The problem
Bookkeepers lose days each month waiting on clients to explain transactions. Sending a spreadsheet of 40 lines gets ignored. A short email with grouped, plain questions gets answered, usually from the client's phone between jobs. Writing that email for every client is the part that never fits into the month.
What Cowork does
- A monthly task (and weekly for busy clients) reads uncategorized transactions from each client's QuickBooks company.
- It groups them by vendor and guesses likely categories from past months, marking each guess clearly.
- It drafts an email per client asking short questions: 'Three charges at Home Depot in March, $412 total. Job materials or something else?'
- It logs which questions are open in a sheet.
Where the draft lands
One draft per client and an open-questions log.
What stays with you
Categorizing in the books and deciding what's deductible. No tax advice in the drafts.
Hi Sam, a few quick questions so we can close September:
1) Three charges at Home Depot, $412 total. Job materials or something else?
2) $1,200 transfer to "S. Fisher" on Sep 14. Contractor payment or owner draw?
3) Two Amazon orders, $86. Office supplies?
A one-line reply for each is perfect. Jo
Watch-outs
- Multi-company access in one Claude connection needs testing; you may need a connection per client.
- Xero clients: the official connector is read-only, which is enough for this idea.
Questions owners ask
Can it categorize the transactions itself?
QuickBooks' connector can import and update transactions, but categorization should stay with the bookkeeper.
What about receipts?
Ask clients to reply with receipts; saving them to Drive keeps them readable.