BAS/GST Lodgement Reminder Sequence
Automatically send timed reminder emails to clients before each BAS lodgement deadline, track who has responded, and escalate the ones who haven't. Your team stops chasing documents and starts preparing them.
The Problem
Every BAS cycle starts the same way. Your bookkeepers open their inboxes, pull up a spreadsheet, and start sending emails. "Hi Sarah, quarterly BAS is due in three weeks. Can you please send through your bank statements and receipt summaries?" Multiply that by 80 clients. Then do it again two weeks later for the ones who didn't reply. Then again three days before the deadline.
The ATO isn't patient about this. Failure to Lodge penalties start at $313 per 28 day period and climb to $1,565 per BAS. For a firm managing 80 quarterly clients, even a handful of late lodgements each cycle adds up to thousands in penalties that land on your clients and damage your reputation.
Document collection alone eats 30% to 40% of pre lodgement time. That's your most experienced staff spending their most expensive hours on the cheapest task in the practice: asking people to send files. And when the deadline gets close and half your client list still hasn't responded, the work doesn't disappear. It compresses. Your team works weekends, corners get cut, and the BAS that goes to the ATO is less accurate than it should be.
Practice management tools like Karbon and XPM have basic reminder features. But they send one reminder to everyone on the same schedule, with no escalation logic, no tracking of who actually responded, and no way to adapt the channel or timing to each client's behaviour. It's a checkbox feature, not a solution.
How It Works
The automation tracks every client's BAS reporting cycle and sends a structured sequence of reminders before each deadline. When clients don't respond, it escalates. Here's the step by step breakdown.
1. Deadline calendar syncs client BAS schedules
Each client's reporting frequency (monthly, quarterly, or annual) and next lodgement deadline is stored in a project management tool such as Karbon or a structured spreadsheet in Airtable. The automation checks this calendar daily and identifies which clients are approaching a deadline window.
2. First reminder fires at four weeks out
When a client enters the four week window, the automation sends the first email. This isn't a generic nudge. It includes the client's name, the specific BAS period, and a checklist of documents needed: bank statements, receipt uploads, payroll confirmations, and anything else specific to their entity type. Sole traders get a different checklist from companies or trusts.
3. Second reminder at two weeks
If the client hasn't confirmed that documents are ready (tracked via a response flag or document upload status), a second reminder goes out. This one is shorter and more direct, referencing what's still outstanding. Clients who have already submitted everything are automatically excluded.
4. Final reminder at three days
The last automated reminder fires three days before the deadline. The tone shifts to urgency. It names the specific documents still missing and notes the lodgement date. This is the last chance before a human gets involved.
5. Nonresponsive clients escalate to a phone call task
If a client still hasn't responded after the three day reminder, the automation creates a follow up task in your practice management tool and assigns it to the relevant bookkeeper. A Slack or Teams notification alerts the team. Now your staff makes phone calls, but only for the 10% to 20% of clients who genuinely need personal chasing, not the entire list.
6. Dashboard tracks completion across all clients
A live dashboard (built in Airtable, Google Sheets, or your practice management tool) shows completion percentage across the full client list. Green for submitted, amber for reminded, red for escalated. At a glance, the principal knows exactly where the cycle stands.
Why Manual Chasing Breaks Down at Scale
A five person accounting practice with 80 quarterly BAS clients sends roughly 240 reminder emails per cycle. That's just the first round. Add the follow ups for nonresponsive clients and you're looking at 400 or more emails per quarter, each one written (or at least personalised) by a human being.
But the volume isn't even the real problem. The real problem is timing.
When reminders go out manually, they go out whenever someone gets around to it. Monday morning, one bookkeeper sends 15 reminders. Tuesday afternoon, another sends 20. By Thursday, nobody remembers who's been contacted and who hasn't. Clients slip through the cracks. The ones who always respond late don't get contacted early enough. The ones who always respond promptly get pestered alongside everyone else.
Your most expensive staff are spending 40 or more hours per quarter doing something a scheduled automation handles in zero. That's not a workflow inefficiency. That's a staffing cost you don't need to carry.
Automated sequences solve this because they're relentless and precise. Every client gets the right message at the right time. Nobody gets forgotten. And your team only hears about the clients who actually need human attention.
