Call answering for accountants: handling deadline peaks, client queries and HMRC worries

Who actually calls an accountancy practice?

Most calls to an accountancy practice come from existing clients chasing a return, a figure or a deadline, followed by new enquiries, HMRC-related worries, bookkeeping and payroll questions, and third parties such as banks, mortgage brokers and solicitors asking for information.

In most practices the mix looks something like this:

• Existing clients asking whether their return is done, what they owe, when the money leaves their account, or whether you've received their records. Many want a named person: "Can I speak to Sarah who does my books?"
• New enquiries: a newly self-employed plumber who has never filed a return, a landlord with a second property, a limited company director unhappy with their current accountant, someone who has just realised the deadline is three weeks away.
• HMRC worries: a client who has opened a brown envelope, a penalty notice, a letter about a check, or a call they think might be a scam.
• Bookkeeping and payroll queries: a missing payslip, a new starter, a question about a supplier invoice or a bank feed in your bookkeeping software.
• Third parties: lenders wanting an accountant's reference, solicitors on a sale, a client's spouse or business partner, a former accountant handing over.

Each of these needs a different response. A good receptionist doesn't need to understand tax, but they do need to know which bucket a call falls into, who deals with it, and how urgent it is.

When are accountants' phones busiest?

Calls bunch around HMRC deadlines: 5 October for new Self Assessment registrations, 31 October for paper returns, and above all December and January before the 31 January online deadline. Payments on account on 31 July and the start of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax add further peaks.

An accountancy practice doesn't have a steady call pattern. It has a calendar. The dates below drive most of the spikes for practices with Self Assessment clients:

On top of these sit your clients' own year ends, VAT quarters and payroll dates.

Why January is different

In January, call volume rises just when partners and staff most need uninterrupted time to finish returns. Many callers are anxious and ring more than once. The two things a practice usually wants from call answering at this time of year are a human answer and a reliable message, so that nothing promised to a client gets lost.

What should a receptionist ask a new enquirer?

A receptionist should find out what kind of client the caller is (sole trader, limited company, landlord, partnership or individual), what service they need, any year end or deadline, and their contact details, then pass a short, structured message to whoever handles new business.

The aim isn't to sell. It's to collect enough for a partner or manager to call back prepared, and to tell the caller honestly when that will happen.

What to collect

1. Who they are: name, phone number, email, and the business name if there is one.
2. What type of client: sole trader, limited company, partnership, landlord, or an individual with a one-off need (for example a capital gain or a first return).
3. What they want: Self Assessment, year-end accounts, bookkeeping, payroll, VAT, Making Tax Digital set-up, a one-off query, or "not sure".
4. Timing: their year end, and any deadline they're worried about. Someone who has never filed and rings on 20 January needs a different callback from someone planning ahead.
5. Current situation: whether they have an accountant now and what software, if any, they use.
6. How they found you, if you track referrals.

Keep it short. A new enquirer doesn't need to share their income, their tax bill or their HMRC correspondence with a receptionist. Collecting less is better for confidentiality and for data protection, and those details are for your first proper conversation. Tell your receptionist if you've stopped taking certain new work (for example, new Self Assessment clients after mid-January), so they don't raise false hopes.

How should calls from existing clients be handled?

Existing clients should be recognised, told who will get back to them and when, and have their message routed to the person who looks after them. When a partner is in a client meeting, the receptionist takes a full message rather than interrupting, unless you've set rules for what counts as urgent.

Most clients have a named contact. The receptionist's job is to get each message to that person in a form they can act on without ringing back just to ask what the call was about.

A good message from an existing client includes

• The client's name and business name, and which partner or team member they deal with.
• What it's about in one line: "Wants to know if you've received the bank statements she emailed on Monday."
• Any deadline the client mentioned, and whether they said it was urgent.
• When they'd like a call back, and the best number.

Partners in meetings

Partners spend much of the day with clients, at client premises, or working on files that need focus. Decide in advance what is allowed to interrupt them. Many practices use a short list: a client saying HMRC officers are at their premises, a bank needing something to complete a transaction that day, or a named key client. Everything else becomes a message with a realistic callback time.

Bookkeeping and payroll queries

Payroll calls are often time-critical because of a fixed pay day; bookkeeping queries are usually routine. Brief your receptionist on who handles each and whether payroll queries are urgent near pay dates. They shouldn't confirm what anyone will be paid.

What happens when a client calls worried about an HMRC letter or penalty?

The receptionist should stay calm, take the key details (what the letter says it is, its date, and any deadline or reference shown on it), reassure the caller that it will be passed to their accountant, and flag it as urgent if there's a near deadline. They don't interpret the letter or say what will happen.

HMRC letters cause a lot of anxious calls. Clients often ring the moment they open one, and some ring because they think a call or text claiming to be from HMRC might be a scam. Penalties are a real worry: on GOV.UK, a late Self Assessment return starts with a £100 penalty, with more if it's later still. That is exactly why your receptionist must not guess. Whether a penalty applies, and whether it can be appealed, is for you to advise on.

