Playbook, accounting firm
Fee queries from existing clients, answered from the engagement terms
The fee query at a practice is rarely about the amount. It is about a line the client did not expect, and the answer to it was agreed in an engagement letter nobody read. That makes this unusually answerable, because the practice's billing terms are fixed, written and not confidential, and most queries settle the moment somebody points at the clause about work outside the fixed fee. The assistant cannot open an invoice, and it does not need to.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for billing and invoices holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The dispute is about scope rather than price, so the material that resolves it is the exclusions list, not the fee schedule.
- Billing runs on a cycle attached to the compliance calendar, so clients query invoices that arrive at a time they did not expect for work they thought was already covered.
- The person asking is already engaged, so the reply is talking to somebody who signed terms, and it can point at what they agreed rather than at a sales page.
- Practices frequently arrange payment by instalment across a year for work delivered in one month, and how that shows up on an invoice is its own recurring question with a fixed answer.
How it arrives
- why have i been charged extra this month
- i thought the enquiry was covered by my fee
- when do you invoice for the annual accounts
- can i pay the fee monthly instead of in one go
- what is this additional work line on my invoice
- can you send me a copy of my invoice
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Your engagement terms on billing, in plain language | When invoices are raised, payment terms, what happens when records arrive late, how additional work is authorised and charged, and the notice period to leave. Not the letter, which nobody reads, but the summary the assistant can answer from. |
|---|---|
| The list of work that generates an additional fee | Enquiry handling, an extra return, an amended filing, a rushed job, chasing missing records. Every additional fee query is a question about this list, and a client shown the same wording they agreed to usually stops there. |
| Payment methods and instalment arrangements | Whether you offer monthly payment for annual work, which methods you accept, and what happens if a payment fails. This is high volume, entirely factual, and it saves your team the conversation about spreading a fee. |
| Who handles a billing query and how quickly | The person or address that reviews an invoice, what a client should include, and the response time. A billing query that is not routed within a day turns into a complaint about the fee rather than a question about it. |
The reply
Anything outside the fixed monthly fee is billed separately, and the most common additional lines are enquiry handling, amended filings and work to bring incomplete records up to date. Our engagement terms set out how that additional work is agreed before it is done. I cannot open your invoice or see what was charged on it, so if the line on yours is not clear, leave your name and email with the invoice reference and the accounts team will go through it with you.
It gives the general rule before disclaiming access, because a client who is only told the assistant cannot see the invoice feels stonewalled. Pointing at how additional work is agreed answers the real grievance, which is that it happened without warning. Asking for the invoice reference makes the handover useful to whoever picks it up instead of another round trip.
Where it stops
The trigger. The client refers to a specific invoice, amount or line on it, or disputes that a piece of work was ever agreed.
I cannot see your invoice or what was billed on it, and I do not want to guess at it. Leave your name, email and the invoice reference and the accounts team will go through the charge with you.
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 a charge looks correct, or that the amount is what the practice normally bills for that work.
- Never confirm whether a particular piece of work was agreed with the client.
- Never say a fee will be waived, reduced or credited.
- Never state whether an invoice has been paid, is overdue or sits on a payment plan.
Questions
- Should it be answering existing clients at all?
- It should be answering their process questions, which are a large share of the traffic in billing season. What it cannot do is look anything up, so the material has to be about how billing works rather than about any client's account, and the reply has to say so before the client asks twice.
- Can it take a fee dispute?
- It can capture it and get it to the right inbox with the invoice reference attached, which is what a client wants at that moment. Whether that counts as raising a formal query under your terms is worth settling before the widget goes live.
- What stops it inventing a reason for a charge?
- Answering only from the material you index, and refusing below a match threshold you set rather than reaching for the nearest page. If your additional fee list is indexed it quotes the list, and every answer carries citations so you can see what it used.
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 billing and invoices in generalInvoice copies, tax numbers, purchase order references. Nearly all of it is account specific, so the honest handling is process plus a clean handover.
- The onboarding steps that decide how fast a new client gets movingIdentity checks, agent authority and the professional clearance letter, explained at the enquiry stage rather than during the delay.
- Handing over when the numbers arriveA general question stops being general the moment somebody supplies their own facts. The trigger, the wording, and the deadline to capture.
- A prospect wants a meeting. Which meeting, and can it happen this week?Which meeting is being asked for, why the answer changes near a filing date, and why nothing here can put anything in a partner's diary.
Try it on your own material
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