Month-end guide
Client communication scripts for the awkward conversations
Updated 16 September 2026
Three conversations come up every month and none of them are in the training: a fee increase, receivables over 60 days, and a client who will not send documents. Word-for-word scripts for each, free to copy.
Why scripts, and why these 3
The close is a routine; the conversations around it are not, and they are the reason the close gets delayed. A fee increase is put off, an aging figure is softened until it says nothing, and a missing document is chased with increasingly apologetic emails. Each one costs more than the words would have.
A script is not a thing you read aloud. It is the draft you are holding when the conversation starts, so that the first sentence is already the right one. All 3 below follow the same shape: the fact with its figure, the 1 decision the client owns, and the date you will act either way.
The fee increase
The increase is easier to ask for the month after you sent a memo the client actually read. The memo is the evidence: it names the work you did beyond data entry. Tie the ask to a concrete change in the work, never to your costs, and put the new figure in the same sentence as the reason.
Script — fee increase
Hi [client], From [month], my fee for [client name] goes from [$current] to [$new]. The close has grown to include [the specific new work: the aging reviews, the quarterly reporting, the extra payroll], and the rate has been the same since [date]. I will send the first close at the new rate on [date]. If you want to talk it through first, I am free [day].
One sentence of reason is enough. Two sentences of justification invites a negotiation, and never backdate the regret — the client who hears about an increase 3 months late stops trusting the close as well.
Chasing receivables
You are not the debt collector; you are the person who can see the number. The aging shows which invoices are over 60 days, and the memo is where the figure gets said out loud. The ask is never “pay your customer” — it is which of the 2 jobs the client wants to do themselves.
Script — receivables in the memo
You have $[figure] in receivables over 60 days, the largest being [$figure] from [customer], invoiced [date]. Do you want me to send the reminders from your software, or will you call them first? If it helps the conversation, I can put the aging in next month's pack.
Keep the customer's name in it, because a total alone does not tell the owner who to call. The offer in the last line is the one that converts: it turns an awkward figure into a standing piece of work the client asked you to do.
The client who will not send documents
The close stalls on a statement, a receipt or a loan balance that never arrives. Chasing again from an empty inbox reads as nagging. The script moves the cost of the missing item onto the close itself, which is the thing the client is paying for, and gives the client a default instead of a question.
Script — missing documents
Hi [client], The close for [month] is ready except for 1 item: [the statement, the receipts for the card, the loan balance]. Without it I will book [the default: the depreciation estimate, last month's figure] so the month can still close on [date]. If the real figure is different, I will true it up next month. If it is easier, forward what you have and I will take it from there.
The middle paragraph is the whole script. It says what you will do, when you will do it, and how it gets fixed — and the client learns that not sending the item has a consequence they can predict, not an argument they have to win.
Where each of these belongs
The fee increase and the missing documents are 1-to-1 conversations: email or a call, never the memo. Receivables is the reverse — it belongs in the monthly memo, where the figure arrives as part of the close instead of as a surprise, and the script above is simply the memo paragraph written out.
One rule holds across all 3: the fact, the figure, the decision, the date, in that order. Anything before the fact is an apology, and anything after the date is a threat.
Or have it written for you
Most of these conversations get easier when the monthly note already says the figures plainly. Loopwork AI writes that note from the comparative Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet you already export. Your first memo is free and takes no card.