The problem we kept hearing
When we started EasyRequests, we built it as a generic approval workflow tool. Expenses, vacations, access requests — the standard playbook. It worked. Teams signed up, created workspaces, approved things.
But one group kept showing up with the same story: bookkeepers.
Not the solo freelancer reconciling a few accounts. The 5-to-30-person firms managing 10, 20, sometimes 50+ clients. Every single one described the same chaos:
"My clients email me W-9s as attachments. I store them in a shared Google Drive folder. I know it's not secure, but what else am I supposed to do?"
"Vendor bills sit in a shared inbox. I forward them to the business owner for approval. Sometimes they reply. Sometimes they don't. I follow up three times before I get a yes."
"Client onboarding takes 15 emails. Every time. The same documents, the same questions, the same back-and-forth."
Why Google Forms doesn't work
The first thing most bookkeepers try is Google Forms. It's free, it's familiar, it collects data. But it has no approval chain. No encrypted fields. No audit trail. No way to route a vendor bill over $5,000 to the business owner while auto-approving smaller ones.
Google Forms collects data. It doesn't manage decisions.
Why Kissflow and ServiceNow are overkill
On the other end, enterprise tools like Kissflow ($1,500+/year) and ServiceNow exist. They have approval chains, custom forms, integrations. They're also designed for 500-person companies with dedicated IT teams and six-month implementation timelines.
A bookkeeping firm with 8 people and 25 clients doesn't need a six-month implementation. They need something that works in 10 minutes and costs $29/month.
The workspace-per-client insight
The breakthrough was the workspace model. A bookkeeper with 25 clients needs 25 workspaces — one per client. Each workspace has its own intake form, its own approval chain, and its own data. No cross-contamination. Clean separation.
This mapped perfectly to our existing architecture. We just needed to make it the primary flow instead of an afterthought.
The five templates
We built five bookkeeping-specific templates:
- Expense Reimbursement — employees submit receipts, bookkeeper reviews, amount-based routing
- Vendor Bill Approval — invoices flow through an approval chain with GL account tagging
- W-9 Collection — encrypted Tax ID fields, masked display, audit trail on every reveal
- Document Requests — request bank statements, receipts, tax forms from clients via a link
- Client Onboarding — comprehensive 19-field intake form with encrypted EIN and multi-file upload
Each template comes with pre-configured fields and a sensible approval chain. Create a workspace, pick a template, share the link. Done.
What's next
We're not abandoning our general-purpose templates. Expense approval, vacation requests, access requests — they all still work. But our homepage, our onboarding, and our messaging now lead with bookkeeping.
If you're a bookkeeper managing multiple clients and you're tired of chasing receipts over email, EasyRequests was built for you. Literally.
Get started free — 1 client workspace, no credit card required.