Professional indemnity renewal
Annual cover renewed with the limit set against the largest contract value in the year, and the certificate sent to clients who ask for it.
For consultants
The consultant's year of proposals, retainer renewals and unpaid invoices
A consultant's income depends on proposals that need following up, timesheets that need chasing and invoices that wait until the client's own process allows.
No account needed to see the proposed desk.
The recurring work
What consultants have to keep on top of
Every one of these has a date attached, a document behind it, and somebody who notices when it slips. This is what goes on the desk.
Companies House confirmation statement
The annual confirmation for the practice company, due on the incorporation anniversary with the register of members kept current.
Corporation tax and accounts
Statutory accounts and the CT600 filed each year, with any tax payable falling due well before the return itself.
VAT returns
Quarterly returns and payments on the practice's own quarter ends, including the reverse charge on overseas suppliers.
Client status reports
The weekly or fortnightly written update each client expects, which becomes the evidence when a scope dispute starts.
Retainer renewals
Fixed-term agreements that end silently unless someone diaries the renewal conversation and issues the new terms in time.
Timesheets and day rates
Hours recorded per client and per project before the month closes, because billing cannot happen without them.
Proposal follow-ups
An answer due on every proposal sent, since work lost to silence is rarely lost on price.
Contractor and subcontractor agreements
Written terms, insurance and status checks held for each associate engaged, refreshed whenever an engagement is extended.
ICO registration and data handling
The annual data protection fee where the practice is a controller, with client data requests answered inside the statutory month.
What it costs to carry it
Nothing here is hard on its own, and that is exactly why it slips. A proposal goes unanswered because a delivery deadline took the week, and the work is quietly awarded elsewhere. Invoices sit unraised past the month end, which pushes payment past the client's own payment run and turns a thirty-day term into sixty.
What the desk takes over
The desk works this list to its own schedule and reports what it did.
The proposal follow-up
Each proposal tracked from the day it is sent, with a written nudge drafted once the agreed answer date passes.
The weekly client note
Progress, decisions needed and next steps assembled from the engagement file and prepared for the consultant to send.
Billing triggers
Milestones and month ends watched, with invoices raised on time and overdue accounts chased on a fixed schedule.
The renewal calendar
Retainers, indemnity cover and company filing dates held in one list, with the paperwork prepared ahead of each one.
What stays with the consultant
The consultant keeps the client relationship, the diagnosis and the recommendation. Chasing a signature or a payment is administrative work, and it is better done without the consultant in the room.
Questions
Can the desk write and send proposals?
It drafts the covering message and keeps the follow-up schedule. The scope, the price and the final wording stay with the consultant.
Does the desk keep client engagements separated?
Each client is its own file. Work on one engagement is not blended into another, and anything needing a decision is put to the consultant.
Does it invoice clients directly?
It can raise invoices where billing runs through a connected tool. Until a mailbox or accounting tool is connected, it prepares and records the work without sending anything.
Put the consultant's recurring work on the desk
Start with a name, a website and one sentence about what the business does. The desk proposes the list; the consultant corrects it.