Outbound document chase for accounting firms

Two days before the send

Both of you have a return open. The VAT send is Wednesday. Eight company folders are still missing. You are not going to spend the afternoon ringing.

That is the outbound problem in this firm. Not a campaign. Not a hunt for new work. A list of people you already know, a folder you have already asked for, and nobody free to ring because the return will not wait.

The secretary, if you have one, has sent the emails. The voice call is the second attempt. It does not happen. The send goes out without the invoices, or someone pulls a return at four o’clock because the folder arrived in a bag at the door.

Nobody has worked two other lists either. A review on Thursday that nobody confirmed, so the hour is empty and the folder never leaves the client’s car. A founder who asked about a company this month, left a number, and never booked — they have two other firms on a scrap of paper, and they will use one of them.

You put the assistant on a list you made. It rings. It talks like a receptionist: the firm name, individual or company, the name on the books, then the one thing you asked it to do. Then it stops.

Three purposes, and nothing else

Three jobs belong on a list.

A named folder, before a deadline. March invoices for the company. Payroll changes. E1 papers for the individual. Formation documents they said they already had. The assistant names the folder you wrote down, asks whether it has been sent, and offers to note a problem. It does not discuss what those papers mean. It does not rebuild the return on the call.

A review or a time to leave papers. Time, place, what to bring for that type, how to say if they cannot come. No preview of what they owe. No “it should be fine”. No estimate of the VAT.

A new-book follow-up. They asked about payroll, formation or an E1 and never booked. The assistant offers a time only if the diary has one. If you have closed the books for the month, it says so on the first line. It does not quote a monthly fee. It does not promise you can take them on.

Everything else is your call. What a receipt means. What they owe. Whether they can file next week instead. Whether it should be an IKE. Walking someone through Taxisnet or MyDATA. Those sentences need you, a file, and a decision. They do not belong on a list.

A time to leave papers is ten minutes at the door. A review sitting is you, a folder, and an hour. If the assistant cannot tell them apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed to drop a bag.

The wrong book, the wrong person

The first failure is not a missed reminder. It is the wrong book spoken to the wrong person.

A company payroll briefed to a spouse. A personal E1 briefed to a colleague who picked up the office mobile. Last year’s individual figures read to a director who rang about this year’s formation. Opening with individual or company and the name on the books, and stopping when those are not recognised, is how you keep the books apart.

The number on the list is the number on the engagement. A director’s personal mobile does not go on a company chase unless that mobile is the number you were told to use. A spouse does not go on an individual E1 unless you have a joint instruction. A former bookkeeper, a number copied off a forwarded notice, a mobile that now belongs to someone who left — not on the list.

If the person who answers does not recognise the name, the assistant stops. It does not explain the books so they can “pass it on”. It does not ask them to find the director. It ends the call and flags you.

If the caller is a director who is both — company VAT and a personal E1 in the same breath — the assistant records both and does not merge them into one sitting. Those are two conversations for you, even if they answered one ring.

The question that is not a chase

Clients ask. They ask on the outbound because that is when they finally have the firm on the phone.

“Does the fuel from the director’s car go in?” “What will the VAT be, roughly?” “What do I put on the E1 for the freelance work in Germany?” “Can I reclaim this?” Those are tax questions. An assistant that answers has given a position with no accountant and no reviewer. An assistant that writes the question down, in the client’s words, and says the accountant will call back, has ended the chase.

The call ends there. The assistant does not go through the folder. It does not give a range. It does not say last year’s figure. It does not say it should be fine.

If they will not send the folder without a figure, flag a person. Do not invent one to close the reminder.

The same stop applies to a new-book follow-up. “Should it be an IKE?” is not a reason to stay on the line. Intake is finished on the phone. Which legal form they should use is yours.

The rule the assistant must obey

One purpose per call. Individual or company and the name first. Stop if those do not match. Check the diary before speaking a time. Take questions, do not answer them. Never use a number that is not the number on the engagement.

E1, payroll and company formation may appear as labels on the list, so the right accountant owns the callback. They are not themes for the assistant to finish. An E1 chase does not discuss foreign income. A payroll chase does not discuss rates. A formation follow-up does not recommend a legal form, a seat, or a VAT registration.

EFKA, Taxisnet, a locked AADE account, a notice from the authority — flag those, do not walk anyone through them. If they offer an AFM, take it. If they do not, do not interrogate them on a reminder call.

A time from last week’s export

Filing days move. Drops move. An outbound that confirms Thursday at 09:00 from last Friday’s export, after the diary has closed the morning for a send, is worse than no call. The client arrives with a folder on a morning you have closed.

