THIS WEEK RECONCILED
The quarter is in the chase
If you had MTD clients on Saturday's deadline, the update itself was probably the quickest part.
Bright Software Group surveyed practices after August's deadline. Most spent under half an hour per client on the submission, yet 60% are now spending more time per client overall, mainly on digital records and client communication. Seven in ten MTD clients don't use bookkeeping software, and 55% of practices are keying in paper records for them.
That chase used to happen once a year per client. Now it happens every quarter, and it's about to happen for a lot more clients. HMRC has confirmed the threshold falls from £50,000 to £30,000 in April 2027, and to £20,000 in April 2028.
So this week you get three fixes you can start before the next deadline, a prompt that drafts the records request for you, and a two-minute sum that shows what client email is costing your practice.
RECONCILED ROUNDUP
Worth knowing this week
A Saturday deadline, with the agent line closed
For the 7 November deadline, HMRC opened the Self Assessment helpline from 9am to 3pm on the Saturday, but the Agent Dedicated Line wasn't available. Why it matters. The next quarterly deadline, 7 February 2027, falls on a Sunday. Weekend deadlines will keep happening, so plan for updates to go in during the week before.
No penalty points this year
Late quarterly updates don't attract penalty points during 2026/27, though they still have to be filed before the tax return can go in. Why it matters. This is the one year a slow chase costs you time rather than penalties. Fix the process now, before the points start in 2027/28.
The two chase seasons now overlap
The third quarterly update is due on 7 February 2027, a week after the 31 January self assessment deadline. Why it matters. For clients in both, the records requests for quarter three are best sent in December.
THE CHASE RECONCILED
Three fixes before 7 February
Start with the first one this week, because the quarter three records requests go out in December. None of the three needs new software, and each one makes every quarter after this quicker.
How to run it
Stop rewriting the same chaser. Template the records request, one per client type, written the way you'd ask across the desk, listing exactly what you need and a date well before the deadline. This week's prompt drafts it.
Stop routine questions waiting for a partner. Keep a key facts note on every file with the year end, filing and payment deadlines, VAT and MTD quarters, and how the client likes to be spoken to. Then anyone on the team can answer the routine question, not only the partner.
Find out which replies to write once. Tally a week of client email, one line per email, noting what it was really asking. The same few questions will rise to the top, and those are the replies to write once.
Do the two-minute sum first. Hours a week on client email, times your charge-out rate, times 46 working weeks. If the answer surprises you, it's worth fixing before the threshold drops.
YOUR QUESTIONS RECONCILED
"Can I paste a client's email into ChatGPT to draft the reply?"
Not with client details in it, and not into a public tool. The PCRT bodies' joint AI guidance, issued in January, says putting client data into publicly available AI tools is likely to breach client confidentiality unless the client has consented.
There are three ways to stay on the right side of it. Use a business plan with contractual data protection rather than a free account, and check whether a paid personal plan really keeps your data out of training. Strip names, figures and references before anything goes into a public tool. And where client data has to be used, get the client's consent and note it in your engagement letter.
Whatever drafts the reply, a qualified person reads it before it's sent. As ICAEW has put it, AI tools are not fully qualified accountants. This is a summary, so read the full guidance before relying on it.
PROMPTS RECONCILED
This week's prompt
Use it for every MTD client this quarter. It drafts the records request without any client data going in, so all you add is the name and the dates, then read it before it goes.
"Write a short, friendly email to a sole trader client asking for their records for the MTD quarter ending [date]. List exactly what we need, give a deadline of [date], and explain in one sentence why we need it early. Plain English, under 120 words, no jargon, and end with one clear next step. Don't include any figures or personal details."
Your turn
Hit reply with one number, the hours a week you spend on client email. It takes ten seconds, and next week we'll publish the Reconciled readers' figure so you can see how your practice compares.
Aaron & Loz
P.S. New to Reconciled? Get Signed Off, 4 free Claude skills UK accountants will use this week. One of them, House Style, drafts records chasers in your firm's voice, which is this week's first fix done for you. Setup takes ten minutes.
Aaron Burton FCCA CTA · Laurence Maynard FCCA MAAT · Richard Allen
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Reconciled is for informational purposes only. Nothing here constitutes professional accounting, tax, or legal advice. Always apply your own professional judgement before acting on anything published here.