Multichannel Reminders and Client Behaviour
Email alone doesn't cut it. Open rates for accounting firm emails hover around 30% to 40%, and that's for clients who are already expecting to hear from you. Some clients check email once a week. Others live on their phones.
Adding SMS to the reminder sequence (via a tool like Twilio) lifts response rates two to three times higher than email alone. The automation can send a brief text message alongside the email at the two week mark, or reserve SMS for the final three day reminder when urgency matters most. Australian Privacy Act requirements mean clients need to opt in to SMS, but most will when you explain that it saves them from penalty risk.
Over time, the system builds a picture of each client's behaviour. Client A always responds to the first email within 48 hours. Client B ignores everything until they get a text. Client C has been late for six consecutive quarters and always needs a phone call. This data lets you adjust the sequence per client, so your bookkeepers focus their energy on the clients who genuinely need it.
The Business Impact
Take a firm with four bookkeepers managing 80 BAS clients per quarter. Each bookkeeper currently spends about 10 hours per cycle on reminder emails and follow up calls. That's 40 hours of staff time every quarter, or 160 hours per year.
At a blended cost of $55 per hour, that's $8,800 per year in labour spent on document chasing. With the automated sequence handling the first three rounds of contact and only escalating the 15% to 20% who don't respond, your team's chasing time drops to roughly 8 hours per cycle. That's a saving of 128 hours and $7,040 annually.
Then there's the penalty avoidance. If the automation prevents even five late lodgements per year (at an average penalty of $626 each), that's another $3,130 your clients don't pay and your firm doesn't have to apologise for.
Setup takes a day or two. The return pays for itself in the first quarter.
- 128 hours of staff time recovered annually from document chasing
- Consistent three stage reminder sequence for every client, every cycle
- Late lodgement risk reduced by 60% to 70% through timely, persistent contact
- Bookkeeper time redirected from admin emails to billable preparation work
- Real time visibility into client completion status across the full BAS list
- Escalation only for the clients who genuinely need personal follow up
Frequently Asked Questions
Will automated reminders feel impersonal to my clients?
The emails are templated but personalised with the client's name, BAS period, and a specific document checklist for their entity type. Most clients won't notice the difference from a manually written email. The ones who do will appreciate getting reminded consistently instead of hearing from you in a panic three days before the deadline.
What if a client has already submitted their documents?
The automation tracks document submission status. Clients who have already provided everything are excluded from subsequent reminders automatically. No one gets a "where are your bank statements" email after they've already sent them.
Does this work with our existing practice management tool?
Yes. The automation integrates with tools like Karbon, Xero Practice Manager, and MYOB through Zapier or Make. If you're using a spreadsheet to track deadlines, that works too. The system reads your client list and deadline data from wherever you already store it.
Can we customise the reminder timing for different clients?
The default sequence is four weeks, two weeks, and three days. But you can adjust these intervals per client or per reporting frequency. Monthly lodgers might get a shorter sequence. Annual lodgers might get an earlier first reminder. The schedule is fully configurable.
What about clients who are always late regardless of reminders?
The escalation step catches these clients every cycle. Over time, you build data on which clients consistently need phone calls, and the automation can flag them earlier or assign them directly to a bookkeeper before the standard sequence even starts.
Do we need to handle SMS opt in for Australian privacy compliance?
Yes. If you add SMS to the sequence, clients need to provide opt in consent. Most firms collect this during onboarding or at the start of a new financial year. The automation only sends texts to clients with an active opt in flag, so compliance is built into the workflow.
How long does this take to set up?
Most firms are up and running within one to two days, including the initial client data import and email template configuration. If you want multichannel reminders with SMS and practice management integration, allow a few extra days for setup and testing. Book your free audit and we'll map the sequence to your current BAS workflow.
Sources
Automations we’ve already built
Thirty days after onboarding begins, an automated workflow surveys your client, pulls milestone data from your project tools, generates an AI written retrospective, and flags anyone who needs a recovery call. Every onboarding teaches the next one.
When a new client lands in your practice management software, this automation generates a tailored engagement letter with the right services, fees, and deadlines, sends it for electronic signature, then builds the client folder and kicks off your onboarding checklist. No chasing. No waiting.
