AI Guides / accounting
Practical ways to save time, capture more enquiries, and use the tools you already have.
An accounting firm's scarcest asset is capacity against a deadline calendar, and the thing that eats it isn't the work — it's the waiting. Chasing clients for documents is so universally the problem that your practice software was built around solving it, with automatic reminders that chase politely and relentlessly so your team doesn't. The rest of this page is capacity arithmetic — and one uncomfortable question about whether your own debtors get the reminders you configure for clients.
Written for an owner who has never set up a single one of these things. Start at step one, which is free and takes an afternoon, and stop whenever you have had enough — nothing further down is needed for anything above it to work.
Prices checked 27 July 2026 · no affiliate links on this page or any other
The whole page, in order
Software: Karbon client-task automatic reminders
Cost note: Included if client tasks are in your current Karbon plan
Software: Karbon recurring work templates
Cost note: Included in your Karbon subscription
Software: Xero invoice reminders on your own ledger
Cost note: Included in the Xero subscription you already pay for
Software: Karbon work and time reports
Cost note: No additional software
Step one · start here
If you already use Karbon, Xero, these features are settings inside those products, not another subscription. Your current plan still needs to include the feature. If you use something else, skip that card and search your software’s help centre for the named feature before you buy anything.
Extra software cost
$0*
if included in your plan
Hours back per month
≈19
Why it matters
Outstanding document requests chased automatically — seven days before due, on the due date, then daily while overdue, capped at five per task, with gentle or urgent tone presets. The single biggest capacity leak in a firm, handled by settings.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In Karbon, find “Client-task automatic reminders”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Open the official setup guide ↗1 hour · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters
Monthly closes, quarterly BAS and annual returns generated automatically on schedule with tasks, roles, due dates and client requests pre-attached — the delivery machine that makes fixed-fee pricing safe instead of brave.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In Karbon, find “Recurring work templates”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Open the official product page ↗1 day · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters
The feature you configure for clients weekly and leave off for the firm. Reminders at 7, 14 and 30 days on your own fees, with your largest clients excluded because those need a partner's call.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In Xero (your own subscription), find “Invoice reminders — for your own debtors”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Check the official pricing and plan details ↗20 minutes · $0 extra if included in your current plan
If your software is not named above, the equivalent switch often still exists. Search its help centre for the exact feature name before you buy another tool.
Step two · first workflow to implement
A business owner shopping for an accountant emails three firms and hires the one that responds like it wants the work. Same-day reply with a booked call converts at rates that embarrass the profession's standard week of silence.
Do this in order
Typical size
every enquiry
Setup
Half a day
What to use
A booking link on the enquiry reply
Route: Small build
How you know it worked
Count it in week one, then count the same thing again in week four. If the number did not move, stop spending.
Do not want to set it up yourself?
In Speed to Lead. Or take the Diagnostic before hiring anyone.
Step three · keep going without adding complexity
Do not start all three at once. Finish one, test it on real work, then move to the next card.
Every completed engagement contains the hooks — margin drift, cash-cycle blowouts, a comparison to last year. A standing fifteen-minute walkthrough offered at every annual delivery converts compliance clients into advisory revenue with data you already prepared.
1 day · We do it · $1,200
Templated delivery makes costs knowable, which makes fixed monthly pricing safe — and a client paying monthly for a defined scope churns less and pays faster than one bracing for an annual bill.
1 day · We do it · $690
The moment the return is lodged and the refund is real is the moment clients think well of you. One message: the confirmation, and a line that the firm takes referrals of businesses like theirs. Nobody sends it; it costs nothing.
1 hour · In Speed to Lead
Step four · only once the first three are running
This is the first point where a real build may be worth paying for. The earlier steps need to be working before you add it.
Former clients who left over a fee dispute that time has softened, or simply drifted to a bigger firm's neglect — one honest message before their next deadline season, from the partner they knew, wins back annuities at zero acquisition cost.
Half a day · We do it · $690
What this page is automating
Almost everything above is a computer sending a message at a moment when nobody was going to send one. That is it. No robot and no replacement for professional judgement.
If you already use one of the products named in step one, those cards are settings inside that product. If you do not, skip the card. This page is not claiming that you already own it.
It is
A message going out because a call, date or status changed.
It is not
Something that decides what to charge or replaces professional judgement.
It is
A reminder sent from records your business already keeps.
It is not
A replacement for you, your trade, or the people who know the work.
Does this look familiar?
Answer the enquiry the day it arrives
Sell the advisory conversation the numbers already wrote
Package the year as a fixed monthly fee
Ask for the referral at lodgment
Reactivate the clients who drifted
Let the software chase the documents
After thirty days
Number one
Write down the current monthly number before you switch anything on. Compare it with the same number after thirty days.
Number two
Count it the same way in week one and week four. Do not change the definition halfway through.
Number three
Use the history inside your existing software to count how often the automation actually ran.
Number four
Ask the person doing the work now. They will know before a dashboard does.
