Collecting documents from clients: getting delivery in order

Why is collecting documents the basis of correct books?

Collecting documents is the basis because every booking starts with a source document. Without a purchase invoice there is no correct expense booking and no input VAT deduction, and without a receipt there is no explanation for a card payment. As long as documents are missing, bank transactions remain unexplained and you cannot close a period or file a VAT return with confidence.

In practice, delivery is often the slowest link. Clients collect receipts in a shoebox, forward invoices from different email addresses or deliver everything at once just before the deadline. For the firm that means peaks in workload, lots of investigation and repeated chasing. Setting up delivery properly and structurally shortens the turnaround time of the whole administration.

Which documents do you need from a client?

For complete books you need every document that supports a financial transaction from each client. Bank statements usually come in through a bank feed in the accounting software; the rest has to be delivered by the client or collected from the source. Documents for small amounts are needed too, because otherwise they stay on the bank as unexplained items.

Keep in mind that Dutch businesses have a statutory retention obligation (bewaarplicht): the core records of the administration, such as invoices and receipts, generally have to be kept for seven years. Digital delivery and storage make that obligation easier to meet than a paper archive. The documents you need per period include at least:

• Purchase invoices from suppliers, including subscriptions and recurring costs.
• Sales invoices, if the client invoices outside the administration.
• Receipts for card and cash payments.
• Credit notes for returns and corrections.
• Explanations for deviating or unknown payments.

Which delivery channels work best for clients?

The delivery channels that work best are the ones clients already use. A business owner who receives an invoice by email forwards it most easily to a fixed address, or better still, connects the mailbox so invoices are collected automatically. A receipt from the hardware store is delivered fastest as a photo from the phone.

Most important is that all channels end up in the same place. An invoice sent to a team member via WhatsApp and a receipt arriving through a shared folder should both land in the same administration, without anyone forwarding them by hand. A useful mix is a fixed purchase and sales address per administration, an app for receipts, a connected mailbox for invoices and a portal for bulk uploads.

How do you set up document delivery per client?

You set up delivery per client by agreeing with the client which documents arrive through which channel, and when. That conversation takes some time once, but prevents months of chasing afterwards. Choose as few actions per client as possible: whatever can be collected automatically, the client does not need to forward.

Also agree on what happens when something is missing. Clients respond better to a concrete question about one transaction than to a general reminder to deliver everything. By linking delivery to client questions, the client knows exactly which documents are still needed. A step-by-step plan that works for most clients:

1. 1List where invoices come in: mailbox, supplier portals, paper or cloud storage.
2. 2Connect the client's mailbox or cloud storage so invoices are collected automatically.
3. 3Give the client a fixed purchase and sales email address for anything that does not arrive automatically.
4. 4Have receipts delivered via the client app or WhatsApp, right after the purchase.
5. 5Agree on a fixed delivery frequency, for example weekly or monthly.
6. 6Raise missing documents as client questions, linked to the bank transaction.

How does Autoboeker collect documents automatically?

Autoboeker collects documents through Connect, which links external sources to an administration's client portal. Gmail and Outlook connect in two clicks, after which Connect recognises invoices in the mailbox and collects them. Other mailboxes, including iCloud, connect via IMAP. Receipts can be sent via WhatsApp, and documents from SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox come in as well.

Each administration also has a purchase and a sales email address, the firm and the client can upload with bulk drag-and-drop, and there is a client app for iOS and Android. Documents from the Exact digital mailbox can be collected, and for SnelStart administrations Autoboeker fetches documents from SnelStart. For payments, Mollie, Stripe and PayPal can be connected. Everything arrives in the right administration and moves on to AI processing.

What do you do with clients who deliver late or incompletely?

With clients who deliver late or incompletely, a targeted question per missing document works better than a general reminder. In Autoboeker a bank transaction without a receipt or invoice becomes a client question in the client portal and app, and Autoboeker follows up automatically if the client does not respond. That way you do not have to chase it yourself.

When the client then sends a receipt via WhatsApp or an invoice arrives in the connected mailbox, Connect automatically matches the document to the open client question. The document is analysed by the AI, booked and matched. Per client you can see which actions are still open, so at the next contact you know exactly what is missing. The client also sees in the portal what is needed and what has already been taken care of.