I've recently signed up a new client who is quite some distance from me. Although some pdf files can be shared easily with DropBox e.g. bank statements, copies of sales invoices - how do you receive copies of documents for such things like a receipt purchased via the web? There is an email receipt - do they print and post all their paperwork to you? Or forward by email for you to print? etc
His accounts need updating from 1st April and most of his purchases are via the web. Going forward I can ask him to send me his accounts on a monthly basis and collate them as he goes.
I'd be interested to know what some of you do in practice.
Well done with the new client. I have a few remote clients and the method of getting the paperwork to me varies. For receipts for online purchases you can get a number of pieces of free software that will allow these to be printed to a pdf file instead of to paper.
One of the things I am looking at doing with remote clients is signing them up to a service like receiptbank where they post all their paperwork and it gets scanned, sorted and detailed for me to prepare their accounts and doing away with the need to have any papers about.
I would suggest that a good way to approach this is to see what your client wants to do. The fact that your client is remote isn't that relevant. For example, I have clients who are within walking distance of my office who prefer to keep things electronic. By contrast, I have a client about 100 miles away (an IT consultant!) who prefers paper, and who is happy to stick his lever arch file in the post. Both ways work for me.
I would be inclined to throw the ball into their court, give them the options and let them decide.
The IT consultant reference really rings bells with me Nick.
I come from that world and across the board the people that I worked with would not trust technology to get even this right. Obviously we were all just too jaundiced by the day job.
With myself I didn't trust the post office either and would always hand deliver my books to the accountant.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Shaun, the guy does all kind of wonderful things with systems, and then uses Sage (badly!) for his bookkeeping. He prints off his sales invoices. Presumably he likes paper.
