Docs (Basic): Request e-feedback (approve/disapprove) from clients

Make sure your clients are satisfied and that you didn’t miss something by requesting approval of the documents you’ve prepared. This allows you not only to make sure clients are pleased with your work but also to check that you got everything correctly.

When a client is not satisfied, they are prompted to explain why, so you immediately know what to address.

Request approvals

Want to get a client’s okay for a service you performed? Ensure the document is stored in a folder with  Client can view access, then follow these steps:

1. Open the document and click the approval checkmark button at the top of the document viewer. 

You can also request client approval while uploading documents or by clicking the three dots to the right of the document in the listand selecting Request approval.

2. Type in your message for the client ( optional).

3. Set up reminders ( optional), then send your request. 

Remind clients about pending approvals

Whenever you send documents that need to be approved by clients, they are notified. All users linked to the account—with Notify toggled on—receive an email notification. Check if notifications are on by checking the Notify column in the accounts list.   

If recipients take too long to approve a document, you have two options:

• Manually resend a notification.
• Set up automatic reminders.

Manually send new reminders 

To manually send a reminder to the client to approve a document, follow these steps:

1. Open the document, then click the approval checkmark button at the top of the document viewer. 

You can also resend client approval by clicking the three dots to the right of the document and selecting Resend approval request.

2. Type in your message for the client (optional).

3. Set up reminders (optional), then resend your request. 

Here’s what happens:

• An additional email message is sent to the client.
• A portal notification moves to the top of the client’s to-dos.

Automatic reminders

Toggle on Reminders when sending or resending a client approval request. When Reminders is toggled on, an additional email is sent to the client when they don’t approve the document within a certain amount of days. Once you toggle on Reminders, you can configure the following settings:  

• Days until next reminder: Remind the client after x days of inactivity. By default, a reminder is sent three days after the document is uploaded.

• Number of reminders: Send up to x number of reminders. By default, the client gets only one reminder email.

Reminders stop when...

• ...the client hasn’t approved the document, but the set number of reminders have been sent.
• ...the client approved the document.

Client view

If notifications for the client are on, they are informed of receiving a request to approve a document. Your clients can see and open such requests in different ways:

• From the client portal or mobile app: Click the notification under the Waiting for action section or the link on the Documents page. 
• From the email notification: Click Review documents in the email. 

Then, clients will interact with your feedback form: approve or disapprove. 

To see the sent approval from the client's perspective, access the read-only view. 

Know when clients have approved or disapproved documents?

Once a client has approved or disapproved a document, it moves to the top of the Recent list on the Documents page. 

If you have turned on the Approvals checkbox in the Notification preferences section of your Account settings, you’ll also receive an email and a notification in your Inbox+. 

Click on the document’s name or Go to... to view it.

Documents' statuses are displayed in the  Documents tab. For more on statuses, go here.

The document’s audit trail shows whether the client approved or disapproved a document.

Manage approvals

1. There are a few ways to locate documents awaiting approval. Choose the one that works best for you:

• Go to Documents to see all documents that have been actively worked with (uploaded, edited, sent, locked to an invoice, etc) in the last 30 days, 
• Go to Documents, then Docs, then select the client to see documents for one client.
• Go to the Docs tab from the client’s account. 

2. Want to narrow down the list of documents awaiting approval? Click Filter in the upper-right corner and select one or more filters in the Approvals section to narrow down the results of your search. 

• All: all documents awaiting approval
• Pending Payment: all documents locked to invoices and awaiting payment
• Pending Approval: all documents awaiting client approval
• Approved: all documents approved by the client
• Rejected: all documents rejected by the client

3. Click Apply to filter the list.

To see all documents awaiting approval for one client, go to the account, open Docs, then open the Approvals subtab.

You’ll see the following info:

• Document name: the document’s name along with an icon showing the file type.
• Request date: the date the client’s approval was requested
• Uploaded by: the name of the team member who uploaded the document
• Description: a description of the document if one was added when the document was uploaded (optional)
• Status: the status of the document. Learn more about document statuses here.
• Disapproved: the date that the document was rejected if it was

Cancel approval request

If the document needs edits, was sent by mistake, or is no longer relevant, you can cancel your approval request. To do so, open the document pending approval, click the three dots at the top right of the document viewer and select Cancel approval request.

You can also access the same name button by clicking the three dots to the right of the document.

Find all accounts with documents awaiting approval

You can easily filter your client account list to see which ones have documents awaiting approval.

1. Go to Clients, then click Filter.
2. Select Approvals in the dropdown, and check Pending approval.

You can also use the filter on the Documents page in the Recent tab.

Find out why clients have rejected documents

If a client is not entirely satisfied with a document you’ve prepared, TaxDome prompts them to explain why. To view a client’s feedback, open the document, click the three dots in the upper right corner and select Show more info (the button is unavailable if the document was accepted). To the right of the document, you’ll find the list of Disapproval Reasons with the client’s comments.