Episode 38: What To Do When Your Clients Don’t Get You Everything You Need

Nov 1

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In this solo episode, Alyssa Lang covers common issues bookkeepers and accountants face when clients don’t get us documentation and information in a timely manner. She’ll be breaking down some tips and tricks on what to do if that’s the case.

In this episode you’ll hear:

What to do when clients don’t get you the information you need to complete the work
How to leverage a project management system to assign tasks to move on
How to communicate with your clients when things are past due
How to handle back logged work and the logistics

Resources mentioned in this episode:

⚙️ Magnetic Bookkeeping & Consulting Tech Stack

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Seeing your due dates fall behind as a business owner can be SO frustrating! Especially with the kind of work we do as bookkeepers, where everything is constantly repeating itself. Client work looks pretty much the same month after month, but you can’t move forward with the following month until you’ve closed the previous one…

Or can you?

In this episode, I’m taking a pretty bold stance on how to approach month end close AND how to deal with unresponsive clients.

My firm takes a simple approach to dealing with delays caused by clients not getting us their information on time, but this approach works like a freaking charm. It holds everyone accountable and eliminates a lot of the stress that usually comes with closing the books every single month.

You Need a Project Management System

If you don’t already know about my obsession with Asana, you can read all about it, or just check out my signature course where I’ve helped thousands of firm owners unlock the power of Asana in their own firms.

Now obviously you don't have to use Asana if that’s not your jam. ClickUp is another popular PM system that would do the trick. Just choose something that has the ability to house all of your work and information that you and your team need to execute the work AND schedule the tasks to repeat as needed.

I absolutely love using a project management system to keep the whole team on the same page and organized. Plus, if we have to leave any notes for ourselves next month, we can just do it directly in the task that’s set to recur.

I’ve even had tasks with 47 subtasks inside just to keep me on track! If you’re only doing a certain task once per month, you need an easy way to remember everything without storing it all in your brain. That’s where a (properly set up) project management system is the PERFECT solution.

The Ideal Month End Close Process

One thing that comes up a lot when I’m talking about month end is that people are afraid to let their due dates slip into “overdue territory”. And I get that, because I used to have the exact same problem!

I’ve heard things like:

“What if the client doesn’t respond to my requests for documents?”

“I can’t move forward with the work until I have all their information!”

“How long should I let this go before I get wayyyy too far behind?”

“What if my client straight up ghosted me?”

And we’ll get to all of that in a second, but what I’d highly recommend you do if a client isn’t giving you their requested information on time is this:

Move on.

I know it seems dramatic, but you can literally just move forward with the information you DO have, run the reports, and send them an email explaining why the data may not be 100% accurate (aka because they failed to give you their info on time).

You’d be surprised how much this motivates your clients to pay attention to those requests next month!

Our Month End Tech Stack

When we’re ready to request documents for month end, we’ll start by taking a look at what we need from the client. We do have a standard request set up, but sometimes there’s a weird month with something extra or a special circumstance.

Then, we send out the request in Content Snare (so obsessed with this software btw). The request has EVERYTHING we need from the client all in one place so we’re not going back and forth answering questions. If you don’t want to use Content Snare, you can use Xenett or something similar. I wouldn’t recommend doing this via email, because it’s more likely to get lost in the inbox or forgotten about until it’s too late.

Here’s a whole episode I recorded with the creator of Content Snare, James Rose!

One thing that gets lost in the month end process is figuring out how to manage expectations for clients who don’t give you their information on time. Sending constant emails and reminders is exhausting, so we’ve set up an automatic workflow that gently (but firmly) lets the client know that they’re behind AND what happens next.

If it gets to the point where we need to move on with the work, we’ll run the reports with the information we DO have, and send them off with a disclaimer saying that the numbers might not be 100% accurate due to a lack of information provided by the client.

Then, we’ll make a note inside of the Asana task and inside the client page in Notion, which we use for internal information storage.

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Month End Close Process

Keep in mind that this is how we do things at my firm, Magnetic Bookkeeping & Consulting. If something we do doesn’t resonate with you, don’t do it! This isn’t the only way, just what works for us.

Won’t clients get upset if I send them inaccurate reports?

They might! But what you can do to avoid this is have a section in your contract that explains what happens in the event they don’t provide their information on time. You can also include a grace period for them to get everything to you if you’d like. I’d also recommend having a “due date reminder” message that goes out to them. You can’t assume that every client reads every page of their contract, so reminding them in an email when you deliver the reports will help them remember and understand the process for next month.

What if the client is too far behind (as in, hasn’t checked in with me for months)?

Decide how many months you’ll let it go, and then put something in your contract that states how many months they can ignore your requests before you’ll have to charge them a catch up fee. And then decide if you want to keep them as a client moving forward! Remember, you’re in control of who you work with in your own firm.

Basically, have a plan in place. And if you need help with your contracts, this is who I recommend and work with on all of my legal stuff!

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @workflowqueen

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