Playbook, accounting firm
A client cannot get in to approve their accounts
Three unrelated things get called access at a practice. There is the portal a client signs into to approve a set of accounts, there is the authority the client granted for the practice to act as their agent, and there is the login to a bookkeeping system that belongs to the client rather than to the practice. Somebody who cannot get in has one of these problems and does not know which.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for account access problems holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The portal is used a handful of times a year, mostly at the point of approving accounts, so nearly every access failure happens under time pressure and to somebody who had forgotten they ever had a login.
- Agent authority is not a login and cannot be reset like one: it is permission the client granted and can withdraw, and losing access to an inbox has nothing to do with whether the practice is still authorised.
- The bookkeeping system frequently belongs to the client with the practice holding a user account inside it, so a client locked out of their own books is asking the practice about a system it does not administer.
- Access at a small company is often shared between a director and whoever does the invoicing, and when that person leaves the request that arrives is really about who is now entitled to approve figures.
How it arrives
- i cannot log in to approve my accounts
- i never got the link to sign the accounts
- can you reset my password for the portal
- does my accountant still have authority to act for me
- our bookkeeper has left who can access the books now
- can you send the accounts by email instead
What has to be indexed for this to work
| How the approval portal works, in the client's words | How an invitation arrives, how long a link lasts, what to do when it has expired, and who can issue a new one. Write it for somebody who last used it a year ago, because that is who is reading it. |
|---|---|
| What agent authority is, and what it is not | What the client granted, what it covers, how it is withdrawn, and why it is untouched by anything to do with a password. Clients merge the two constantly and the confusion surfaces at the worst possible time. |
| Which systems the practice administers and which it does not | Where you can help with access and where the client owns the account outright. Saying so plainly beats a referral that reads to the client as being passed around. |
| Who is entitled to approve accounts for a business | Which role signs off, and what you need when that person changes. This is the question underneath most access requests from a company rather than from an individual. |
The reply
It depends which login you mean. The approval portal has its own sign in and invitations expire, so usually a fresh one has to be issued rather than a password reset [1]. That is separate from the authority you gave us to act as your agent, which is unaffected by anything to do with a password [2]. Where the bookkeeping system is your own account, we hold a user in it and cannot reset your access. I cannot see or reset any of it. Leave me your name, an email, which one you mean and any date you are working to.
It sorts the three logins before answering, because the client has merged them and the wrong answer sends somebody off to a system nobody at the practice controls. The line about agent authority meets the fear underneath the question. The limit is named once rather than apologised for throughout.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor cannot get in, needs an invitation reissued, or is asking who is entitled to approve or to access anything.
I cannot reset a login, issue an invitation or check what access anybody has. Leave me your name, an email and which system you are trying to get into, and say if there is a date you are working to.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say an invitation has been reissued or a password reset, because nothing here touches any system.
- Never confirm whether the practice currently holds authority to act for somebody.
- Never tell a visitor who has access to a business's books or who may approve its accounts.
- Never offer to send accounts by email as a way round the approval route unless your material says that is available.
Questions
- Can it reset the portal password?
- No, and it should say so in the first line. It has no access to any system and cannot write anywhere. Its value here is working out which of the three logins somebody actually has a problem with.
- Why does this spike before a filing date?
- Because approving accounts is the only time most clients touch the portal at all. Expect the volume there, and make sure the reply captures the date so the messages can be worked in deadline order rather than arrival order.
- Somebody asks whether we still act for them. Should it answer?
- No. It can explain what agent authority is and how it is granted and withdrawn. Whether it is in place for a particular person is a lookup, and there is nothing here to look it up in.
Keep reading
- Everything for a accounting firmDeadlines drive the volume. What an accountancy practice can automate, and why no answer may touch a caller's own numbers.
- Handling account access problems in generalLocked out, wrong email, a colleague who left, no admin remaining. Identity cannot be checked in a widget, so explain, collect, hand over.
- The questions people are too embarrassed to ask before a first meetingHow long it takes, who is in the room, whether it is chargeable, and what to bring when the records are in no state to show anybody.
- Eleven at night, and somebody wants an accountant by morningNothing can be taken on overnight and pretending otherwise costs more than saying so. What to publish for the late panic enquiry.
- Publishing accountancy fees so the assistant routes to the right packageFixed monthly packages against hourly work, priced by client profile, and why the answer changes in the weeks before a filing deadline.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.