What the receptionist should note

• The type of letter, in the client's words (for example "penalty notice", "check of my return", "letter asking for information").
• The date on the letter and any date by which HMRC says the client must reply or pay.
• Whether the client has already replied to HMRC or paid anything.
• Whether they can send you a copy, and how (most practices ask clients to use their secure portal rather than ordinary email).

What must a receptionist never say to an accountant's clients?

A receptionist answering for an accountant must never give tax advice, confirm or estimate tax figures or refunds, promise that a return will be filed by a deadline, or discuss one client's affairs with anyone who isn't authorised, including family members, business partners and banks.

These are the lines most practices draw. Put them in writing in your briefing so there is no doubt:

• No tax advice. Not "you should be fine", not "you probably don't need to register", not "that's allowable". Even a well-meant guess can mislead a client.
• No figures. The receptionist doesn't confirm how much tax is owed, what a refund will be, what payments on account are, or what's on a payslip.
• No promises on deadlines. "I'll make sure Tom knows you're worried about the 31 January deadline" is fine. "Don't worry, it'll be filed in time" is not.
• No discussing clients with third parties. A caller who says they're the client's husband, daughter, business partner or bank manager gets a polite "I can take a message and pass it on", not information. The fact that someone is your client can itself be confidential.
• No comment on HMRC letters, investigations or penalties, beyond taking details.

How does client confidentiality work with an outsourced receptionist?

Your duty of confidentiality to clients doesn't stop at your office door. If an outside call answering service takes messages with clients' details for you, it is normally a processor under UK GDPR, so you need a written contract with the terms Article 28 requires, and you should brief the service on what it may and may not say.

Your professional duty

Confidentiality is one of the five fundamental principles in the ICAEW Code of Ethics, alongside integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, and professional behaviour. ICAEW says accountants must protect confidential information when it is collected, used, transferred and stored, and must take reasonable steps to make sure people under their control, and those they get assistance from, comply too. If you belong to a different professional body, check its own code. In practice, a receptionist answering your calls should be treated as part of your confidentiality arrangements, not outside them.

The UK GDPR contract

The ICO explains that when you use another organisation to handle personal data on your behalf, that organisation is normally a processor and you are the controller. A call answering service that takes callers' names, numbers and messages for you usually fits that description. UK GDPR Article 28 says you must have a written contract with a processor that includes certain terms, such as only acting on your instructions, keeping data secure, confidentiality for its staff, and what happens to the data when the contract ends.

Before you sign up, ask a provider for its data processing terms and read them. Check:

• Where messages and call recordings (if any) are stored, and for how long.
• Who at the provider can see your messages.
• How messages reach you: secure email, a portal, or direct into your practice software.

Collect less

The simplest protection is to keep sensitive information off the phone message. Your receptionist needs a name, a contact number and a one-line reason for the call. Tax references, income figures and bank details belong in your secure systems, not in a message. Anti-money laundering identity checks are also your job as the supervised firm, not something a receptionist should do on a call.

What should an accountancy practice look for in a call answering provider?

Look for a provider that can handle January volumes, will be properly briefed on your services and client types, delivers messages the way your team works (including into practice management or CRM software where possible), offers a clear UK GDPR processor contract, and lets you change scripts quickly as deadlines approach.

Most call answering services can answer a phone politely. For accountants, these are the questions that tell providers apart:

1. Peak-season capacity. Ask how they handle a sudden rise in calls in January and what happens to calls when all their receptionists are busy. Ask whether your answer time is likely to change in peak weeks.
2. Briefing on your practice. Can they hold a profile of your services (for example: no payroll, Self Assessment cut-off for new clients on 10 January), your team, who handles which clients, and your urgent rules? How quickly can you update it?
3. Message delivery. Email and text are standard. Ask whether messages can go into the practice management, CRM or task system your team already uses, or be sent to a shared inbox per team, so messages aren't stuck in one partner's email.
4. Call transfers. Can they put a call through to a named person when available and take a message when not? Can you set "do not disturb" times for partners?
5. Confidentiality and data. A written processor contract, clear retention periods, and staff confidentiality commitments.
6. Hours and flexibility. Evening cover can help in late January, when clients ring after work. Check whether you can change your plan or hours across the year, and the notice needed.
7. Test calls before the peak. In the autumn, ring your own number as a new landlord client and as a worried client with an HMRC letter. Read the messages you get, and update the script as deadlines approach.

This guide doesn't recommend any particular company. If you'd like, we can pass your details to one call answering provider from our partners, who can talk you through how they would handle your practice's calls.

Related guides

Call answering for accountants: frequently asked questions

Sources

We checked the facts on this page against these sources on 11 November 2026:

• GOV.UK: Self Assessment tax returns: deadlines
• GOV.UK: Self Assessment tax returns: penalties
• GOV.UK: Understand your Self Assessment tax bill: payments on account
• GOV.UK: Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
• ICAEW: Code of ethics: the five fundamental principles
• ICO: Contracts and liabilities between controllers and processors

This guide is general information for UK businesses, not legal, regulatory or financial advice. Call Answering Hub is an independent guide. We don't answer calls ourselves and we're not a call answering company. If you ask us to, we'll put you in touch with one call answering provider from our partners.

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