Client missing receipts page

The client missing receipts page is where a client answers the questions their accountant or bookkeeper has about their bank payments. It lists the payments on the client’s current list, and the client answers each one by sending a receipt or invoice, writing a short note, or both. There’s nothing to download and no Otto Capture account to create.

This guide is written for the practice. For importing transactions and choosing what the client is asked about, see Missing receipts.

Each client has its own link, created when an admin turns the page on in the client’s settings (see Turning it on for a client). Anyone in your organisation can copy it:

On the client’s Missing receipts tab, click See answers. The client’s link is at the top, with Copy link.
In the client’s settings, under Client Submission, the Client missing receipts page area shows the link alongside the admin controls.

The Client missing receipts page area of a client's settings, showing the link with a Copy link button, then Rotate link and Turn off client missing receipts page, above a panel headed What your client will be able to see — The panel spells out what a link holder can see, next to the link itself.

Share it with whoever at the client can find the receipts: a direct message or an email to a named person is easier to keep track of than a link posted somewhere several people can see. Capture doesn’t send the link or tell the client when their list changes, so you let them know.

The same link works every time. When you update the client’s list, the page shows the new list the next time it’s opened.

What the client sees

The page is headed Payments [your organisation] has questions about, so the client can see who is asking. Your organisation leads the page header, and With Otto appears only as a small attribution beside it.

The client's page, headed Payments Willowbrook Accountants has questions about, with Money out and Money in sections listing each payment's date, description, bank account and amount, a Choose file button and Add a note control on each, and a Not linked to a payment section at the foot — Answered payments stay in place, dimmed, with a tick to their left.

The payments are split into Money out and Money in, newest first, each showing its date, bank account, description, and amount. The descriptions appear exactly as they do on the bank statement, so the client can match them against their own records. A List updated date tells them when you last changed the list.

The page shows nothing else about the client’s books: no document statuses, nothing about imports or excluded transactions, and not the client’s own name.

When every payment is answered, the page tells the client you have everything you need for now, and to keep the link for next time.

How a client answers a payment

For each payment, the client can send a file, write a note, or both.

The Money out section on a phone, with each payment as a stacked card showing the amount, date, description and bank account, and Choose file and Add a note controls — On a phone the table becomes stacked cards, so nothing is squeezed off the side.

Send a file: Choose file opens their photo library or files, and the file sends as soon as they pick it. On a computer, they can also drop a file straight onto the payment. Each payment takes one file: a client who sent the wrong one removes it and chooses again.
Write a note: Add a note opens a short box asking what the payment was for, or, once a file is on the payment, anything else you should know about it. Save keeps it. Once there’s a note, the control reads Change, and clearing the box and saving removes the note.

A file being dragged over one payment on the client's page, which is tinted and shows the hint Drop to send it for this payment in place of its controls, while the other payments carry a fainter tint — The hint covers only the payment's controls, so the date, description and amount stay readable.

One payment with its panel open, showing the file it was answered with beside Remove from this payment, the line It stays with Willowbrook Accountants, and a note box asking Anything else Willowbrook Accountants should know? with a Save button — The question the note asks changes once a file is on the payment.On a phone the same panel stacks, so the note box keeps its full width.

The same payment on a phone, its panel stacked: the file with Remove from this payment beneath it, then the note box and Save — The question the note asks changes once a file is on the payment.On a phone the same panel stacks, so the note box keeps its full width.

An answered payment stays where it is in the list, dimmed, with a tick beside it, so nothing moves under the client’s finger while they work down the page.

For money going out, the page asks for a receipt or invoice. For money coming in, it asks for the invoice or credit note the payment relates to. Either way, a note on its own is a complete answer for a payment the client has no document for.

The page accepts the same file types and size limit as the client submission page, and each file goes through the same processing pipeline as any other document. The document’s source shows as Client missing receipts page, and the client’s note appears with it on the review screen.

Files not linked to a payment

A file can end up on no payment the client is being asked about: because the client removed it from a payment, because you used Ask again on its payment, or because you took its payment off the list. Those files appear under Not linked to a payment at the bottom of the page, where the client can use Link to this payment to put one on a payment that still needs a file.

The Not linked to a payment section, listing three files: one that can be put on a payment through a dropdown and a Link to this payment button, one marked You've already sent this one, and one marked This one can't go on a payment. You can send another file for it instead — A file that can still go somewhere gets a picker; the other two say why they can't.The picker and its button sit one above the other at phone width.

The same section on a phone, each file listed with its date and, where it can still be placed, a payment picker and a Link to this payment button below it — A file that can still go somewhere gets a picker; the other two say why they can't.The picker and its button sit one above the other at phone width.

Removing a file from a payment doesn’t take it back. The page tells the client the file stays with you, and it does: it stays in Capture, carries on through processing, and counts towards billing like any other document if you publish it.

A file you’ve discarded, or one Capture detected as a duplicate, can’t go on a payment. It stays under Not linked to a payment for 30 days with a line saying so, and the payment it was on shows as unanswered again so the client can send another file.

What anyone with the link can see

Anyone holding the link can see the date, amount, description, and bank account of every transaction on the client’s current list, and can answer them. There’s no login, and the link isn’t restricted to an email address or a domain.

That makes this link more sensitive than a submission link, which only lets someone send documents in. Bank descriptions routinely name people, suppliers, and salaries, so treat the link like a key, and use the list to keep off anything the client doesn’t need to be asked about.

Search engines are told not to index the page, and the link isn’t passed on to any other site the client might visit next.

Rotating and turning the page off

Both actions are in the client’s settings under Client Submission, both are admin-only, and both ask you to confirm.

Rotate link creates a new link straight away and stops the old one working. The page stays on and the client’s list is unchanged, so anyone who should still be answering needs the new link.
Turn off client missing receipts page leaves the client with no link at all. The Missing receipts tab goes too, so nobody can import or prepare a list for that client until an admin turns the page back on. The stored transactions and the client’s list are kept.

The Rotate the missing receipts link? dialog, saying the link already shared stops working straight away and that the page stays on and the client's list is unchanged, with Cancel and Rotate link buttons — Rotating replaces the link and leaves everything else as it was.

The Turn off the client missing receipts page? dialog, saying the client will have no link at all, that the Missing receipts tab goes too, and that stored transactions and the client's list are kept, with Cancel and Turn off page buttons — Turning the page off takes the practice-side tab with it until you turn it back on.

Turning the page back on creates a fresh link. A link you’ve rotated away or turned off stays dead, so an old one can never come back.

What breaks a link, and what doesn’t

Change	Effect on the link
Changing the client’s name or prefix	Keeps working. The address updates itself when the page is next opened
Changing your organisation prefix	Breaks every client’s link. Share the new ones
Disconnecting the client’s accounting platform	Stops working. The same link works again once the client is reconnected and set up again
Rotating the link	Breaks the old one immediately
Turning the page off	Breaks the old one immediately

Someone opening a link that no longer works sees the same message as for a dead submission page link, and isn’t told why.

Spam protection

The page shares the client submission page’s protection against misuse. If someone sends an unusual number of files or answers in a short time, the page asks them to try again later. The limits are set well above what a client would do in normal use. If a client tells you they’re hitting the limit, please contact support.