Month end, and half the clients have sent nothing
Your bookkeepers are ready to reconcile. Bank feeds are in, but there are unexplained transactions, missing receipts and a supplier statement nobody has. So the emails start: can you send receipts for these twelve items, can you tell us what this payment was for, did you issue an invoice to this customer. Some clients reply with a shoebox photo. Some reply to the wrong email. Some do not reply at all.
Every month the same clients are late, and every month the chasing starts from scratch.
Multiply it across the whole client list and it becomes a job in its own right, one nobody in the practice trained for or enjoys. Senior staff get pulled in when a client is badly behind, which means the most expensive people in the practice spend their time writing reminder emails.
Why the chase never ends
- Requests are written by hand each month, with the list pasted into an email.
- Clients cannot see a single list of what is outstanding, so they answer piecemeal.
- Reminders depend on the bookkeeper remembering to send them.
- Documents arrive through email, WhatsApp and file shares, and have to be matched to transactions by hand.
- The practice has no overall view of which clients are behind, so the worst cases are found late.
Clients are not being difficult on purpose. Most are busy and find the requests confusing or scattered. Making it easy to respond changes behaviour more than stern reminders do.
What chasing costs the practice
Bookkeeper time spent writing emails and matching documents rather than doing the work you bill for. Month-end deadlines slipping, which pushes VAT returns and management accounts close to their deadlines. Fixed-fee clients becoming unprofitable because the chasing is unbilled. And staff frustration, which is a real retention issue in practices.
| Item requested | Where the gap is detected | How the client responds |
|---|---|---|
| Missing receipts | Unreconciled bank lines in Xero or QuickBooks | Photo upload against each line |
| Unknown payments | Uncategorised transactions | Pick a category or add a note |
| Sales invoices | Deposits with no matching invoice | Upload or confirm details |
| Supplier statements | Checklist for the client | Upload in the portal |
| Payroll information | Monthly checklist | Form or upload |
How we automate the chasing
- We connect to Xero or QuickBooks through their APIs and read each client's unreconciled and uncategorised transactions.
- A per-client checklist is generated each month from that data, plus standing items you define for that client.
- Clients get an email or text with a link to their list, with no login required, where they can upload a photo of each receipt, add a note or pick a category against each line.
- Uploaded receipts are read by an extraction step and matched to the bank line, and where possible attached in Xero or QuickBooks, with bookkeepers checking the matches.
- Reminders go out on a schedule you choose, only for items still outstanding, and escalate to a named person in the practice when a client stays behind.
- A practice dashboard shows every client's outstanding items and status, so managers can see who is behind and who needs a call.
If you already use Dext, AutoEntry or a practice management tool such as Karbon or Senta, we connect to them rather than duplicate what they do. The gap we usually fill is the client-specific request list and the chasing.
What month end looks like after
Requests go out automatically, specific to each client, with a simple way to respond from a phone. Receipts arrive attached to the right transaction. Bookkeepers open a list of what is still missing rather than building one. Managers see which clients are chronically late, which becomes a conversation about fees or service level rather than another month of chasing.
Is this your practice?
- Bookkeepers write chasing emails by hand every month.
- Clients send documents through several channels.
- You cannot see at a glance which clients owe what.
- The same clients are late every month.
- Fixed-fee clients cost more than they should because of chasing time.