Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
How CA firms choose which July enquiries to take
Return season brings enquiries a firm cannot all serve well. This post shows how to sort them by fit, say no without losing the referral, and keep the good ones past the rush.
The GullySales team · Updated 6 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. Check the current position with your own council or adviser before you act on anything here.
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A CA firm should choose its July enquiries by fit and by capacity, in that order. Ask each new enquiry five things before you quote: what they need, how big and how regular the work is, who sends you the papers, whether they have an existing accountant and why they are leaving, and who will pay the bill. A prospect who fits and has a clear need gets a quote. One who does not gets a courteous no, a name to try and a note in your sheet.
Why July is a different kind of problem
Most of the year, a firm has the opposite worry: too few enquiries. Return season reverses it. Individuals, small traders and professionals ring in a bunch, each wanting a quick answer and a firm to rely on, and each assumes they are the only call you are taking.
The risk is not lost work. It is a team stretched thin by files it would never have chosen, with the clients it wants served second. When partners say "every July we take on work we do not really want", the cause is usually the same: nobody decided in advance what would be taken.
What do you ask before you quote?
Keep the questions short and ask them in the same order every time. A junior can ask them if the answers are written down.
| Ask | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| What do you need done, and by when? | Whether it is a one-time filing or a standing engagement |
| What kind of business is it, and how many transactions or entities? | Whether the work is a size your team handles well |
| Who gives us the records, and in what form? | Whether you will chase papers all year |
| Do you have an accountant now, and what went wrong? | Whether they leave over a penalty or over fees |
| Who pays, and who decides? | Whether the person on the phone can say yes |
Write down the answers, not your impression. Impressions fade by August, answers do not.
A simple way to sort what comes in
Three piles are enough. Take is work you do well, with a client who sends records and pays; give it a quote and an engagement letter. Take with conditions is a client who fits but needs a limit, such as a scope that excludes certain work, records by a fixed date or a start after the rush. Decline is work outside what you do or a client who has told you, in the first call, that your fee is the problem.
Be careful with the middle pile. It is where firms fool themselves. If you cannot write the condition in a sentence the client will accept, it belongs in the third pile.
How to decline well
Reply the same day, by call or WhatsApp. Say what you cannot do and why, in one or two sentences. If you know a firm that does this kind of work, offer the name. If you do not, say so and wish them well.
A prospect declined with courtesy often returns the following year, or sends a friend. A prospect who is left waiting for a reply tells the banker or lawyer who introduced them. Those introducers are the same people your firm depends on for referrals.
For example: a three-partner firm in Coimbatore
Take a three-partner firm in Coimbatore that serves mostly small manufacturers and wholesale traders. In July, enquiries arrive from salaried individuals with capital gains, a restaurant owner who wants his books cleaned, a first-time exporter and a startup that needs a statutory audit.
The firm takes the exporter, whose paperwork fits its existing clients and whose banker is a regular source of introductions. It takes the audit with a start date after the rush and tells the founders why. It declines the restaurant owner's clean-up, names a bookkeeping firm it trusts and notes his contact for October. The individuals get a fixed scope and fee, in writing. Nobody is surprised. Nobody is left waiting.
Keep the good ones past the rush
Most firms record only the clients they took. Record every enquiry, including the declined, in one sheet or CRM, with the date, source, reason and next step. In September, go through the declined and the "start after the rush" rows. Some will have been waiting for you.
Tell the clients you took what happens next, in a short engagement letter, who will handle their file, and when you will next be in touch. How a partner and an article assistant divide that work is something owners ask about, so say it plainly.
What to do next
Write the five questions on one page and keep it by the phone. Agree with your partners, before the next return season, what you will take, what you will take with conditions and what you will decline. The CA and accounting firms overview puts that record beside the rest of their marketing. If you want a scored view of how your enquiries are handled today, the free audit is where we start.