Backed by Y CombinatorTwo documents and three sheets that run the monthly request, price the chasing itself in dollars, and flag which clients to reprice or fire.
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What you get
Pack of 5 files: 2 documents, 3 spreadsheets
Client Document Request and Chase PackEscalation Note
[Firm Name]. What happens when a requested item goes past its due date.
| Day past due | Stage | Channel | Staff cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | First nudge | Automated email | $0.00 |
| 7 | Second nudge, firmer tone | Automated email | $0.00 |
| 14 | Call | Staff phone call | $14.50 |
| 21 | Escalation | Manager contacts the owner | $31.67 |
Two unanswered emails is a call, not a third email. The channel changes after two failures, and that is where the cost starts.
Every document request template on page one gets the reminder cadence right, a plain nudge, then a firmer one, then real urgency. None go past the cadence to ask what a client's slow habit costs the firm placing the calls. A response-time average sits in a spreadsheet as a complaint with a number attached, never converted into a dollar figure that could justify a surcharge or a termination. A client onboarding and books diagnostic scopes the file before the engagement starts; this pack prices what happens to it every month after.
Kestrelbrook Bookkeeping runs eight clients on monthly write-up. Two of them, a quarter of the roster, generate 64.1 percent of all chasing cost while paying 21.1 percent of all fees. Halsey Ridge HVAC's 4.3 calls and 2.7 escalations push its chase cost to $147.85, 24.2 percent of its $610.00 fee, crossing the reprice threshold for a $150.00 surcharge. Corvina Grill & Tap's 5.0 calls and 4.3 escalations run 39.4 percent of its $530.00 fee at 34 days to complete, past the threshold where the recommendation stops being about the fee.
The two automated nudges, day 3 and day 7, cost nothing, so a client answering either one never generates a chasing cost. Two unanswered emails is information that the channel failed, not a reason for a third: day 14 is a staff call, 15 minutes at a $58.00 loaded rate, $14.50. Day 21 is a manager escalation, 20 minutes at a $95.00 loaded rate, $31.67, and the two stack when an item reaches both. Multiplying trailing calls and escalations by these figures, divided by the fee, is the ratio no average shows.
Request RegisterKestrelbrook Bookkeeping. August 2026 documents, requested 2026-08-03. A closed historical record; every item shown eventually arrived.
| Client | Item | Date Received | Days to Complete | Stage Reached |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bramblewood Landscaping | Bank Statement | 2026-08-05 | 2 | None |
| Willowmere Physical Therapy | Credit Card Statement | 2026-08-19 | 16 | Call |
| Halsey Ridge HVAC | Receipts and Expense Backup | 2026-09-02 | 30 | Escalation |
| Corvina Grill & Tap | Merchant Processor Statement | 2026-09-07 | 35 | Escalation |
Outstanding by Client is this same log filtered to what has not yet come in.
Outstanding by ClientKestrelbrook Bookkeeping. September 2026 documents, requested 2026-09-03, snapshot 2026-09-20.
| Client | Item | Days Outstanding | Stage | Next Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willowmere Physical Therapy | Credit Card Statement | 17 | Call | Staff call due |
| Grantham Builders | Retention and Draw Schedule | 24 | Escalation | Manager escalation due |
| Halsey Ridge HVAC | Receipts and Expense Backup | 25 | Escalation | Manager escalation due |
| Corvina Grill & Tap | Credit Card Statement | 30 | Escalation | Manager escalation due (chronic) |
Today's punch list: who needs a human touch, sorted by days outstanding.
Response Time by ClientKestrelbrook Bookkeeping. Trailing three-month average chase cost, priced at a $58.00 staff and $95.00 manager loaded rate.
| Client | Monthly Fee | Chase Cost | % of Fee | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bramblewood Landscaping | $520.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% | No action |
| Thackeray Retail Co. | $560.00 | $51.17 | 9.1% | Monitor |
| Halsey Ridge HVAC | $610.00 | $147.85 | 24.2% | Reprice +$150.00/mo |
| Corvina Grill & Tap | $530.00 | $208.67 | 39.4% | Fire or final notice |
Two clients, 25% of the roster, generate 64.1% of all chasing cost while paying 21.1% of all fees. This is the sheet that prices the problem.
The historical log: one row per item per client, its due date, its received date, and the final stage it reached in the cadence.
Today's punch list, filtered to what has not yet arrived, with days outstanding, current stage, and the next action a person owes it.
The rollup a client pricing and realization review doesn't run: trailing chase cost per client, priced in dollars and as a percent of fee.
Three items every client gets, plus whichever of payroll, financing or card-heavy settlement actually applies, so item counts are comparable across the book.
The four-stage cadence and its cost at each manual stage, plus the four thresholds that turn a ratio into a reprice, monitor, or fire decision.
A weekday automation that sends the two free nudges on schedule and turns anything past day 14 into a task, never a third email.
Take the blank Word and CSV files now, no account required, or open this pack in River and have the agent build the register from what you send.
Map each client to a type from what their business actually has, payroll, financing, card-heavy settlement, so the request list is set once and stays comparable.
Use the Request Register and Outstanding by Client to record each item's progress through automated nudges, calls, and manager escalations as they occur.
Run the Response Time by Client rollup monthly, in the spirit of the size-matched comparisons a client advisory review runs each quarter, then apply the thresholds to reprice, monitor, or fire.
Yes. Download the whole pack as Word documents and CSV sheets with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path for firms that want the agent to build the register and run the chase-cost analytics from a client list. The template library holds the rest of the packs.
Word documents (.docx) for the two narrative documents and CSV (.csv) for the three sheets, zipped into one file. They open natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets, with nothing to convert before use.
An onboarding checklist collects a large, one-time set of documents before an engagement starts. A client onboarding and books diagnostic scopes that file. This pack runs the smaller ask that repeats every month after, and prices what it costs when a client is slow to answer it.
No, so long as they stay on-topic. The FTC's compliance guide treats a message about an existing engagement, like a document still owed, as transactional or relationship content, exempt from most CAN-SPAM Act requirements including the opt-out mechanism a promotional email needs.
Client-provided records go back regardless of any unpaid fee. AICPA's Records Requests interpretation is explicit that withholding them for nonpayment is not permitted on an initial request, though a firm can still charge a reasonable fee for retrieving and shipping them.
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. It opens ready to read your client list, their fees, and whatever record you already keep of who has sent what. From that, it builds the request list and prices the chasing the same way the worked example does.
Accounting and bookkeeping firms running recurring monthly engagements. It fits especially well alongside a fractional CFO engagement or a client monthly reporting package sent to the same roster, since all three benefit from one shared view of which clients are slow.
Written by
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build your request lists and price your chase cost.
Edit with AI