Every figure on this page is a typical size, not a measurement of yours. These four are the numbers that are actually about your business.
Reference · come back to this
Nothing here is urgent and nothing here is a starting point. It is the complete set for this business, in rough order of what it returns, with the tool, effort, and done-for-you route on every row.
Wins work
01
A business owner shopping for an accountant emails three firms and hires the one that responds like it wants the work. Same-day reply with a booked call converts at rates that embarrass the profession's standard week of silence.
02
Every completed engagement contains the hooks — margin drift, cash-cycle blowouts, a comparison to last year. A standing fifteen-minute walkthrough offered at every annual delivery converts compliance clients into advisory revenue with data you already prepared.
03
Templated delivery makes costs knowable, which makes fixed monthly pricing safe — and a client paying monthly for a defined scope churns less and pays faster than one bracing for an annual bill.
04
The moment the return is lodged and the refund is real is the moment clients think well of you. One message: the confirmation, and a line that the firm takes referrals of businesses like theirs. Nobody sends it; it costs nothing.
05
Former clients who left over a fee dispute that time has softened, or simply drifted to a bigger firm's neglect — one honest message before their next deadline season, from the partner they knew, wins back annuities at zero acquisition cost.
Saves hours
06
Client tasks with auto-reminders until complete, and an alert the moment the documents land — the follow-up emails your team sends by hand, retired.
07
Recurring work created on schedule with every task, role and deadline attached — the partner's Sunday-night job-setup session, retired.
08
Client-sent statements and receipts land against the right job the moment they arrive — the lost-attachment hunt through three inboxes, retired.
09
Billing generated from the completed job rather than reconstructed at month-end — WIP stops ageing and the fee conversation happens while the value is fresh.
10
Uploads, e-signatures and task completion in one branded place with no passwords for simple requests — fewer 'I emailed it to someone' hunts, faster closes.
11
Firm processes, lodgment procedures, engagement templates, where things live — one internal place to ask, loaded from your own documents, never from client files.
The stack · prices checked
Prices checked 27 July 2026.
| Tool | What it is for | Price | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice managementKarbon | Client tasks with auto-chasing, recurring work templates, email triage, portal and billing for accounting firms. | Per user, tiered ↗ | The category leader for exactly the document-chase problem — but the automation rules that progress work and auto-chase sit on the Business tier, so price the tier that has the features this page is about. Real learning curve; budget the onboarding weeks honestly. |
| Ledger & practice toolsXero + Xero Practice Manager | The ledgers you work in daily, plus practice workflow if you're partner-program aligned. | $35/mo per ledger org ↗ | If XPM comes with your partner status, exhaust its job and recurring-task features before paying for a second practice tool — it's less polished than Karbon and possibly already free to you. |
| Document captureHubdoc | Client receipts and statements extracted and coded — included with Xero subscriptions. | Included with Xero ↗ | The tool you likely recommend to clients and under-use for your own workflows. Free with the subscription; the setup is an afternoon per client. |
| ProductivityMicrosoft 365 | The environment your practice tools assume — and the template discipline your documents depend on. | From $12.60/user ↗ | You have it. The unglamorous win is one current engagement letter, one proposal, one working-paper template — versioned in one place, not seventeen copies on desktops. |
| SchedulingCalendly (or your portal's booking) | The booking link that turns an enquiry reply into a held meeting. | Free tier ↗ | The free tier does the job for a small firm. Check whether your practice suite or Microsoft Bookings already covers it before adding another login. |
| AutomationMake.com | The referral-at-lodgment and reactivation sequences beyond the practice tool's built-ins. | $9/mo ↗ | Client names and dates only in scenarios — financial data stays in the systems assessed to hold it. Check Karbon's own automators first; duplicating a built-in is a scenario to delete. |
| AssistantChatGPT Team | Internal process questions from your own documents — procedures, templates, firm policies. | $25/user ↗ | Loaded with firm procedures it earns its keep. It never sees client financials, and it never produces a number that goes to a regulator — the registered agent's review is the product, not a bottleneck. |
| Phone & messagingOpenPhone | A firm number with shared inbox for practices where the phone still matters. | $19/user ↗ | Most small firms live in email; buy this only if your client base genuinely phones and more than one person should see the thread. |
Do not bother
The lodgment carries your registration, and a generated figure you didn't verify is your liability wearing a productivity costume. Automate the collection, the filing and the chasing; the numbers that go out the door are reviewed by the human whose name is on them.
A small firm's growth is referrals at lodgment, advisory conversions from data it already holds, and answering enquiries same-day. All three cost templates and discipline, not a campaign platform with a monthly fee and a certification course.
Karbon and its competitors already hold every client, contact, email and engagement. A second system of record is a sync problem you'll own forever, purchased voluntarily.
Sources
Nearby trades
Nothing on this page is gated. This is the price recheck only, and you can leave at any time.
Do it yourself
Use the official links, do one card at a time, and count the result after thirty days.
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