Every tax season, someone on your team sends the same email fifteen times.
NZ accounting firms that have automated their client chasing get bank statements and receipts in without a single follow-up call, and spend March and April on the actual returns instead of the reminders. Octawerks sets that up using the practice tools you already run, in two weeks, wherever in NZ your firm is.
This is the Monday every practice owner knows too well, six times a year.
A GST deadline is nine days out. Half your client list has not sent their bank statements. Someone on your team opens their email and types some version of “just following up on those receipts” for the fourth time this quarter. They will type it again in three days if nothing lands.
Meanwhile a new client signed on last week and is still waiting on the information request form. A proposal that went out ten days ago is sitting unsigned in someone’s inbox because nobody flagged it. None of this is advisory work. All of it is eating your team’s day, every single filing cycle.
The firm down the road sends the chase automatically, gets notified only when a document lands or a client goes quiet, and has their engagement letters e-signing themselves into onboarding. Same size team. Six fewer chases a year, times every client on the books.
This is not about working harder during tax season. It is about who built the better process before it started.
The four places NZ accounting firms lose the most hours a year.
We work with the practice tools your firm already uses, Xero, your practice management system, your e-signature tool, and remove the manual steps in between. No new software to buy. No retraining your team. The chasing gets handled so your people spend their time on the returns and the advice.
A deadline approaches and the system emails the client for bank statements and receipts. If nothing lands, it follows up automatically every three days, same tone, no awkward phone call. Your team gets notified the moment the documents arrive, or the moment a client has gone quiet long enough to need a real person to step in. Nobody drafts a “just following up” email again.
- Auto follow-up every 3 days until documents land
- You are only notified when it lands, or when the client goes silent
A new client signs. The system sends the information request form, creates the client folder structure, works through the Xero connection checklist, and books the kickoff call. None of it depends on someone remembering to do it between everything else on their desk that day.
- Info request form sent the same day the client signs
- Xero checklist and kickoff call booked automatically
GST and tax filing dates trigger a client notification and an internal task at the same time, so the reminder to the client and the work item on your team’s board never drift apart. Two-monthly GST filers get six of these cycles a year. Every one fires the same way, without anyone maintaining a spreadsheet of who is due when.
- Client notification and internal task created together
- Runs on every GST and tax filing date, all year
An enquiry comes in and a templated proposal goes out the same day. When the client e-signs the engagement letter, onboarding kicks off automatically straight after, the information request, the folders, the Xero checklist, the kickoff call, without anyone re-typing a single detail from the signed letter.
- Templated proposal out the same day as the enquiry
- E-signature triggers onboarding automatically
First process live in two weeks. No long projects.
Most consultants want six months and a large budget. We start with one thing, prove it works, and build from there. You see the time saving before your next filing deadline, not after your next financial year end.
The audit
Tell us how your firm runs from enquiry to filed return. We ask the right questions. No pitch, no slide deck. You leave with a clear picture of where the hours are going, chasing, onboarding, or reminders.
We map your systems and your process
We identify the one thing to fix first. Usually document chasing. We show you exactly what we will build and how it connects to Xero and your practice management system. You get a written plan, no obligation to proceed.
We build it. And it runs itself
We connect the systems you already use and remove the manual handoffs. Most firms are up and running within two weeks, with the next filing cycle chased automatically instead of manually.
Built for New Zealand firms with 1 to 30 staff.
You run an accounting or tax practice. The compliance and advisory work is under control. The admin behind it is not keeping up. You do not want a big software migration or a new practice management system. You want the chasing, the onboarding, and the reminders handled so your team can focus on the numbers.
You already run Xero, and likely a practice management tool like Xero Practice Manager, MYOB, CCH iFirm, or Karbon, plus an e-signature tool for engagement letters. Those systems are capable of far more than most firms have set them up to do. We connect them properly, automate the handoffs, and remove what someone on your team currently does manually every filing cycle.
Good accountants are hard to find and harder to keep during tax season. A firm that runs on clean processes is a better place to work than one held together with spreadsheets, follow-up emails, and late nights in March. The firms that fix this keep their best people through peak season.
See our services →What NZ accounting firms ask us first.
Is this secure? We are handling clients’ financial documents.
Client documents stay inside the systems your firm already uses, Xero, your practice management tool, your existing document store. We build the connections and the reminder logic between those systems, we do not take copies of client financial data ourselves. Everything is set up in line with the Privacy Act 2020, and we are upfront about exactly what flows where before anything goes live.
We already have a practice management system. Why is chasing still taking so long?
Because the tools are only as good as how they are connected. Most firms use their PMS for jobs and workflow, but the client-facing chasing, the reminder emails, and the onboarding steps still happen manually around it. We automate those handoffs so the whole cycle runs end to end without anyone touching it.
Will clients actually respond to automated reminders instead of a personal email?
Yes, and better. A client who ignores three manual emails often responds to a consistent, professional automated sequence, because it does not read as a favour being chased, it reads as how your firm runs. And when a client genuinely goes quiet, that is exactly when the system flags it for a real person on your team to call.
What does it cost?
Start with the audit. You get a written report ranking your biggest leaks, and it comes off the build if you go ahead.
Do you only work with firms in one area?
No. Accounting is a nationwide service for us. We work with firms across New Zealand, remotely. The process is the same wherever you are based.
Every “just following up” email this week was avoidable. Want to see how?
Book the audit. We will time your actual document turnaround and onboarding steps, and hand you a written report ranking your biggest leaks. Yours to keep either way, and it comes off the build if you go ahead.
$1,250 USD founding rate, first 10 clients in New Zealand and Singapore. Normally $2,500 USD. All prices in USD. Credited against the build if you go ahead, and if we do not find leaks worth 3x the fee, you do not pay.
Start with the audit →