A client sends a photograph of a receipt with the message asking whether this counts. Then another asks whether she needs to keep the paper copy now that it is scanned. Then a third asks how far back he should be keeping bank statements.
None of these are difficult. All of them arrive individually, all year, and each takes a reply.
What clients ask
They usually ask what they need to keep, whether photographs are acceptable, whether paper copies are needed once something is scanned, how long records must be kept, what to do about lost receipts, how to record cash, what counts as a business expense, how to handle personal purchases on a business card and what to do with old records.
Separate administration from advice
Which records to keep and for how long is administration, set by official guidance. Whether something is deductible, how it is treated and what it means for a tax position is advice that belongs with an accountant.
Example conversations
These scripts use information a practice might publish. Your answers should come from your own pages.
Client: Do I still need the paper receipt if I have photographed it? Assistant: The records page explains what the practice needs, including which digital formats are accepted and how documents should be submitted. Retention requirements are set by the tax authority and the page links to the official guidance. Would you like the link to the submission process?
Client: I have lost a receipt for something I bought in March. What do I do? Assistant: The page explains what to do about missing documentation, including what alternative evidence can be used and how it is recorded. If it is significant your bookkeeper can look at it with you. Could you let me know roughly what it was for and the amount?
Client: Can I put this through the business? Assistant: Whether something is a business expense depends on the circumstances, so that is one for your accountant rather than something I can answer. The page explains how to flag a query so it is looked at when your records are processed.
Publish a records list
What to send, in what format, how often and through which route. One page prevents a great many individual exchanges.
Explain the submission process
Photograph, app, email or a folder. Being specific about how you want documents means you receive them in a usable form rather than as forty separate messages.
Explain what happens to badly kept records
Gently. More work, more questions and a higher fee. Clients who understand the connection between their organisation and their bill improve, which is the pricing point in monthly bookkeeping package questions.
Point to the official retention guidance
Rather than restating periods that vary and change. A link is more accurate and more useful than a half-remembered number.
Explain digital record keeping requirements
Where digital record keeping obligations apply, what that means practically and what software is needed. Clients hear about requirements and panic without knowing what applies to them.
Never answer a deductibility question
It is the boundary that matters most in bookkeeping, and holding it protects both the practice and the client.
Write the answers once
The recurring questions can be drafted quickly with the AI FAQ generator and published rather than retyped.
Clients assess practices on responsiveness
It is the pattern in what clients ask before choosing a solicitor, handling client documents carefully is covered in AI chatbot security questions to ask a vendor, and switching practices is covered in software and handover questions when switching bookkeepers.
Getting started
Publish your records list, submission process and the official retention guidance, then answer administrative questions at any hour without touching tax advice. SpideyChat for accountants and bookkeepers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.