Records request letter template for accountants: three letters, from first ask to "we cannot file"

AccountingWEB put it in a headline: "MTD didn't add tax work. It added the chasing." Four quarterly updates a year, each needing bank statements, sales invoices and receipts that the client has not sent, is four rounds of asking. This tool writes the letters so the asking at least takes no time.

Free tool

Records request letter maker (MTD quarter, year end or VAT return)

Practice name and address Client name What the records are for Date you need them by Filing deadline Letter1: first request2: reminder, deadline close3: final, we cannot file without these Signed by

What is missing

Bank statements Sales invoices Purchase receipts Mileage log Payroll summaries Rental statements

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The three letters

1. The first request. Sent as soon as the period ends, listing exactly what is needed and the date you need it by. It asks for photos or PDFs by email or the portal, and invites the client to say if something is not available. The tone is routine: this is what happens every quarter.

2. The reminder. Sent when the deadline is close and nothing has arrived. It refers to the first letter, repeats the list, names the filing deadline and asks for the records today or a date. Still friendly; now specific.

3. The final letter. Sent a week before filing. It says the practice cannot prepare and submit without the records, that any late filing penalty or penalty point is charged to the client, and that the practice would have to confirm in writing that it could not act. Then it offers a phone call. This is the letter that gets a reply, because it moves the cost to where it sits.

Why the dates are set the way they are

The tool's defaults give the client ten days from the first request, send the reminder at fourteen days before filing and the final letter at seven. That leaves the practice a working week after the final letter to do the work. Compress it and the practice ends up doing a quarter's bookkeeping in two days; stretch it and the reminder lands before the client has opened the first letter.

What to ask for

The tick list covers the usual: bank statements for every business account, sales invoices raised in the period, purchase invoices and receipts, the mileage log, payroll summaries and rental statements. Tick what this client actually owes you. A list of three things gets answered; a list of ten gets put off.

Clients on a bank feed with receipt capture need far less chasing, which is the real fix. Our guide on how to stop clients sending records late covers the policy that makes the letters rare.

Email, portal or post

Email is the default: it is dated, it carries attachments back, and the client can forward it to whoever holds the records. The portal is better for clients who already upload there, because the request can sit next to the upload button. Post is for the final letter to a client who does not answer email; a printed letter on practice paper, with the penalty figure in it, is read differently. The maker produces a sheet that prints or saves as a PDF for any of the three.

Whichever route, send each letter from the same named person. A request from "the practice" is easy to ignore; one from the person who will be doing the work is not.

Do not send letter 3 first

The sequence is the point. A client who gets the final letter as the first contact feels threatened and goes quiet. A client who has had two friendly asks and then reads that the penalty is theirs usually sends the records that afternoon. Keep the dates of each letter on the client file; if the filing is late anyway, the file shows the practice asked three times.

For what the penalties are, use the Self Assessment penalty calculator and the MTD deadline checker.