How accounting firms can automate chasing clients for documents

Short answer: connect your practice email and your client list to an automation that knows what each client still owes you, sends a polite reminder on a schedule, reads what comes back, files it, and stops chasing the moment everything is in. A person only gets involved when a client replies with a question or goes quiet for too long.

That’s the whole idea. The rest of this post is how to set it up so it works in a real practice.

Why chasing is the first thing to automate

Most firms already know what they’re waiting for. It sits in a spreadsheet, a practice management tool or someone’s head. The work isn’t deciding what to ask for. It’s the asking, again and again, and then matching what arrives to the right client.

That makes chasing a good first automation:

• The rules are clear. Client X owes a March bank statement. Either it’s arrived or it hasn’t.
• The tone is repetitive. The fifth reminder reads much like the first, just firmer.
• Mistakes are cheap. A reminder sent a day late isn’t a disaster, and nothing gets filed with the tax authority automatically.
• The time adds up. In busy season, chasing can eat a whole person’s week.

What the setup looks like

1. One list of what’s outstanding

The automation needs a single source of truth: client, what’s missing, and when it was first requested. If you use Xero Practice Manager, Karbon, TaxDome or similar, it can read from there. If it’s a spreadsheet, that works too. It just needs to be the list people actually update.

2. Reminders on a schedule, in your voice

A typical rhythm:

When	What gets sent
Day 0	First request, listing exactly what’s needed and how to send it
Day 4	Friendly nudge, only listing what’s still missing
Day 10	Firmer reminder that mentions the deadline
Day 14	Flagged to a person to pick up the phone

The key detail is that every reminder only lists what’s still missing. Nothing irritates a client more than being chased for something they sent yesterday.

AI is useful here because it writes each message from the live list rather than a fixed template. It can say “thanks for the January and February statements, we just need March now” instead of repeating the original request.

3. Reading what comes back

When a client replies with attachments, the automation:

1. Works out which client it’s from, even if they reply from a personal email.
2. Reads each document to identify what it is: a bank statement, a tax form, a receipt and so on.
3. Renames and files it in the right client folder.
4. Ticks it off the outstanding list.

If it isn’t confident, say a blurry photo or a document it doesn’t recognize, it leaves it for a person and says why.

4. Handing questions to a human

Clients don’t only send documents. They ask “do you need the joint account too?” or “I’ve changed banks”. Those replies get drafted answers for someone on your team to approve, or go straight to the right person if they need a judgement call. The automation never invents an answer to a tax question.

What you need before you start

• Your practice email (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace)
• A client list with what’s outstanding, wherever it lives today
• A filing location: your document management system, SharePoint or Google Drive
• Thirty minutes to agree the wording of each reminder, so it sounds like your firm

You don’t need to change software. The automation sits on top of what you already use.

What to watch out for

• Data protection. Client documents contain personal data, so use business AI services that don’t train on your data, keep access limited to the folders the automation needs, and record it in your data protection records.
• Over-chasing. Cap the number of reminders and always hand off to a person at the end. Automated chasing should feel attentive, not relentless.
• Shared inboxes. If several people work the same inbox, make sure the automation marks what it has handled so nobody replies twice.

Common questions

Will clients know it’s automated? Only if you tell them. The messages come from your normal email address and read like your team wrote them. Many firms mention it anyway, because clients like getting a fast, accurate list of what’s left.

What happens when a client replies with a question? It’s drafted for a person to approve, or routed straight to the right person. Nothing about tax or fees goes out without a human check.

How long does it take to set up? For most small practices, a single day: connecting the inbox and client list, agreeing the reminder wording, and testing it on a handful of real clients before switching it on.

Is this only for year-end? No. The same setup works for VAT quarters, payroll changes, onboarding new clients and anything else where you’re waiting on paperwork.

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If chasing is eating your team’s week, book a meeting. We’ll look at how you chase today and tell you honestly whether it’s worth automating.