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Request lists

A request is a list of what you need from a client: documents, answers to your questions, or anything else to do. The client completes it item by item under To-dos in their portal, and you review each item as it comes in.

Make a request

  1. Go to Requests › New request. Choose the Client and, if you like, a template under Start from, then click Continue. On a client's page, Documents and requests › Ask for something opens the same form.
  2. Fill in the Title, the Engagement (optional), the Please by date and a Message to the client.
  3. Under What you need, add one row per thing: choose its Type, then say What we need.
    • Documents: the client uploads files and clicks Send.
    • Information: the client answers your question and clicks Save answer. Under Answer, choose Text, Yes or no, Date, Number or Dollar amount.
    • General: something to do or tell you. The client clicks Mark as done, with a note or files if they like.
  4. Add Details where they help, such as which months. Add rows gives you more; blank rows are left out.
  5. Click Send to … (the button shows the client's name), or Save as draft.

To reuse a list, such as last year's, choose it under Copy the items of another request: its items are added after yours.

A draft is seen only by the firm. Send it later from its page. Once a request is sent, changes you make with Edit show in the client's portal right away.

Use templates

Requests › Templates keeps the requests you send again and again. You start with three: T1 checklist, Year-end list and New client onboarding. Change or delete them like your own.

  • New template asks for a Name (clients don't see it), a Title for the client, the service to File it under, Please by (days after it's sent), a Message to the client and the items. Click Make the template.
  • For one client starts a request from the template, to change before it goes.
  • To keep a request as a template, open it and choose Save as a template in its More actions menu (⋯).

A request made from a template is its own copy: changing the template later doesn't change it.

Send a template to many clients

  1. Click Send to clients on a template, or Send a template to many clients in the More actions menu (⋯) of Requests. You can also tick clients under Clients and click Send a request.
  2. Choose the Template and click Use this template. Change the Title for the client, Please by date and Message to the client if you like.
  3. Check the clients. The page lists the ones you ticked, or your active clients with the template's service; otherwise, choose some with the filters at the top. Untick the ones to leave out. A client that Has it open already starts unticked.
  4. Click Send to the ticked clients, or Save as drafts.

Each client gets its own copy, filed under its engagement for the template's service when it has one.

Review what comes back

Requests shows each request's progress and status: Draft, Waiting on the client, Past due or Complete. Open a request to see each item's answer or files, with who sent them and when. Answers you haven't seen yet are marked New.

  • Accept an item that has what you need, or Accept all when several are waiting.
  • Send back an item that's missing something. Say What's missing or wrong? and click Send back to …. It's back on the client's list with your note.
  • Mark done an item you already have, for example by email.
  • Not needed takes an item off the client's list. Put it back on their list undoes it.

The request is Complete once every item is accepted, marked done or not needed.

Email the client

  • Email the client when it's sent, on the request form, sends the list to the client's contacts who can sign in.
  • After sending items back, click the Email … button under Sent back, not emailed yet: one email tells the client what needs another look.
  • Email a reminder, on a sent request, emails what's still to give. Tick several requests under Requests to remind them all at once.

To remind clients automatically until a request is done, see Reminders.

Good to know

  • A client sees a request only once it's sent, and only if one of its contacts can sign in to the portal.
  • Files the client sends are kept with its documents, under the request's engagement. Deleting the request keeps them.
  • You're emailed about the first new answer, then not again until someone has opened the request, and when the client finishes it.
  • If the client changes an answer you accepted, it needs your review again.
  • The whole team can make requests and templates. Sending a template to many clients at once is for partners, managers, owners and admins.