How Accountants Can Stop Chasing Clients for Payroll and Tax Documents
How Accountants Can Stop Chasing Clients for Payroll and Tax Documents
If you run a small accountancy or bookkeeping firm, you probably spend far too much time chasing clients for information.
Payroll changes. VAT receipts. Bank statements. Missing invoices. Employee starters and leavers. Year-end records. Approval for submissions. The work itself may be straightforward, but the chasing around it can become a monthly admin drain.
The frustrating part is that most of this chasing follows the same pattern every time:
- Ask the client for information
- Wait
- Check whether they have replied
- Send a reminder
- Update a spreadsheet or tracker
- Chase again before the deadline
- Escalate when something is still missing
That process is repetitive, deadline-driven and easy to forget when the team is busy. Which makes it a perfect candidate for Microsoft 365 automation.
The real problem is not the documents — it is visibility
Most accountancy firms already have places to store documents. You might use email attachments, SharePoint folders, OneDrive links, client portals, spreadsheets or practice management software.
The bigger issue is usually visibility:
- Which clients have sent everything?
- Which clients are missing one or two items?
- Who has already been reminded?
- Which deadlines are coming up?
- Which work is blocked because a client has not responded?
- Who in the team owns the next chase?
When that information is spread across inboxes, spreadsheets and memory, the team loses time. Staff end up checking the same email threads, asking each other for updates and manually nudging clients who could have been reminded automatically.
What client document chasing automation looks like
A simple Microsoft 365 workflow for accountants could work like this:
- A client is added to a Microsoft List or SharePoint tracker.
- The tracker records what is needed: payroll details, VAT records, invoices, bank statements, approvals or year-end documents.
- Power Automate sends a polite request email before the deadline.
- The client submits information by form, upload link or email process.
- The tracker updates when items are received or marked complete.
- If anything is still missing after a set number of days, the client receives an automatic reminder.
- If the deadline is close and information is still missing, the team gets a Teams or Outlook alert.
- Managers can view a simple dashboard showing complete, pending and overdue clients.
This does not need to replace your practice management system. For many firms, the best first step is to automate the gaps around the tools you already use.
Example: monthly payroll information
Payroll is a strong place to start because the process repeats every month and the deadline pressure is real.
A manual payroll chase might involve emailing every client, checking replies, recording who has responded, saving attachments and sending follow-up reminders.
An automated version could look like this:
- Each payroll client has a deadline and required information list.
- Five working days before the deadline, Power Automate sends the first reminder.
- Clients submit employee changes, hours, starters, leavers or notes through a form or controlled upload route.
- The tracker marks the client as complete, partial or missing.
- Two days before the deadline, incomplete clients receive a second reminder.
- On deadline day, the payroll team gets a Teams alert listing only the clients still outstanding.
The team no longer needs to manually check every client from scratch. They can focus their attention where it is actually needed.
Example: VAT and bookkeeping records
The same idea applies to VAT returns and bookkeeping records.
Instead of chasing from a spreadsheet and inbox, a simple workflow could track:
- Bank statements
- Purchase invoices
- Sales invoices
- Expense receipts
- Mileage records
- Till reports
- Missing supplier documents
- Client approval before submission
Each item can have a status such as requested, received, checked or missing. Clients can receive reminders at sensible intervals, and staff can see which returns are blocked by missing information.
This is especially useful when deadlines bunch together. A dashboard showing outstanding records by client, deadline and staff owner is often just as valuable as the reminder emails themselves.
Why Microsoft 365 is a good fit for accountancy firms
Many small accountancy and bookkeeping firms already pay for Microsoft 365. That means you may already have the core tools needed for a practical automation setup:
- Outlook for email reminders
- Microsoft Lists or SharePoint for tracking
- OneDrive or SharePoint for document storage
- Microsoft Forms for structured client submissions
- Teams for internal alerts
- Power Automate for the workflow logic
The benefit is not just saving time. It also creates a more consistent process. Clients get reminders at the right time, staff have a clearer view of what is outstanding, and managers can spot bottlenecks before deadlines become stressful.
This should not feel robotic to clients
Automation does not mean spamming clients with cold, impersonal messages.
A good client-chasing workflow should be:
- Polite
- Clear
- Branded to your firm
- Timed sensibly
- Easy for the client to act on
- Escalated to a human when needed
For example, the first reminder might be friendly and helpful. The second reminder might explain the deadline. The final internal alert might go to the account manager so they can make a direct call if needed.
The point is to remove repetitive admin, not remove the relationship.
Common mistakes to avoid
The biggest mistake is automating a messy process before defining it properly.
Before building anything, an accountancy firm should agree:
- What information is required for each service?
- Which clients need which reminders?
- How many reminders should be sent?
- When should the team step in manually?
- Where should documents be stored?
- Who is allowed to access sensitive information?
- What counts as complete?
Security also matters. Payroll, tax and financial records are sensitive, so permissions need to be designed carefully. The right people should have access, and files should be stored in the right Microsoft 365 location rather than scattered across personal inboxes.
Start with one client-chasing process
You do not need to automate everything at once.
A good first project for an accountancy firm is one repeatable process, such as:
- Monthly payroll information chasing
- VAT records collection
- Year-end document requests
- Client onboarding information
- Approval reminders before submissions
- Missing invoice or receipt chasing
Map the process, build a simple tracker, add automated reminders, and give the team a clear view of what is outstanding.
Once that first workflow is working, it becomes much easier to adapt the same pattern for other services.
Final thought
Client chasing is one of those jobs that quietly eats into the working week. It feels small in the moment, but across dozens or hundreds of clients, it becomes a serious admin burden.
For accountants and bookkeepers, Microsoft 365 can be used to create a simple, practical system for reminders, tracking and internal alerts — without jumping straight to a complex new platform.
The goal is simple: fewer repeated emails, clearer client status, and less deadline panic.
Want to reduce client-chasing admin in your accountancy firm?
TechBuddy helps accountants and bookkeepers build practical Microsoft 365 automations using tools they may already pay for.
If your team is spending too much time chasing payroll, VAT or year-end documents, book a free automation audit and we’ll help you map one client-chasing process, identify quick wins and suggest a simple next step.
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