For accountancy practices
Between your clients and their deadlines.
Hand a team of ours the phones, the records still to come in or the returns waiting to be signed. Or have us set that work up, or advise on how it’s organised.
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What we do
Each filing deadline brings records to ask for, calls to answer and returns waiting on a signature. We can take that work on. Run for you, set up for you, or talked through with you.
What’s arrived, and what hasn’t
The team asks each client for what your checklist lists, and marks off what comes in by name and period. Whether the figures are right, and anything a client asks about tax, is for your accountants.
Which parts we take on is up to you
It might be the phones for the weeks before a deadline, and no other time of year. It might be records chasing, with no calls answered at all. It might be one project to finish the paperwork for every client who joined this year.
Who gets in touch, and why.
What a client asks depends on what made them pick up the phone. It might be a date coming up, a letter that has arrived, or the search for an accountant.
A deadline coming
In the weeks before a filing date
- “What do you need from me, and by when?”
- “Did you get my bank statements?”
- “Has my return gone in yet?”
- “How much will I owe, and when?”
- “Is there still time?”
A letter in the post
The morning it arrives
- “I’ve had a letter from the tax office.”
- A penalty notice
- “My mortgage lender wants proof of my income.”
- A reminder about a company filing
Finding an accountant
Often ringing more than one practice
- Switching from another accountant
- A first tax return
- “What do you charge, and what’s included?”
- A new company that needs accounts
- Booking a first conversation
What we’d take on.
Each of these is run by a team of ours to a process agreed with you, in your practice’s name. Which system the team works in, and what it can see there, is yours to decide.
- The phones, all year or only before a deadlineClients answered in your practice’s name when nobody can pick up. Each call is sorted by how soon it matters under your rules, so a letter with a reply date on it isn’t left among the routine messages.
- Records chased before each deadlineClients who haven’t answered your reminders are rung, in the order you set, and told exactly what is still missing. What arrives is marked off by name and period, however it was sent. Where there’s no checklist yet, we’ll help you write one.
- Approvals and signaturesReturns you’ve sent out for approval followed up by phone, once your reminders have gone unanswered, until they’re signed. A question about the figures goes to the client’s accountant.
- New client enquiriesCalls and website forms answered and taken to your questions. A first conversation is booked where you keep times open for one, and the details passed to you where you don’t.
- New clients’ paperworkThe signed engagement letter, the identity documents and whatever else your list asks for, collected and chased. Your own people make the identity check.
Records · Five weeks before the deadline
Personal tax returns, records still to come
- Clients who have sent everything on their checklist marked as in
- Clients part way there reminded, with what’s missing named
- No reply to the reminders. Rung this week, in your order
To you
Two clients say they have moved to another accountant. One has gone abroad and asks whether she still needs a return, which is a question for you.
Marked on your list, by name and period
Not only at the deadline
And the things you hadn’t thought to ask for.
Cover on the phones before a deadline may be what brought you here. These are other things we could set up, run or advise on.
- We set it up
A checklist for each kind of client
What each kind of client is asked for, when, and how often they’re reminded, written down so that your own people and the team work from the same list.
Processes and knowledge base - We run it
More people before a deadline
More people on the phones and the chasing for the weeks you can see coming, planned with you ahead of time and trained before those weeks begin.
Seasonal and peak cover - We set it up
What the calls were about
A reason noted against each call, from a short list agreed with you. After a deadline you can see what clients rang about most, and what a line on your website might have answered.
Reporting - We run it
Year-end meetings in the diary
Clients on your list rung or written to and booked into the times you’ve opened, with a reminder before the day.
Reception and call answering - We run it
Fees owed by companies, followed up
Overdue invoices owed by the companies you act for followed up on a regular schedule. Anything disputed comes back to you.
Credit control - We plan it with you
A look at it in the quiet months
How calls, records and signatures move through the practice now, and what to change before the next deadline.
Consultancy
A date that doesn’t move
The weeks before a filing deadline.
