File completeness check
Watches for incomplete client files.
All workflow examples
Workflow example: Accounting and bookkeeping practices
Business profile
A business and workflow you can recognize.
An accounting and bookkeeping practice working across client files, email, and document storage.
The challenge
Where the work starts to slip.
Generic reminders go out. Clients send partial files. Staff chase missing items across email threads. Files remain incomplete because no one owns the next specific request.
Canadian context: CRA research connects almost half of a sampled set of business-objection files to record-keeping issues (2020). NATP reports that nearly three quarters of U.S. tax professionals regularly encounter missing or incomplete documentation (2026), while a Canopy survey reports that 69% of 150 accountants feel they spend too much time gathering documents (2022).
The review
Measure the real workflow before changing it.
We measure a two-week baseline. We track staff hours spent checking threads, active requests, requests needing another manual follow-up, and files still incomplete at the agreed deadline. The baseline is measured locally, not assumed.
How the work moves
Routine steps move forward. Decisions stay with your team.
Client context
Assembles what is missing and what the client already sent.
Specific request
Prepares a specific request rather than a generic reminder.
Reply handling
Sorts replies as sent, question, or still missing.
File check
Checks the received set for completeness and flags what remains.
Interactive prototype
See how a document request reaches a verified filing.
Choose a subcontractor response, review the prepared request, and see how the system tracks the document while financial decisions stay with the accountant.
- System support
- Detect missing documents, track deadlines, prepare requests, and verify completeness.
- Your team decides
- Approve requests, handle sensitive exceptions, and make filing decisions.
Missing T5018Overdue 3 weeks
- Subcontractor
- Lavoie Electrical
- Filing deadline
- 15 days remaining
- Current state
- Awaiting approval
- ✓Missing document detected
- ✓Deadline and history assembled
- ✓Request prepared
- 4Approval
- 5Request sent
- 6Response classified
- 7Completeness verified
- 8Record updated
Prepared request
A clear document request is ready for review.
The system used the subcontractor file, the filing calendar, and the missing-form template. It did not alter tax records or make compliance determinations.
Activity record
Missing document detected, deadline checked, request prepared, and approval requested.
The rollout
Start controlled. Earn capability from evidence.
Week 1: Connect and baseline
Map active files, name missing items, and assign owners and due dates.
Week 2: Observe and prepare
Draft specific requests for staff approval.
Weeks 3 to 4: Operate
Send requests, classify replies, verify uploads, and stop reminders when an item arrives.
Weeks 5 to 8: Earn responsibility
Send routine requests within agreed limits. Keep professional file-completeness judgment with firm staff.
The results
Make the scenario and the measures explicit.
Illustrative scenario with a fictional baseline to be replaced by measured practice data.
- Starting state: a five-person practice logs 20 staff-hours over two weeks on document follow-up = 10 hours/week.
- Starting state: 40 active requests. Of those, 12 need a second manual follow-up and 6 remain incomplete at the agreed deadline.
- Pilot target: chase burden 10 → 5 hours/week. Second follow-ups 12/40 → 6/40. Incomplete at deadline 6/40 → 3/40.
- Illustrative annualized capacity if sustained: 5 hours × 48 weeks = 240 hours/year. This is scenario arithmetic, not a promise.
What stays with your team
The firm keeps control of professional judgment.
- Professional file-completeness judgment stays with firm staff.
- Every request names the exact missing item, is written, and carries a due date. This follows AICPA recommendations.
- Request, upload, and reminder history is preserved.
- Sensitive client situations go to a person.
What comes next
Expand only when the evidence supports it.
Once document collection is running, the same operating model can support client updates and follow-up. The workflow can use the firm’s established file process to keep clients moving.