Reminder Service

[Bookkeeper Addict]

Evening/Morning forumers :)

Hope long weekend has started nicely.

I am thinking of offering a reminder service on my new website for all key dates.

E.g for tax hmrc limited self employed etc.

Do you know anyone currently offering this service FREE? Thats what i want to do?

If so links would be super.

Thank You.

Julie Ann xxx

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi

Yes if you look at any accountants websites who use Total Solution (and an awful lot do) -

http://www.yourfirmonline.co.uk/

its one of the many features which are included as part of the monthly charge.

In a former life I used to use them for my firms website. The downside to the automatic reminders is that it reminds all clients of all relevant dates. So I'd end up with clients asking why I was reminding them of PAYE deadlines when they werent employers etc. In the end it became more of a nuisance than a helpful service.

[Bookkeeper Addict]

Thanks Nicola. Thats great.

Is there any free versions? Like enter your email address here and recieve everything.

Im thinking of having a ticky box reply off uers of the website where they select exactly what reminders they want.

Do you know of any?

Thanks you

Julie Ann

xxxxx

[MyAccountantOnline]

Thanks Nicola. Thats great.

Is there any free versions? Like enter your email address here and recieve everything.

Im thinking of having a ticky box reply off uers of the website where they select exactly what reminders they want.

Do you know of any?

Thanks you

Julie Ann

xxxxx

Hi Julie Ann

I dont actually know of any free options, apart from those offered as part of the service fee-paying clients get from their accountants.

Without meaning to sound negative one downside I see of a tick box type system is that some people, especially those new to business, wont actually know what reminders they need.

[Bookkeeper Addict]

Thanks Nicola. Help appreciated.

Something i will need to look into i think.

Would anyone know of a key reminders calendar that i can view?

Just looking for ideas really...

Thank you

Julie anne.

[Peter Bowen]

Hi Julie Anne,

We're in the process of building just such a service at www.petesalmanac.com (careful there is a lot of wet paint).

Cheers

Pete

[Bookkeeper Addict]

Thanks very much :):):):):):)

Julie Anne.

[Zeno]

I suspect what your clients would really prefer (as mine do) is a phonecall or letter (or email, text, Tweet, poke [whatever the devil they are] for you modern types) telling them the deadlines specific to their business - CH filing date, Tax return to HMRC etc.

This lets clients know you are actively thinking of them (assuming your don't call to say your accounts are due tomorrow...).

[David Griffiths]

There's also the question of how much notice that you give of filing deadlines, particularly for accounts. One month is probably too short, but six months is probably going to get ignored.

[Philip Hoyle]

I'd agree with Zeno.

As Nicola said, there are the specialist accountant websites that do the reminders automatically or include them in the monthly newsletter, but I've found that the clients to whom it mattered just ignored them, and the clients who were already on top of things were the ones that panicked and thought there was something wrong because they took the reminders personally - cue un-necessary phone calls and emails from clients! One website provider I used (maybe the totalsolutions one I think) sent a regular reminder automatically to remind clients to submit a form to HMRC giving details of changes in company cars provided - we had no clients with company cars but couldn't stop the reminders - made us look quite foolish!

I also agree with Nicola that many business owners simply don't know what they need to do and for that reason can't really be trusted to select their own reminders. But if you send them reminders for everything possible, they'll get confused and maybe waste time trying to do something that they don't need to do. There's no easy answer, unless, perhaps, instead of the system giving a simple "tick box" for what reminders are needed, it went through a question and answer session, the results of which triggered the reminders - for example, instead of asking whether you need reminders for the P46(car) it would ask whether the business provided company cars - if yes, trigger the P46(car) reminders and the P11d reminder, but if no, then no such reminders - if you see what I mean.

I've gone back to contacting clients directly and personally as and when they need reminding. I use my own system of job and deadline control of my own, which together with a good personal knowledge of each client, means that I can write or email clients at the "right" time to remind them that things need doing. Some clients will always ignore reminders sent early and need a "jog" at the last possible moment - other clients like to be well prepared and appreciate early reminders.

Take the current P35s due by the end of May. Now that I've been doing them for many clients for several years, I know which ones it simply isn't worth me chasing up this early - they'll never approve the forms until the last few days regardless of how many times I remind them so there's just no point in reminding them - one client always sends me the signed form back the day before submission is due - he's always done that and always will.

Since I've turned away from the "turnkey" accountant websites and automated systems and back to doing it manually and personally, I've had far better client feedback - clients know when they're at the receiving end of an automated mail and when they've been sent an email personally and take more notice of the latter. It makes the client feel more valued and makes me give more thought to each client, giving me the opportunity to add value to the relationship. I tend to "copy and paste" the main body of the email, but add a couple of personalised sentances - it makes a world of difference and takes next to no time at all.

For me to use any form of automated system, it would have to be very flexible with lots of "tick box" selections so that it could be programmed to treat each client individually both in terms of which reminders are sent, and also when and how often they are sent.

What would also be good is some degree of client control so that they can "tick a box" to send back a message that they had acted on the reminder so that further reminders weren't sent, or for those that hadn't, so that further reminders were sent.