A project manager fills out a short form after a discovery call. Within minutes, AI drafts a full Statement of Work into your branded template, routes it through Slack for internal approval, and sends it to the client for signature.
When a project closes in your PM tool, this automation collects every contract, deliverable, and sign off from across your systems, organises them into a standardised archive folder, and generates a summary PDF. No manual cleanup required.
When a contact is tagged in your CRM as needing an NDA, the agreement is generated from a template with their details prefilled, sent for signature, and tracked automatically. Overdue NDAs trigger reminders so nothing slips through.
Automatically converts raw meeting notes or recordings into structured, branded board minutes with tracked resolutions and action items, so your admin staff can stop spending full days on documentation that nobody reads until it's too late.
Capture scope changes on site, generate costed PDFs, route them through internal approval and client e signature, and log everything automatically. No verbal agreements, no lost paperwork, no payment disputes.
When a new contract lands in your cloud folder, an AI agent extracts the text, checks every clause against a risk framework, and sends your team a structured memo flagging the problems that actually matter. Preliminary review drops from hours to minutes.
When a new contractor lands in your HR system or Airtable base, this automation generates a complete document bundle, sends it as a single signing package through PandaDoc, and updates your records the moment everything is signed.
When a deal hits the proposal stage in your CRM, this automation pulls the client name, scope, pricing, and line items, then merges everything into a branded template. The finished PDF lands back on the deal record and in the prospect's inbox without anyone touching a document.
When every party signs a document in DocuSign or PandaDoc, this automation downloads the completed PDF, renames it to your filing convention, stores it in the right client folder, and notifies the account manager. No manual downloading, no misfiled contracts.
A scheduled workflow scans your contracts database daily, flags renewals at 30, 14, and 7 day intervals, and sends tiered alerts to account managers and leadership so nothing expires unnoticed.
When a new client is created in your CRM, this automation builds their billing profile, generates the first invoice, sets up recurring payments, and sends a secure link to collect their payment method. No manual data entry between systems, no forgotten first invoices.
When a project is marked complete in your project management tool, this automation pulls billable hours and rates, generates a branded PDF invoice, and emails it to the client with payment instructions. A copy lands in the client folder without anyone lifting a finger.
When a new patient books an appointment, this automation sends digital intake forms, collects consent and insurance details, converts everything to PDF, files it in the patient folder, and notifies your front desk. No clipboards. No data entry.
An AI agent that turns your meeting recordings into structured summaries, assigned action items, and tracked tasks across Slack, Asana, and Notion. No more post meeting admin, no more forgotten decisions.
An automated workflow pulls client KPIs from your data sources on the first business day of each month, populates branded report templates, converts them to PDF, and emails every client their personalised report before your team starts work.
Automatically classify incoming contracts by type, route each one to the right reviewer, and track every document through the review pipeline so nothing stalls in someone's inbox.
When a new B2B client submits their intake form, this automation reads every team member's role and sends each person the exact onboarding content they need. Billing contacts get payment setup. Project sponsors get the timeline. Day to day operators get tool access and kickoff details. Every stakeholder's progress is tracked independently until all are ready.
When a new client record lands in your CRM with a signed engagement letter, a prefilled contract is automatically generated and sent for e signature. No copying, no delays, no forgotten clauses.
When a prospect opens your proposal, this automation logs the view in your CRM, pings the assigned salesperson on Slack, and sends a templated follow up email if the document stays unsigned after 48 hours.
When a real estate agent fills out a short form with property details and buyer information, the automation generates a complete contract of sale, attaches the correct disclosure forms, and sends the full package to DocuSign with the right signing order.
Automatically converts approved quotes into signed service contracts with warranty terms, payment schedules, and scope definitions. No manual paperwork, no verbal agreements, no disputes three months later.
When a vendor sends a contract, AI extracts payment terms, liability caps, termination clauses and auto renewal dates into a structured row. Your procurement team can then compare every vendor agreement side by side, spotting bad deals before anyone signs.
Not ready to talk yet? Start here.
Everything we've learned building 300+ automations for small businesses, in one practical guide. Written for business owners, not engineers.
- Where your team's hours are actually disappearing
- The five automations worth setting up first and why
- How to calculate what manual work is actually costing you
- A step by step checklist to get your first automation live this week
Completely free.