For solo bookkeepers · done-for-you
Stop chasing clients for documents.
A real person chases your clients, collects every statement and receipt, and hands you a close-ready folder by the 7th — or you don't pay.
No charge today — your Stripe payment link arrives by email · close-ready by the 7th or that month is free · cancel anytime.
March close · all documents in
22 / 22 clients
What lands in your inbox on the 7th — every document filed, exceptions flagged, zero reminder emails sent by you.
Why we built this — the document chase, documented in open forums
"I have found a few bank payments that have no receipts, so I don't know what they are for" — a bookkeeper reconciling a year of statements. Nineteen years later, it's still the job.
Open the thread →
A bookkeeper asking how to stop feeling guilty about chasing clients for documents — the chase costs nerve, not just hours.
Open the thread →
Bookkeepers comparing how they collect client documents — Drive, email, portals — with no clear winner.
Open the thread →
Day 5 of close · 8:47pm · Tuesday
Three clients still haven't sent a single statement.
You have 22 clients. Fourteen sent everything. Five are partial. Three haven't sent a thing. You just emailed the same "friendly reminder, can you upload your March bank statements?" — for the third time — and got nothing back. So tonight, again, the choices are:
- Send a fourth reminder you already know won't work.
- Text them Sunday night — which you resent, and which trains them that nagging is the system.
- Estimate the missing entries, flag them, and inherit the reconciliation mess next month.
- Open another tab and google "how to fire a bookkeeping client."
Closewell exists because none of those is the answer — and the chasing was never the part you trained 8 years to do.
How it works
You hand over the client list. We take the chase off your plate.
- 1
One handoff, instead of the spreadsheet
Drop in your client list and the documents each one owes you every month. The same list you currently keep in a Google Doc and copy-paste reminders from.
clients.csv · 22 clientsdocs-needed · statements, receipts, payrollcadence · monthly · due by the 5th - 2
A real person chases — in your firm's name
Portal links, polite nudges, and follow-up calls go out under your firm's name — "Whitfield Books" in this example, never ours. Your clients never know we exist, and you never send the third reminder again.
Nudge sent · Lopez Catering on your behalf - 3
A close-ready folder by the 7th
Every document, tidy and named, with a one-page exception report listing only what needs your judgment. You open the books and just work.
march-close · folder Ready · 7th22 clients · 3 exceptions flagged
The math, in billable hours
$399/mo buys back the hours you can't bill anyway.
Document admin isn't billable. It's the time you eat between closing one client and being able to start the next. One industry estimate (OnboardMap) puts a 20-client solo at ~33 hours a month on document chasing. Call it 25 to be conservative: at a $75/hr billing rate, $399 is about five of those hours — for getting all twenty-five back.
~25 hrs
monthly admin you stop doing · ~75% of OnboardMap's estimate
$399
flat per month · up to 30 clients
by the 7th
guaranteed — or that month is free
If you've priced the alternatives
Software makes you do it faster. A VA makes you manage someone. We just do it.
| Closewell | DIY software TaxDome · Content Snare | Full-time VA Wishup · staffing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | $399/mo flat · up to 30 clients | $35–100/mo — plus ~25 hrs of your own time | from $999/mo (Wishup's own pricing) |
| Who chases your clients each month | We do — a real person | You do, every month | You, after scoping it |
| Done by the 7th — or it's free | Guaranteed | No guarantee | No guarantee |
| One-page exception report each close | Every month | No — just a portal | Only if you train them |
| Setup & supervision on you | None — we run it | You build the reminders | Hire, onboard, manage |
| Removes you from the chase loop | Completely | No | Partly |
Competitor descriptions and prices reflect their own sites, re-checked 2026-07-09: TaxDome, Content Snare, Wishup.
This isn't a one-time fire drill
Close happens every single month. So does the chasing.
The 8:47pm version of you shows up the first week of every month — like clockwork. The only way to skip it is to hand off the chase before the next close starts. Onboard between closes, while it's quiet, and the next 7th takes care of itself.
Start my first close — $399/mo →The part nobody offers
And if you want, we'll fire your worst chronically-late client for you.
The one who ghosts every month and makes you dread close. Optional: we draft and send the polite "it's not working out" offboarding email, in your firm's name. You keep the clients who respect your time.
Questions you'd ask if we were on the phone
Honest answers.
My clients ignore me. Why would they answer you? +
Because chasing is our only job, not the thing we squeeze in at 8:47pm. A dedicated person runs a real cadence — portal link, scheduled nudges, then a phone call — under your firm's name. And we put our money on it: if your folder isn't close-ready by the 7th, that month is free.
I already pay for TaxDome. Why add $399? +
Keep TaxDome — it's a great tool. But a tool still needs you to write the reminders, decode the replies, and make the calls. $399 isn't for software; it's for taking ~25 hours of unbillable chasing off your desk entirely. It's a fraction of a part-time VA, and you don't manage anyone.
I can just keep sending reminders myself. +
You can — and you do. The point isn't that reminders are hard to send; it's that they don't work, and you're still the one stuck doing them on a Sunday. We remove you from the loop. You stop being your clients' nag and go back to being their bookkeeper.
Do I have to give you access to my clients' books? +
No. We never touch the books or your accounting software. We only collect documents into a secure folder you control, and hand them to you. You stay the bookkeeper of record on everything.
It's quiet right now. I'll deal with this at next close. +
Quiet right now is exactly the moment to set it up. Onboarding takes a short handoff of your client list — do it this week and the very next close runs without you chasing anyone. Wait, and you're back to the third reminder email in a few days.
How does "or that month is free" actually work? +
If your close-ready folder isn't in your inbox by end of day on the 7th, that month's $399 is credited automatically — no form, no argument. And you judge "close-ready," not us. It covers up to 30 clients; if your list is bigger, we'll tell you before you pay, not after.
Will my clients know I've outsourced this — and what if the tone is wrong? +
Every nudge goes out under your firm's name, and you approve the wording and cadence before the first one is sent. Pause any client with a one-line reply. If a client ever pushes back, we hand you the thread the same day — your relationships stay yours.
Who's behind this
We're Brightstep Tech Inc. — a US company based in Austin, Texas. Closewell started with bookkeepers describing the same month, every month: the work is fine — it's the chasing that eats the margin. We're a small team, so early firms work directly with the people running the service; when you reply to a Closewell email, a human answers. And the guarantee is ours to honor: close-ready by the 7th, or that month is free.
Brightstep Tech Inc. · Austin, TX · makers of Closewell
$399/mo · done by the 7th or it's free
Let your next close arrive done by the 7th.
We email your secure payment link and a one-page setup plan within one business day. $399/mo, close-ready by the 7th or that month is free.
No charge today — your Stripe payment link arrives by email · done by the 7th or that month is free · cancel anytime.