By work type · Bookkeeping and CAS

Practice management for bookkeeping and CAS

FigsFlow is practice management software for Canadian bookkeeping and client accounting services firms. Recurring jobs, client requests, GST/HST and payroll cycles, engagement letters and client identification run from one client record — so the monthly cycle runs on a schedule rather than on somebody’s memory.

Recurring monthly work, without the chasing being somebody’s whole job.

Book a demo →See pricing

Two plans, priced per user, with every figure in CAD on the pricing page.

app.figsflow.com/recurring

Harbourview Accounting · this month’s cycle

✓Prairie Dental GroupRecords in · reconciled · ready for reviewReady

↑Lakeshore LogisticsWaiting on receipts · chased twice, automaticallyChasing

✎Northwind Clinic · GST/HSTPrepared · awaiting review sign‑offReview

$Monthly fees raisedFrom the agreed fee, not retyped each monthSent

Sample firm and sample data, shown for illustration. Returns are filed in your own tax software.

On this pageThe month that never closes The client side What changes The cycle FAQ

The recurring trap

The month that never quite closes.

Recurring work should be the easiest thing a firm does. The scope is the same every month, the client is the same every month, and the steps are the same every month. On paper it ought to run itself.

In practice it is the work most likely to slip, because nothing about a monthly job announces itself. A tax deadline arrives with a date attached. A set of September records that never showed up just quietly becomes an October problem, then a November one, and the first anyone notices is when a client asks why their numbers are three months behind.

Fixed monthly fees that stopped covering the work two years ago.
Clients who send everything on time next to clients who never do, treated the same way.
Nobody certain whether a given month is closed or just quiet.

Across a book of monthly clientsWhere the month leaks

Records that never arriveChased when someone notices, which is not a schedule.

The same job rebuilt every monthRecreated by hand because last month’s did not roll forward.

No single view of what is closedStatus lives in a spreadsheet tab, or in a head.

Scope creep absorbed, not chargedExtra work discovered at year end, long past billing it.

The work is not hard. Keeping track of it is. That is the part a recurring system should carry, so your team spends the month on the books rather than on the state of the books.

A bookkeeper and a client reviewing the month's figures together in an office — CAS is sold on advice. The chasing is what stops firms having time to give any.

The client side

Stop spending the relationship on chasing.

Client accounting services are sold on the conversation at the end of the month, not on the reconciliation. But the conversation is the first thing to go when a manager spends the first fortnight asking four clients for the same three things.

When the chasing runs on a schedule and hands back to a person only once it has exhausted itself, the monthly meeting changes character. You arrive with the numbers done rather than with an apology about why they are not.

Requests go out automatically, against the specific job they belong to.
Clients upload in a portal rather than replying to an email thread.
A client who is always late becomes visible as a pattern, not a feeling.

Firms do not lose CAS clients because the bookkeeping was wrong. They lose them because the month was late and nobody said so first.

What changes

Four habits that become part of the system.

Recurring work rewards structure more than any other service line, because the same small gap repeats twelve times a year across every client you have.

01 · The job itself

Jobs that roll forward on their own

Each service carries a template: the stages, the owner and the checks a month needs. Next month’s job is created from it automatically rather than copied by hand or remembered on the first Monday.

Recurring cycles generated, not recreated
Same stages every month, so a handover costs nothing
A new team member follows the template, not a person

See jobs and workflow

02 · Getting what you need

Requests that chase themselves

Each month’s job knows what it is waiting for. Requests go out on a schedule, remind on a schedule, and only land back on a person once the automated run has been exhausted.

Outstanding items per client, not per inbox
Clients upload against the right month and the right job
Chronically late clients visible as a pattern you can price for

See the client portal

03 · Closing the month

One view of what is actually closed

Every client’s month sits in a stage: waiting, in progress, in review, closed. The question of where the book stands stops being a spreadsheet someone maintains and becomes a screen anyone can open.