The accounts can’t start until the records are in. This is how the run-up to one deadline might go for a practice with a long list of personal tax clients. When each step starts, and who is rung, are yours to set.
The first request
You decide who is asked, and for what.
Clients ring to ask
“What do you need from me, and by when?”
The team gets in touch first
Each client is asked for what your checklist says they owe, by your own system or by the team.
Records arriving
Your accountants start on the returns that have everything.
Clients ring to ask
“Did you get my bank statements?”
The team gets in touch first
What comes in by email or post is matched to the checklist. Clients who have gone quiet get a call.
The last two weeks
The returns take most of the day.
Clients ring to ask
“Has mine gone in yet?” and “Is there still time?”
The team gets in touch first
Clients who haven’t replied are rung, in the order you set.
Deadline week
The last returns go out for approval.
Clients ring to ask
“How much do I owe?” Passed to the client’s accountant.
The team gets in touch first
Returns still unsigned are followed up by phone.
The week after
Late returns, and the letters that follow.
Clients ring to ask
“I’ve had a penalty notice.” Taken with the date on it, for the accountant.
The team gets in touch first
The list is marked with who was late, ready for next time.
The team behind it.
Clients are dealing with your practice. The team works to your checklist and your rules, and brings your accountants whatever needs one.
Our staff, with a team lead of their own
Trained on your process before they take a call or send a reminder. Each team has a team lead whose job is coaching.
How we workRun from one of three locations
The Philippines, Portugal or Ireland. Which one depends on the hours and the work, and we agree it with you at the start.
Where we workYour clients’ financial records
A named login for each person, access only to what the work needs, and one client’s information never visible to another client’s team.
Security and data protection
Questions, answered.
The things accountancy practices are likely to ask first.
How do you cover the weeks before a filing deadline?
By planning them with you ahead of time. We work back from the date you need people ready, so that everyone covering those weeks has been trained before they start. Cover can be for those weeks alone, or added to a team that works for you all year.
Can the team chase records, and will it know what’s still missing?
Yes, where there is a checklist to work from. The team can tell what has arrived and what hasn’t, by name and period, against the list of what each client owes. It can’t tell whether what arrived is right, which is for your accountants. If you don’t have a checklist written down, we’ll help you write one.Processes and knowledge base
What happens when a client asks a tax question?
The team doesn’t answer it. It takes down what was asked and passes it to the client’s accountant, with any date the client mentioned. The same goes for a letter from the tax office, a penalty notice or a question about what someone owes.
What stays with our own accountants?
The accounts, the returns and the advice. So does anything said to a tax office, any figure given to a client and the identity check on a new client. The team collects and chases the documents for that check, so they are ready for you to make it.
Will the team work in our practice management system?
It can, where you give it access. Each person needs a login of their own, because we don’t work from a shared password. Records might arrive in a client portal, in your practice system or in a shared mailbox, and the team works from wherever that is. What it can see there is yours to set.
Who manages the team?
We do. Hiring, the rota, cover and performance are ours, and each team has a team lead whose job is coaching. Nobody at your practice hands out the work or checks it. You deal with one person who owns your service.How we work
How does the team learn our practice?
Through training, before anyone does any work for you. How that training happens depends on what material you already have, how soon you need people, and how much of it you want to run yourselves. A new deadline or a new kind of client is trained in before the team starts on it.How we work
What if the work I need help with isn’t listed here?
Tell us about it. This page covers the work accountancy practices are most likely to need, not everything we do. If the work follows a process and happens on the phone, in an inbox or in your practice system, there’s a good chance we can take it on. If it isn’t one for us, we’ll say so.Tell us about your business
More for professional services firms.
- Professional services and financeLaw firms, recruitment agencies, brokers and the others in this group.
- Seasonal and peak coverMore people for the weeks before a deadline, planned ahead.
- Back office and adminRecords and signatures chased, and new clients’ paperwork collected.
- All industriesThe other kinds of business we work with.
Let's talk.
Tell us what's going on. If we're not the right fit, we'll point you to someone we trust.
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