Send a client questionnaire or tax organizer

A client request can be a simple document checklist or a full questionnaire. If your firm sends clients a tax organizer, an annual questionnaire, a tax return checklist, or a request list before starting work, build it as a client request: clients answer the questions and upload documents in the client portal, and Tidyflow reminds them until everything is in.

This article covers building and sending the form. If you mainly want files rather than answers, start with How to Collect Files from Clients. To see the client’s side, read Complete a request from your accountant. For an overview of what organizers can do, see tax organizers.

Before you start

Client requests live inside jobs, so create or open a job for the work first. The client also needs at least one contact with portal access; you can invite one from the client’s Contacts tab (see Invite a Contact to the Client Portal). Contacts marked Include on requests are added as recipients automatically (Automatically add Contacts to Client Requests).

Build the form

In the Client Requests section of the job, click Add client request and give it a name. The form editor works like a document: just start writing to add explanatory text, or type / to open the item menu. You can add:

• Short answer, Long answer, Date, and Number questions
• Multiple choice questions. Choices default to Yes and No; click the item’s drag handle and choose Edit answer choices to change them or allow multiple answers
• File upload items for documents you need
• Document approval items, which ask the client to review and approve a document you attach, available on the Pro plan
• Section headings to group items

File upload items can carry a short hint (choose Add hint from the item’s menu) such as “Excel format preferred”; for a question, put any clarification in the question text itself. New items are required by default; choose Mark as optional if the client can skip one. Drag items to reorder them. You can edit the form freely while the request shows Not Sent Yet; once sent, it locks for editing.

For sensitive details like a Social Security number or TFN, ask for a document upload instead of a typed answer.

Group items into sections

Add Section items to break a long form into named parts, such as Income, Deductions, and Business. Each section can take a name and a description (choose Add description from its menu). Sections change how the client experiences the request: a sectioned request opens in the portal as a focused, full-screen flow with a progress bar and a page per section, instead of a single inline checklist. Dragging a section moves all the items below it, and deleting a section keeps its items, which join the section above.

Show questions conditionally

On the Pro plan you can show an item only when an earlier answer calls for it, so clients never see questions that do not apply. Click an item’s drag handle and choose Add condition. A condition shows the item when a chosen earlier question either has been answered or was answered with specific choices (the trigger must be a multiple choice question). You can combine up to five conditions and choose whether all or any must match.

A hidden required item never blocks the client from completing the request. If you delete a question that other items depend on, their conditions pointing at it are removed. If your firm later moves off the Pro plan, existing rules keep working for clients; you just cannot add or edit rules until you upgrade again.

Carry answers forward to next year

Every question keeps a stable identity, so when the same form goes to the same client again, through a job template, a repeating job, or a duplicated job, each question shows the client’s previous response labelled Last time, with the date it was given. The client can accept it with one tap using Use this answer; nothing is ever filled in automatically. File upload items list the documents the client sent last time.

To keep this link, edit the question’s wording rather than deleting and re-adding it. A deleted question loses its connection to previous answers, and a re-added copy starts fresh.

Add a review and sign-off step

Turn on the Review & submit step in the request’s settings to add a final confirmation step. After finishing every section, the client reviews all their answers on one page, confirms the information is accurate and complete, types their full name to sign, and submits. The request completes when they submit, not when the last item is ticked, so nothing arrives half-finished.

Preview and send

Click the Preview as client eye button in the request’s header to see exactly what the client will see; conditional questions reveal live as you try different answers. When it is ready, click Send to recipients, or use Send client requests at the top of the job to send several at once. The contact receives an email that opens the request directly.

Every request shows its status: Not Sent Yet, Sent, or Completed. With auto follow-up switched on, Tidyflow keeps reminding the contact by email until the request is completed. From the request’s ⋯ menu you can also:

• Unsend request: recipients lose access, reminders stop, and the request returns to a draft you can edit and resend
• Reopen for client: the request opens back up in the client portal so the client can update their answers

Who gets notified about client activity

Notifications for a client request go to followers of the Job and followers of the client, not only assignees. Assigning someone to a Job makes them a follower automatically, so assignees are covered; anyone else can follow the Job or the client to get the same notifications.

To keep a long form from flooding your Inbox, Tidyflow stays quiet while the client works through the request and sends one Client request completed notification when they finish it, or submit it if the request has a Review & submit step. To check on progress before then, open the request or watch its progress on the Jobs board.

The completed notification is also emailed by default; each user can turn that off under Settings > Notifications. Document approvals, change requests, and late documents sent after completion always notify immediately. If you use Reopen for client, you are notified again when they resubmit.

Review the answers

When the client submits, the request shows their Submitted responses, grouped by section. For each answer you can click Mark reviewed to lock it from further client edits, or Edit to correct it inline. Uploaded files land in the client’s Files tab, in the Client Uploads folder by default. For completed requests, choose Download PDF from the request’s ⋯ menu to keep a copy of the full questionnaire and answers on file.

Ask a client for more detail on one answer

When an answer is too vague to work with, click Ask client next to that question or upload and write what you need. This reopens only that item for the client; every other answer stays locked, and the request keeps its submission on record.

Flagged items collect into one email. Click Send follow-up at the bottom of the request to send everything you have flagged as a single message per contact, rather than one email per question. The email lists each item, the answer the client gave, and your note, and its link opens the request without a login.

Each flagged item shows where the round is up to: Follow-up queued before you send, Awaiting client once sent, and Client replied when they respond. You are notified as soon as a client replies. Click Mark reviewed to close the loop, or Ask again to start another round on the same item.

While a client owes you a reply, the request returns to their Open tab in the client portal so it does not look finished to them, and the Job reopens on your side. Once they reply, the request reads as done for the client while it waits on your review. The Job completes again when you mark the last flagged item reviewed.

Reuse the form every year

Add the client request to a job template and the whole form travels with it: sections, answer choices, conditions, required flags, the sign-off step, and each question’s link to previous answers. Deploy the template to one client or many, then send the resulting requests in bulk from the Jobs page’s Client Requests view. See Job Templates for how templates work.

Tidyflow also ships ready-made forms in the template library, including an Individual tax organizer (Form 1040) on the Individual Tax Preparation job template and month-end request forms on the Bookkeeping template. Deploy one as-is or edit it to match how your firm works.