Executive summary
From chasing to automated follow-up
A 10-person general practice firm in the North West, UK serving around 200 active clients across accounts, tax, VAT, and bookkeeping was spending hours every week chasing clients for documents, approvals, and signatures by email and WhatsApp.
Staff were averaging 8–10 manual chasing touchpoints per client per month. Documents arrived late, monthly bookkeeping jobs stalled, and the team carried a constant backlog that ate into billable time.
After deploying PRACTICEASY’s Client Impression Engine branded client portal, automated reminder sequences, and structured monthly bookkeeping workflows the firm cut client chasing time by 60% within 60 days.
Document turnaround improved from an average of 12 days to under 4. Inbound “is it done yet?” calls dropped significantly, and the team reclaimed hours each week for billable work.
Client profile
Firm at a glance
| Firm type | General practice accounts + tax |
|---|---|
| Team size | 10 staff (2 partners + 8 staff) |
| Clients | ~200 active clients |
| Location | North West, UK |
| Services | Self Assessment, Corporation Tax, VAT returns, monthly bookkeeping, payroll |
| Previous tools | Email (Outlook), WhatsApp, shared Google Drive folders, Excel trackers, separate invoicing tool |
Challenges / problems
Client chasing was the single biggest time drain
With monthly bookkeeping clients needing documents every 30 days and compliance clients needing them at key deadlines, the volume of manual follow-up was unsustainable.
- No single source of truth for document status: Staff tracked what had and hadn’t arrived through email threads, sticky notes, and personal memory. Nobody had a live view of which clients were blocking which jobs.
- Manual chasing with no standard process: Reminders were sent ad hoc by whoever remembered. Some clients received three emails in a day; others were not chased at all until a deadline loomed.
- Monthly bookkeeping jobs constantly stalled: For the firm’s ~80 monthly bookkeeping clients, jobs could not start until bank statements, receipts, and purchase invoices arrived. Late documents meant late jobs, late billing, and unhappy clients.
- High volume of inbound “is it done yet?” calls: With no client-facing status view, clients emailed or called the office to check on progress interrupting staff and consuming time that added zero value.
- Tool sprawl and no automation: Chasing lived in email, follow-ups in WhatsApp, documents in Google Drive, and job status in spreadsheets. There was no way to trigger a reminder automatically or see everything in one place.
per client, per month
turnaround (before)
to chasing & status checks
Why they chose PRACTICEASY
One system for chasing, documents, and visibility
The firm had looked at standalone client portal tools and project management software but found neither solved the full problem: chasing automation, document collection, job tracking, and client visibility in one place.
- Built specifically for small UK accounting firms (1–50 staff): PRACTICEASY understood the monthly bookkeeping cycle, VAT quarters, and compliance deadlines natively no custom configuration of a generic tool.
- Client Impression Engine (portal + automation, all-in-one): Branded client portal, automated document request sequences, engagement letters, and approval workflows all connected to the job management system rather than bolted on separately.
- Flat-rate pricing, no per-user penalty: All 10 staff added with no per-seat cost concern. The firm could roll out to the full team from day one.
- 14-day done-for-you setup + quarterly reviews: The PRACTICEASY team handled configuration so the firm did not spend weeks setting up templates and workflows themselves.
Implementation
Live in 14 days
All 200 clients onboarded to the portal and first automated chasing sequences live before the end of week two.
| Timeline | What was configured | Who was involved |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–3 · Discovery | Client list import with service types (bookkeeping, tax, VAT, payroll). Mapping of current chasing workflows and document types needed per service. | Both partners + PRACTICEASY onboarding team |
| Days 4–8 · Configuration | Branded client portal activated. Document request templates built per service type. Automated reminder sequences configured (Day 1, Day 5, Day 10 escalation). Monthly bookkeeping job templates with linked document checklists. | Internal champion (senior accounts manager) + PRACTICEASY configuration team |
| Days 9–14 · Go-live | All 200 clients invited to the portal. Active monthly bookkeeping jobs migrated. First automated document request sequences sent. Staff trained on the new workflow: task list first, email last. | Full team (2 partners + 8 staff) + PRACTICEASY trainer |
Solution in action
Three features that eliminated the chasing backlog
Three PRACTICEASY capabilities worked together to replace email-and-WhatsApp chasing.
Client Impression Engine portal & automated reminders
Monthly bookkeeping workflow structured jobs with checklists
Client-facing status view cutting inbound enquiries
Results / outcomes
Within 60 days of go-live
Measurable improvements recorded by the firm.
| Metric | Before PRACTICEASY | After PRACTICEASY (60 days) |
|---|---|---|
| Client chasing time | 8–10 manual touchpoints / client / month | ~60% reduction automated sequences handle it |
| Document turnaround | Average 12 days to receive docs | Under 4 days average |
| Monthly bookkeeping | Jobs stalled waiting for documents | Jobs auto-created & portal request sent day 1 |
| Inbound calls & emails | 10–15 status queries per day | Near zero clients self-serve on portal |
| Missed monthly deadlines | Regular delays on bookkeeping close | Zero missed monthly close deadlines |
| Tools used for chasing | Email + WhatsApp + spreadsheets | One system: PRACTICEASY portal |
Customer quotes
In their words
“We used to start every Monday morning triaging emails and WhatsApp messages to figure out who’d sent their documents. Now the system does that for us we just open the dashboard and get on with the work.”
“Our clients actually thank us for the portal now. They know exactly what they need to send and when. The ones who used to be slowest are now often the quickest because the reminder lands at the right time.”
“We had good clients they just needed a better system to tell them what to send and when. We were the bottleneck, not them.”
“Every other tool we looked at solved one piece of the puzzle. PRACTICEASY connected the portal, the reminders, and the job list into one thing that’s what we needed.”
Partners & senior staff, general practice firm, North West UK
Still chasing clients by email and WhatsApp?
If you run a 1–15 staff UK accounting firm and client chasing is your biggest time drain, PRACTICEASY’s Client Impression Engine was built to solve exactly this with your workflow, live in about 14 days.