Deepak's Client Reminder

Tells a chartered accountant which clients still need a phone call about a filing or an audit, one client at a time.

Who this is for

Deepak Kulkarni has a CA practice above a sari shop in Nashik. Hundred and forty clients, three articles, one clerk who handles the courier and the bank work. It is the 17th, he is standing on the landing outside a client's factory office waiting for the accountant to bring a file, phone in his left hand, folder under his right arm, and he has about four minutes. He wants to know who he has not yet rung about their return.

How the job is done today

There is a register on Deepak's desk with the month written at the top and client names down the side, ticked in pencil. His articles keep their own lists in the notes app on their phones. There is a WhatsApp group called Office where somebody types Sharma ji ko call kiya kya at nine at night. Twice a year Deepak's clerk makes an Excel sheet of due dates, and by the second week it is out of date because three clients paid late and two changed their turnover slab. Mostly it works because Deepak remembers. On the busy weeks, it does not.

The screens, in order

1. Put your clients in — A one-time setup where Deepak types or pastes his client list with each one's phone number, the work he does for them, and the dates that repeat.
2. Calls left today — The screen he lives on: one client card filling the phone, the most urgent one first, so he never has to read a list while standing.
3. What happened — Three fat buttons and a single line of typing, so the call gets recorded in the four seconds between hanging up and walking back inside.
4. One client — Everything owed by and owed to a single client, for when the client rings back and asks what exactly is pending.
5. The week coming — A quiet look ahead at what falls due in the next ten days, meant to be read sitting down on a Sunday, not standing.
6. What the articles have not done — Shows Deepak which clients his three articles were given and have not yet called, so he can chase people instead of clients.

What it keeps track of

• Clients — business name, the person you actually speak to, phone number, which of your staff handles them, what work you do for them
• Things due — which client, what is due, the date it is due, whether it repeats every month or quarter or year, done or not done
• Calls — which client, which day you rang, did they pick up, one line of what they said, when to ring again
• Waiting on the client — which client, what you asked them for, the day you asked, whether it has come
• Your people — name, phone, which clients are theirs, whether they can see everybody or only their own

The one decision that matters

Does the main screen show a table of every client with a pending filing, or one client at a time in a queue? A table looks more useful and every accountant asks for it, because that is what their Excel sheet looks like. But Deepak is standing on a landing with a folder under his arm. A table on a phone means pinching, scrolling sideways, and reading rows of small text with one thumb, and he will simply stop opening it. Build the queue: one card, biggest thing first, phone number as a button he can hit without looking. Put the table on the week ahead screen, where he is sitting down. If he wants a table on the phone, that is a sign the queue is ordering things wrongly, not that he needs a table.

What to leave out of the first version

Do not send anything to the client. No automatic WhatsApp reminder, no bulk SMS about the 20th. The moment the software starts messaging clients, Deepak stops ringing them, the client ignores the message the way they ignore bank messages, and the return is still not filed. The value here is that a CA he trusts rings him personally. The software only decides who gets rung. Also skip document upload and skip subscription billing at the start, take money by UPI from the first few practices and watch what they actually open at nine in the morning.

How you would know it worked

The pencil register on Deepak's desk stops being updated. Not thrown away, just left at the last week of the month, because by the time he reaches for it he has already made the calls.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a CA practice in Nashik with about a hundred and forty clients and three articles, and every month I lose track of who still needs a phone call about their GST return, their TDS or an audit. Make me a website I can use with one thumb while standing outside a client's office holding a folder. Show me one client at a time with the most urgent thing first, their phone number as a big button, and under it three buttons for picked up, no answer, and ring again tomorrow, plus one line where I can type what they said. When there is nobody left to call today, tell me that clearly. Let me enter each client's due dates once so they come back every month or quarter on their own. My articles should sign in and see only their own clients, and I should be able to see which of their clients they have not rung.