Review enforced as a stage, not left to a reminder
Closed months evidenced on the client record
A slipping client is visible in week two, not month three

See the audit trail

04 · The fee

Monthly fees that keep up with the work

The agreed scope sits on the engagement, so work done outside it shows up as it happens rather than at the annual review. Monthly invoices are raised from the agreed fee instead of retyped each cycle.

Scope creep visible in the month it occurs
Fee changes update the engagement letter, not just a note
Recurring invoices raised from the agreed fee

See time and billing

Where the line sits. FigsFlow runs the practice around the books. It does not do the bookkeeping, reconcile your ledgers or file GST/HST returns — that stays in your ledger and tax software. It evidences and assists your own compliance routine and keeps the records; it does not report to the CRA or FINTRAC on your behalf.

The month, as a cycle

Same four weeks, every client, every month.

Not a new process. The one you already run, with each stage owned by the system rather than by whoever remembers it first.

Week one01

The job opens itself

Last month’s template generates this month’s job with its stages, owner and checklist already attached.

No one touches it

Week one to two02

Records are requested

Each client gets the list for their own job, chased on a schedule rather than when someone notices.

Automated, then a person

Week two to three03

The work and the review

Reconciliation in your ledger software, with the job carrying the stage, the reviewer and the sign‑off gate.

Your team

Week four04

Close, report, bill

The month is marked closed and evidenced, the client conversation happens, and the fee is raised from the agreed scope.

One click, not a rebuild

Where a client’s month includes a GST/HST return or a payroll remittance, that cycle sits on the same record with its own date and owner. Specific filing dates live on the CRA deadlines page and in the tax calendar guide, where they can be date‑stamped and kept current.

Deadlines across the bookHow GST/HST, payroll and year-end dates are tracked with a named owner on each one.CRA deadlines →Also doing tax work?How the same record carries T1 and T2 engagements, review gates and season capacity.Tax firms →What will it cost us?Two plans priced per user, per‑module tiers if you only need one thing, and a seat calculator. Figures in CAD.See pricing →

What bookkeeping and CAS firms ask us first

Does this replace our bookkeeping software?

No. Your ledger software keeps doing the bookkeeping — the bank feeds, the coding, the reconciliation, the trial balance. FigsFlow carries the practice around it: the engagement and fee, the monthly job and its stages, the records chase, the review gate, the close and the invoice. The two sit side by side rather than one replacing the other.

Does it connect to our ledger software?

Which integrations are live for Canadian firms is listed on the integrations page rather than promised here, because the honest answer changes as connectors ship. If a specific connection decides whether this works for you, ask on a demo and you will get a straight yes or no rather than a roadmap.

How do recurring jobs actually get created?

Each service carries a template holding its stages, owner and checks. Next month's job is generated from that template on a cycle, so nobody creates it by hand. Change the template and every future month follows; months already open are left alone.

What happens with a client who never sends anything?

Requests go out against the specific job they belong to and remind on a schedule — before the deadline, then more often as it approaches — stopping after a set number of attempts and handing the job back to your team as a real follow-up. The point is that nobody chases the same client twice and nobody forgets to chase at all.

Can it help with fixed fees that no longer cover the work?

The agreed scope lives on the engagement, so work done outside it is visible in the month it happens rather than at the annual review. That does not reprice anything on its own — that is your decision — but it does mean the conversation happens while the evidence is fresh.

We do bookkeeping and tax for the same clients. Does that work?

Yes, and that is the usual pattern. The same client record carries the monthly bookkeeping cycle, the GST/HST and payroll cycles, and the annual T1 or T2 engagement, each with its own stages and dates. Nothing has to be split across two systems because one client buys two kinds of work.

Where does client identification fit into monthly work?

Identity checks and record keeping run inside onboarding and the evidence is filed to the client record. FigsFlow evidences and assists the routine you already run; it does not report to FINTRAC on your behalf and it does not make a firm compliant. Under the PCMLTFA, accountants are reporting entities only when performing triggering activities — receiving or paying funds, buying or selling securities, real property or business entities, transferring funds, or giving instructions for these.

Close the month on time, every month.

Thirty minutes, screen-shared. Bring the client whose records never arrive and we will run their month through the product — the job, the chase, the review and the fee.