How to chase client records before a tax deadline

Give each client their own date for sending paperwork, well ahead of the one the law sets, then ask once for a named list of items, tick off what arrives and remind the client only of what is still missing. The asking and reminding can be done by an AI worker, in writing, at intervals the practice sets. Phone calls, the clients who never answer and every judgement about what a document shows stay with the client manager.

Which deadlines set the chasing calendar?

GOV.UK publishes each of them, and they are fixed. An online self assessment return is due by 31 January after the tax year ends, as is any balancing payment. The second payment on account is due by 31 July. Anyone filing for the first time must tell HMRC by 5 October after the tax year. A private company's accounts are due at Companies House nine months after its year end, and its Company Tax Return twelve months after the accounting period ends. A VAT return is usually due one calendar month and seven days after the period ends. Clients within Making Tax Digital for Income Tax now have four more dates: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.

None of these is the date that matters to the practice. The one that matters is the day the records have to be in for the work to be done without a late night, and it is the practice's to set.

How to chase records, step by step

1. Give every client a records date. For each return or set of accounts, note the legal deadline and your own cut-off before it. For a self assessment client, a cut-off at the end of October, for example, leaves November and December for the work. Put both in the practice management software or tracker, against the client manager's name.

2. Write each client's list from last year's file. A director on self assessment owes a P60, a P11D if there were benefits, dividend vouchers and statements of bank interest. A landlord owes rents and costs for each property. A client asked for six named things sends more of them than a client asked for "your tax information".

3. Send one clear request, early. The tax year ends on 5 April and the P60 follows. A request in early summer catches documents while the client still has them to hand. Say what each item is, where the client will find it, how to send it and by what date.

4. Tick off what arrives, the day it arrives. Check it is the right document for the right year, with all its pages. Tell the client what you have received: silence after sending is why clients send things twice, or nothing at all next time.

5. Name the missing items in every reminder. Set the intervals once and tighten them as your cut-off nears: for example, two weeks after the request, then monthly, then weekly in the final month.

6. Move to the phone on a set day. Decide in advance when a silent client becomes a call from the client manager, a fortnight before the cut-off, say, and give the caller the list of what was asked for and when.

7. Hand over a complete pack, or a pack with its gaps listed, on your cut-off date, and the accounting starts from there.

Which of the chasing an AI worker can do

This job is nearly all lists, messages and dates, a good first job for an AI worker. Given a written job, a manager at the practice and a regular review, it becomes AI staff. It can build each client's list from last year's file for the client manager to approve, send the request, compare each arrival with what was asked for, acknowledge it, send reminders that name only the missing items, and show at any moment who owes what across the whole client list. On the day you chose, it passes the silent clients to the client manager with the history. The role that chases clients for documents sets this out as a specification, and the enquiry and inbox triage role covers the records and HMRC letters that arrive unasked. The accountancy and bookkeeping page shows the other practice admin it can take on.

What stays with a person, and why

• Phone calls. The agent works in writing, and some clients only respond to a voice they know.

• Whether a document will do. The agent can tell that a statement is for the wrong year or has a page missing. Whether it is enough to prepare the return on is an accountant's judgement.

• Estimates. HMRC allows provisional or estimated figures where records cannot be recreated, and the return must say so. Whether to file on that basis is for the accountant and the client.

• Any question that asks for advice. "Do I need to declare this?" goes to the client manager, unanswered.

• A client who never sends anything. Whether that leads to a late fee, a warning letter or the end of the engagement is a partner's decision.

What to gather before the first request

Whoever does the chasing will need:

• Last year's list of records for each client, or the file it can be built from.

• Your cut-off dates, and the day a chase becomes a call.

• One place for documents to land, whether a portal, an upload link or a mailbox, so that arrivals can be ticked off.

• The wording of the request and the reminders, in the practice's own voice.

• Last January's numbers: how many clients had sent everything by your cut-off, and how many returns went in during the final week.

Those two figures are what the job is measured on. Why this chasing, not the accounting, limits how many clients a practice can carry is argued in how to scale an accountancy practice without hiring more staff.

Your client managers would still decide whether a document will do, and an AI worker reporting to them would ask every client for their records, log what arrives and send the reminders. Will January be decided by who replied in December? Talk to our agent.