Guide

How bookkeepers can collect receipts from clients without chasing

Every bookkeeper knows the month-end email: “Can you send me your receipts?”, followed by a week of reminders. Clients aren't ignoring you. Sending receipts is just one more job they do from memory. This guide sets up a routine where receipts reach you on a fixed day without the client logging in anywhere. MonthEnd gives each client business its own forwarding address and emails you their month as a ZIP and a spreadsheet on the day you agree.

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Why clients don't send receipts

• It's a batch job. Asking for a whole month at once means the client has to search their inbox, phone and wallet in one sitting, so it gets put off.
• There are too many places. Receipts arrive by email, sit on vendor billing pages and come home as paper. Each one needs a different action.
• Portals add steps. Logging into an upload portal, finding the right folder and attaching files is several steps. Forwarding an email they already have is one.
• The deadline is soft. “When you get a chance” has no date, so there is no point at which the client is late.

Step 1: Give every client one place to send receipts

Pick a single destination per client business, so receipts from two clients never mix and you always know whose file you are looking at. A dedicated email address works best, because most receipts already arrive by email and every client knows how to forward one. Paper receipts fit too: the client photographs the receipt and emails the photo to the same address.

Step 2: Agree a send day in writing

Choose one day each month when the previous month's receipts are due, such as the 1st or the 3rd, and put it in your engagement letter or onboarding email. A fixed day turns “please send your receipts” into a deadline you both expect, and it tells you when to start the close.

Step 3: Do a 15-minute setup call at onboarding

Most of the chasing disappears if the client's inbox does the work. On a short screen share:

1. Open the client's last card statement and list the vendors that bill every month.
2. For each one, find a real receipt email and note the exact From address.
3. Create a Gmail filter or Outlook rule for each address that forwards a copy to the client's receipt address. The Gmail and Outlook forwarding guide has the steps.
4. For vendors that only post invoices on a billing page, turn on emailed invoices if the vendor offers it.
5. Ask anyone else who buys for the business, such as a partner or assistant, to set up the same filters.

Fifteen minutes once is far less work than twelve rounds of reminders a year.

Step 4: Tell clients exactly what to send

Clients do better with a short, specific rule than with a general request. A message you can adapt:

“Please forward every business receipt and invoice to your receipt address as soon as it arrives. For paper receipts, take a photo the same day and email it to the same address. Make sure the vendor, date and total are readable. Everything for the month is due by the 1st.”

Step 5: Ask for the same package every month

Reconciling is faster when every client's month looks the same:

• The files (PDFs and photos), in one ZIP, named consistently.
• A spreadsheet with one row per receipt: date, vendor, amount and currency, so you can match receipts to bank lines.
• A note on anything the client already knows is missing.

Step 6: Send one short missing list after reconciling

Once you've matched the package against the bank and card feeds, send one list of what's still missing, not a drip of separate emails. For each item give the date, the exact amount and the bank description, for example “$84.20 on the 12th, GOOGLE*WORKSPACE”. Clients can find a specific charge in seconds. “Please send your October receipts” gets put off. The missing receipt guide is a useful link to include.

When the same vendor shows up on the list two months running, add a forwarding filter for it so it stops coming back.

Clients who won't change how they work

• Start with paper. If a client mostly has paper receipts, the same-day photo habit is the one change worth asking for. Thermal receipts fade, and a clear photo is easier to read later.
• Do the filters for them. Many clients will happily let you set up forwarding on a call but would never do it alone.
• Keep the ask the same. One address, one send day and one list each month. The routine gets easier every time it repeats.

What counts as enough proof for an expense depends on where the client files and the type of expense, so set your own standard for what you need and tell clients once, up front.

Then let MonthEnd send the month

MonthEnd gives each client business its own forwarding address, such as clientname@usemonthend.com. The client points their Gmail or Outlook filters at it, forwards receipts by hand, or emails phone photos (JPG, PNG and iPhone HEIC work). Each receipt is kept in private storage and sorted by month, and the client can fix the vendor, date or amount. If a Stripe or Paddle email has no file, MonthEnd tries to fetch the invoice. On the send day (the 1st by default, or any day from 1 to 28) you get the previous month as one short email with a ZIP and a CSV with one row per receipt (date, vendor, amount, currency, filename), and the client gets a copy. There is no new app for you to learn. Pro covers up to 5 businesses and adds CSV files for Xero and QuickBooks import. Start a 14-day trial, no card needed to start, or read the month-end receipts checklist.

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