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Accountants and bookkeepers

Phone greetings for accountants

For a UK practice, January is the month the phones never stop. A greeting that asks for the Unique Taxpayer Reference and points clients to the right team saves minutes on every Self Assessment call.

Scripts for an accountancy practice

Listen · 0:26

Main line with UTR prompt

Thank you for calling Pennington Hale Accountants. If you're calling about your Self Assessment return, please have your Unique Taxpayer Reference to hand. For bookkeeping and VAT, press one. For payroll, press two. For anything else, please hold and the next free member of the team will pick up.

January

Deadline season

Thank you for holding. January is our busiest month. If you've already sent us your paperwork, there's no need to call: we'll be in touch before the 31 January deadline.

Fraud

HMRC impersonation

A reminder from [Practice name]: if someone calls claiming to be from HMRC and demands immediate payment, hang up and call us before you do anything.

Payroll

Payroll cut-off

For payroll changes this month, please email [email address] by the [day] so we can include them before the payroll is submitted.

Closed

Out of hours

You've reached [Practice name] outside office hours. We're open Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30. Leave your name, your number and your client reference, and we'll call you back.

What is different for accountants

The Self Assessment calendar

GOV.UK gives 11:59pm on 31 October for paper returns, and 11:59pm on 31 January for online returns and for paying the tax owed. Switch to a deadline-season greeting in December and back in February.

Scam calls in your clients’ name

Clients get calls from people posing as HMRC. A short line in your hold message gives them a safe habit: ring their accountant first.

From the studio

01

Spell out the acronyms you want spoken

Write “V A T” or “vat”, depending on how your team says it, and check the preview.

02

One reference, not three

Ask for the UTR or your own client reference, not both. Callers rarely have two numbers to hand.

Questions

Should the deadline appear in the greeting?

Only in a seasonal greeting you replace in February. A date that has passed makes the whole message sound out of date.

What does a greeting cost?

€19 excl. VAT per greeting. A seasonal January greeting is one more file, at the same price.

Hear your greeting before you pay.

Free preview, no subscription. €19 (approx. £17) per finished greeting.

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