PingtailClient document follow-up workflow for small firms
Who follows up, when, in what words, and when to stop and pick up the phone. A step-by-step workflow for small accounting firms.
In most small firms, follow-up runs on one person's memory. Someone remembers that Bright Dental still owes the August card statement, or nobody does, and the close slips a week. The work itself is easy. It just has no owner, no timing and no agreed words, so it happens late or twice.
This is a client document follow-up workflow for bookkeeping and accounting firms of one to twenty people, and you can adopt it as written: who follows up, on which day, in what words, and when to stop writing and pick up the phone. Plain email and a spreadsheet are enough to run it.
How do small firms stop chasing clients for documents?
They replace memory with a fixed routine. Every request lists each document with its period and has one named owner. Files are opened on the day they arrive, so a wrong one goes back while the client still remembers sending it. Reminders go out on set days, name only what is missing, and stop after the third. Then somebody calls.
Missing file or wrong file: two different follow-ups
Follow-up is two jobs, not one. A missing file is a timing problem: the client has not got round to it. A wrong file is a communication problem, and it costs more, because both sides believe the job is done until someone opens the file.
For a missing file, the client acts next and you only keep time. The usual failure is a reminder that lists everything, including what was already sent.
For a wrong file (July instead of August, or pages 1 and 2 of 6), you act first: a fix note the same day, saying what arrived, what you need and where to find it. The usual failure is that nobody opens the file for two weeks. Why files arrive wrong, and how to catch them at upload, is in the wrong-document problem.
The client document follow-up workflow in five steps
Each step has an owner and a timing. The step that has neither is the one that gets skipped.
1. Send a request that cannot be misread
The request owner sends it, normally the person who does the client's books, on a fixed day such as the first working day of the month. Each item names the document, the account, the period and the format. Give a due date and say what depends on it. One item, written specifically enough:
Business checking account ending 4471. The full monthly statement for 1 to 31 August, as the PDF from online banking (Statements, then August). Please send all pages. A list of transactions or a screenshot is not enough.
2. Open every file the day it arrives
The reviewer does this within one working day. In a firm of one or two, the reviewer is the request owner. Check four things: right account, right period, all pages, readable. Then mark the item as received, or send it back the same day with a note like this:
Thank you for the statement. The one you sent covers July, and we need August (1 to 31 August). In online banking, open Statements and choose August.
3. Remind about open items only, on fixed days
The request owner sends the reminders, or a tool does it for them. Never two people. They go on day 3, 7 and 12 after the request went out, on working days.
Every reminder thanks the client for what has arrived and lists only what is still open. Day 3 is friendly. Day 7 states the effect on the delivery date. Day 12 says a call is next. Full wording is in the email templates for missing client documents; the short version:
Thanks, we have the checking statement and the payroll report. Two items are still open: the August card statement (card ending 1008) and the loan statement. If they reach us by [date], your August books will be ready by [date].
4. Stop writing and call
One or two working days after the last reminder, the request owner calls. If the client has not opened a single message, the partner or whoever holds the relationship calls instead. A call finds out what email cannot: the contact has left, the client has no online banking login, or the account was closed.
Hi [first name], it is [your name] from Moore Books. I am calling about two documents for August. Is there something that makes them hard to get? I can stay on the line while you download them.
Write the result of the call on the request.
5. Close the request or carry the item forward
The request owner closes it when every required item is in, or on the day the work must start, whichever comes first. Close means all files received, named and stored, and the request marked complete. Carry forward means you start without the item and add it to next period's request. Tell the client in one line:
We have started your August books without the loan statement. We have added it to the September request, so you will see it there.
How often should you remind a client?
Three times, on fixed days, then a call. For a monthly request due in about two weeks, day 3, 7 and 12 work well. For a tax return requested in January, spread the same pattern over weeks. What matters is that the days are the same for every client. The whole cadence:
| Day | Channel | Who | Message |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Request owner | The request: each item, its period, the due date. | |
| On arrival | Reviewer | A fix note the same day if the file is wrong. | |
| 3 | Request owner | Friendly reminder. Open items only. | |
| 7 | Request owner | Open items, and the effect on the delivery date. | |
| 12 | Request owner | Open items, and "I will call you on [day]". | |
| 13 to 14 | Phone | Request owner or partner | Ask what is in the way. Agree a date or a different contact. |
| Start of work | Request owner | Close, or carry the open item into the next request. |
When to stop emailing and call
Write one sentence and keep to it: after three reminders without the missing items, or after the same item has come back wrong twice, email stops and the request owner calls within two working days.
If the call produces no date, the partner decides: start without the item, move the delivery date, or pause the engagement.
The one-page version
- One named owner per request.
- Every item: document, account, period, format. A due date and what depends on it.
- Files opened within one working day.
- A wrong file goes back the same day: what arrived, what is needed, where to find it.
- Reminders on day 3, 7 and 12, working days, open items only.
- After the last reminder, one call within two working days. The result is written on the request.
- At start of work: close, or carry open items into the next request.
How to roll this out in your firm
- Write down the owner of every open request. One name per client and period.
- Rewrite your five most common items. Add the account, period and format to each, and save them where everyone can copy them.
- Put the three reminder days and the call in a shared calendar or tracker. Set the dates when the request goes out.
- Run it for one month, then review for 15 minutes. Which requests needed a call? Which items came back wrong? The document chase SOP has a format for this review.
Questions
How often should you remind a client about missing documents?
Three times is enough for most requests: on day 3, 7 and 12 after the request went out, on working days. Each reminder lists only what is still missing. If three reminders have not worked, a fourth email rarely will, so make the next contact a phone call, one or two working days after the last reminder.
How do you avoid two team members reminding the same client?
Give every request one named owner and keep the status of each item in one place, whether that is a tracker sheet or a tool. Only the owner writes to the client about that request. If a colleague notices a gap, they tell the owner, not the client, so the client never gets two versions of the same reminder.
Who should own client document follow-up?
The person who needs the documents to do the work, usually the bookkeeper or preparer on that client. They know what a usable file looks like, they notice a wrong one first, and they feel the delay. The partner steps in only when a client has not opened any message at all, because then the problem is the relationship, not the reminder.
What if a client emails files instead of using the link or folder?
Accept the file. Do not send it back for arriving by the wrong channel; that costs goodwill and delays the work. Save it with the client's other files, check it the same way, and mark the item as received so the next reminder does not ask for it again. Mention your preferred channel once, in the thank you.
What about clients who never respond?
Follow the escalation rule once, in full: three reminders, then a call within two working days. If the call also fails, the partner writes one plain message that states what cannot be done without the documents and by which date. After that it is an engagement decision, not a follow-up task: start without the item, move the date, or pause the work.
Doing this with Pingtail
Pingtail does steps 1 to 3 of this workflow and tells you when step 4 is due. A request starts from a ready-made checklist where every item has instructions for the client, and each client has an owner on your team. Every upload is checked at once for the wrong period, missing pages, a locked PDF or an unreadable photo. Automatic reminders go out on day 3, 7 and 12 by default, list only the missing required items and anything sent back for a fix, then stop, and you get a "time for a call" email. You can try it on yourself first: send a test request to your own email and upload the wrong file on purpose.