Who it is for
Client accounting services teams inside a bookkeeping or CPA firm, with 2 to 15 people serving business clients on a monthly or quarterly cadence.
What gets in the way
- The monthly close is only one of several services, and the document request competes with tax season and advisory work.
- The client's owner wants the report before the team has the statements and the payroll register.
- A cleanup or an onboarding delays the first recurring close.
- The team cannot show the client what is still missing without reading a long email thread.
CAS is a recurring relationship
The client does not buy a single close. They buy a monthly rhythm: the books are current, the report arrives, and someone answers the questions. The document request is the first step in that rhythm, and a late request breaks the rest.
The team should send the same list on the same day every month. The client learns what to send and when, and the team spends less time explaining the process.
The monthly close is the anchor
The monthly checklist should cover the statements, the payroll register, the sales reports, the receipts above the threshold and the changes the client mentioned.
The close tracker should show which clients are in, which are late and what is still owed. The team can use it in the weekly meeting instead of asking each other for status.
The report to the owner should be short: the profit and loss, the balance sheet, the cash balance and the open questions. A consistent report builds the habit of reading the numbers.
Onboarding and cleanup
A new CAS client needs an onboarding checklist before the first close: entity details, software access, bank and card list, current-year statements, prior bookkeeper close package and prior return.
If the prior books need cleanup, scope it as a separate project with a period and an ending balance. Do not hide the cleanup inside the monthly close; it will delay the first report and the client will not understand why.
When the cleanup is done, move the client to the recurring checklist. The first clean month is the easiest month to keep clean.
Advisory needs clean records
Advisory work starts with a question about the numbers: why margin changed, whether a hire is affordable, what the cash forecast looks like. The answer depends on a close that is current and a document set that is complete.
A team that collects documents well can spend the advisory hour on the client, not on the missing receipt. The collection process is the foundation of the advisory relationship.
Where Usual fits
Usual sends the monthly or recurring checklist from a link in the team's email. The client finishes it on a phone without a password or an app, and the answers save as they go.
The team sets the reminder schedule once. Reminders go out by email and stop when everything is in. Accepted files are filed into the client's folders by year.
The team keeps its ledger, reporting and advisory tools. Usual does the request, the reminders, the review and the filing.