Twelve clients. Nine sets of records. January.

Bank statements for the whole year, not the eight months they could find. Receipts for the expenses they've claimed. Dividend vouchers. The P60 they were sent in May. Mileage records that exist. The signed engagement letter. ID for your AML file. The 64-8 they've had since March. Approval of the accounts, signed, before you can file.

None of it is difficult. All of it requires you to ask, wait, work out what's actually turned up, and ask again — for every client, at the same time of year, in a tone that keeps them as a client. That's the whole January problem in one sentence.

And it repeats: VAT quarter, payroll starters, year-end packs, the confirmation statement. The same chase, different paperwork, forever.

You describe what you need once. “Get 2024/25 bank statements for all business accounts, dividend vouchers, and the signed engagement letter from Marcus Reid.” Obtainr asks the clarifying questions — which accounts, which tax year, whether a scan is acceptable — and turns your answers into a requirements list.

It sends from your mailbox. Gmail or Outlook, connected with OAuth. Your address, your signature, your existing thread. The client sees an email from their accountant, because that's what it is.

The client gets a link and a QR code. No account, no login, no client portal they'll email you about because they've forgotten the password. The QR code is the one that gets used — clients photograph it and send everything from their phone.

Then it reads what came back. If they've sent ten months of statements and no dividend vouchers, Obtainr tells you that and drafts the follow-up asking for the rest, on the same thread, up to the turn limit you set. You stop being the person who opens the ZIP to find out what's inside.

You are not short of replies in January. You're short of complete ones. A client who sends something feels like a client who's done, right up until someone opens it.

Obtainr is what closes that gap. Every reply is measured against the list you set, and it keeps asking for as long as replies fall short — or tells you exactly which line is still outstanding.

Run it fully automatic for routine record collection, hold-for-approval for the clients who need careful handling, or draft-only if you want a human on every send.