The assistant has to check the diary before it speaks a time. It never offers a review on a filing day. Times to leave papers can still be offered if someone will be at the door. If the diary cannot be reached, it does not guess. It takes a callback.

On a filing day you still take the phone. You do not take a review sitting. Enter the sitting days. The assistant cannot invent them.

Calls that cannot stay on this list

Three things, said on an outbound, end the purpose and go to a phone.

Payroll is tomorrow and one employee’s details changed. Take the company name, who is speaking, what changed if they offer it, and put it on a number you hold during the run. Do not finish the folder chase first.

The VAT send is stuck, or MyDATA rejected the invoices. A note in the evening list is a note you read after the deadline.

AADE has locked the account, or Taxisnet will not let them in. Do not walk them through a reset. Take the name, company or individual, and flag a phone.

Everything else can wait for the transcript.

What you configure first

1. The list shape. Individual or company, client name, the number on the engagement, purpose, accountant who owns the callback. No second number “just in case” unless that second number is also on the engagement and you have said so.
2. Who stays off the list. Personal mobiles on company chases, spouses on individual E1s they are not engaged for, former bookkeepers, and any number that came off a forwarded notice rather than off your own file.
3. The three purposes, written so they cannot drift into a position. Named folder. Yes or no. Note a problem. Stop.
4. The diary check on any call that will speak a time. Filing days marked, so a review cannot land on a send.
5. The stop-and-flag when the client asks what they should file, what a receipt means, what they owe, or which company form to use.
6. The callback sentence, verbatim, even on a new-book follow-up: the accountant will call back.

Turn on SMS before the voice list. The first reminder is a text. The voice call is the second attempt: the folder that has still not arrived two days before the send, or the new book that a text did not turn into a time. Do not send both at the same minute with different times. The diary is the source.

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What these calls sound like

The exchange in the panel above is the shape to expect. The assistant names the firm, the company, and the fact that this is a document reminder only. It refuses the fuel question and the VAT figure. It records both for an accountant. It does not go through the folder.

A review reminder is shorter. Identity, individual or company, time, place, what to bring, a path if they cannot come. If they cannot come, that is a diary problem for a person, not a talk about whether the deadline still matters.

An E1 chase names the individual and the papers. It does not ask them to dictate income. If they raise the German freelance work, the accountant will call back.

A new-book follow-up offers only times the diary currently has. It does not quote a fee. If you are not taking new books this month, that sentence comes first.

If nobody answers, the assistant leaves the message you entered — firm, individual or company, purpose, a number back — or it sends the SMS and stops. It does not leave a second message that starts to describe the books.

The assistant answers in the caller’s language, from what you entered. In a Greek firm that is often Greek, English, Albanian, Russian and German in the same week. An E1 chase to a foreign resident is still a chase, not a walkthrough in a second language.

Lists that stay on your phone

A client who has gone quiet on fees. A client who has fallen out with the firm. An individual file where a relative might pick up. A company number that may now belong to someone who left. If a file is too sensitive to ring, it does not belong on the list. You decide that before the assistant dials.

Estimates, “you should include this”, dates spoken as if a deadline had moved, walkthroughs of Taxisnet or MyDATA — those sentences belong to an accountant, in a call you meant to make.

VAT week, E1 week, payroll Friday

A VAT week, an E1 week and a December payroll Friday are not the same list.

VAT is invoices and the send. The chase is a named company folder. If the send is stuck, or MyDATA rejected the invoices, that goes to a phone.

E1 is individuals, often after hours, often in more than one language. The chase is papers, not a box on the form. The failure is a walkthrough of foreign income.

Payroll Friday is headcount, a late change, a payment that has to go tomorrow. If they say payroll is tomorrow and broken, the purpose ends and a phone rings.

Teach the assistant the three shapes. If you give it one generic “deadline” label, it will treat a locked AADE account like a folder drop.

August needs its own dates. Some of you close for two weeks. Some of you leave one person on the books. Set the closure dates and the sentence for new books. Do not confirm a review in a week when the office is dark.

After the first list

Run a short list first. Ten folder chases two days before a send. Ten review reminders. Five new-book follow-ups. Read every transcript before you add volume.

You are not listening for warmth. You are listening for the extra sentence — the one that was not on the purpose line. The moment it almost named a figure, almost filled a box, almost treated an individual and a company as the same booking, almost rang a personal mobile, almost confirmed Thursday off last week’s export. Those are visible in the first week if you read the record.

Deadline season is when you will want to loosen the list. That is when you must not. Send on the papers you have, or flag a person. Do not let the assistant finish the return out loud so the send can go out.