Nobody updated the record, and your reminders went to the wrong person about the wrong date.
Why client records drift
Clients rarely tell you about changes they do not think concern you. Some changes happen through other advisers, such as a year end moved by the accountant. Others are visible in public registers that nobody at the firm checks. And even when a bookkeeper hears about a change, updating the record is a separate step in a separate system that is easy to skip.
The ledger often knows more than the practice tool. The VAT scheme in Xero, the contact who logs in most, the address on recent invoices: all of these can differ from what your records say.
What wrong details cost
Deadlines calculated from the wrong year end or VAT period. Letters and reminders sent to people who have left. Engagement letters and AML records naming the wrong officers. Staff time spent on corrections after something has already gone wrong. And a quiet loss of trust in the practice records, so staff start keeping their own notes instead.
| Detail | Where to check it | What goes wrong if stale |
|---|---|---|
| Year end | Companies House | Deadlines and workload plans wrong |
| Officers and PSCs | Companies House | Letters and AML records wrong |
| VAT registration and period | HMRC, where you are agent | Returns tracked on wrong dates |
| Registered address | Companies House | Filings and letters wrong |
| Main contact | Ledger and email activity | Requests go to the wrong person |
How we build client record checks
- We read your client list from your practice tool, such as Xero Practice Manager or Karbon, through its API.
- For company clients, we compare each record with Companies House data: year end, registered office, officers and persons with significant control, and watch for new filings.
- Where you act as agent, we compare VAT details with HMRC's data, and elsewhere with the VAT settings in the client's ledger.
- We look at recent activity, such as who emails you and who approves things, to suggest when the main contact seems to have changed.
- Differences appear in a weekly list with both values side by side. A person confirms which is right, and the system updates the practice record in one click.
- Confirmed changes trigger the follow-on steps you choose, such as recalculating deadlines, flagging an engagement letter, or prompting an AML review.
Nothing in your records changes without a person confirming it, because public data can lag or be wrong too.
The first run usually throws up a long list, because it catches years of drift at once. We sort it by what matters most, such as year ends and VAT periods that drive deadlines, so the team can fix the important differences first and work through contact details over the following weeks.
Records you can trust again
Your practice data stays close to reality without anyone doing a big annual clean-up. Deadlines move when year ends move. Letters go to the right people. Staff stop keeping private notes because the shared record is accurate. And changes at a client prompt the right follow-up in the rest of your processes.
Could your records be stale?
- You have sent reminders to contacts who left the client.
- A client's year end changed and your deadlines did not.
- Directors on your records differ from Companies House.
- Staff keep their own notes because the practice tool is unreliable.
- Nobody has checked client records against public data in years.