The approval problem in bookkeeping
If you run a bookkeeping firm with more than a handful of clients, you know the drill. Receipts arrive via email. Vendor bills sit in a shared inbox. W-9s get stored in Google Drive. Client onboarding means 15 back-and-forth emails. Every. Single. Time.
The problem isn't that your team is disorganized. The problem is that your tools weren't built for this. Email isn't an approval system. Slack threads aren't an audit trail. Google Forms doesn't have approval chains.
Here are the five workflows that every bookkeeping firm needs — and how to set them up properly.
1. Expense Reimbursement
The problem: Employees send receipts as email attachments or drop them in Slack threads. You scroll through months of messages to find the right one. Month-end reconciliation is painful because nothing is standardized.
The fix: A dedicated expense form with fields for date, amount, category, cost center, and receipt upload. When an employee submits, the request routes to the right approver based on amount. Under $500? Goes to the bookkeeper. Over $500? Automatically escalated to the business owner.
Every approval is logged with identity and timestamp. Export the trail as CSV for reconciliation. No more "who approved this $800 software subscription?"
2. Vendor Bill Approval
The problem: Vendor invoices arrive via email, get forwarded to the business owner for approval, and sometimes sit unanswered for weeks. The bookkeeper follows up three times. The bill goes past due. Nobody is happy.
The fix: A vendor bill intake form with invoice number, amount, due date, and GL account fields. Bills are routed through a structured approval chain — the bookkeeper reviews first, then large bills (say, over $5,000) automatically escalate to the business owner.
GL account tagging during review means the approved data is ready for QuickBooks or Xero export. No more manual data entry after the fact.
3. W-9 Collection
The problem: You need W-9s from every vendor before you can issue 1099s. Vendors email them as PDFs. Some include their Tax ID in the email body — in plain text. You store everything in a shared folder. One breach and you're liable.
The fix: A secure W-9 collection form with encrypted Tax ID fields. The Tax ID is encrypted with AES-256-GCM the moment it's submitted. It displays as •••••4567 in your dashboard. Revealing the full value requires admin access — and every reveal is logged with identity and timestamp.
Vendors upload their W-9 PDF directly through the form. Files are stored securely with presigned URLs. No public access, no shared folders, no email attachments with sensitive data.
4. Document Requests
The problem: Every month, you need bank statements, receipts, and transaction reports from your clients. You send email reminders. Some clients respond. Some don't. You track submissions in a spreadsheet. It's manual, error-prone, and time-consuming.
The fix: A document request workspace per client. Share the intake link once — clients use it every month. They select the document type, add a description, upload the file, and submit. You see all submissions in real time on your dashboard.
Track which clients have submitted and which are late. Follow up with one click. Reuse the same workspace every month — same link, same process, zero setup time.
5. Client Onboarding
The problem: Onboarding a new client means collecting business name, EIN, contacts, software access credentials, articles of incorporation, prior year tax returns, and more. This takes 15+ emails and 2-3 weeks. Every client is different, and nothing is standardized.
The fix: A comprehensive onboarding form with sections for company info, contacts, software access, and document uploads. The client fills it out once — all 19 fields, all documents, all information in one submission.
Sensitive fields like EIN and bank details are encrypted at rest. Multiple file uploads are supported in a single form. The bookkeeper reviews in the dashboard with masked sensitive data. Approve to finalize. Full audit trail from day one.
Setting them up
Each of these workflows can be set up in under 5 minutes with EasyRequests. Create a workspace, pick the template, share the link. Your clients don't need accounts — they just fill out the form and track their submission.
The Free plan includes 1 client workspace. Starter ($29/mo) supports up to 3 clients. Growth ($59/mo) gives you unlimited workspaces — perfect for firms with 10+ clients.
Get started free and set up your first client workspace today.