ISSUE №5 · TUESDAY, June 2, 2026
Hi! This week's reframe is for anyone who's stalled on a system change because they're sure their clients will hate it.
A firm owner sent me this:
"There's no way I could ever get my clients to go paperless. We're moving to electronic data collection… some clients will embrace it and others will balk."
Read that again... Both sentences are in there. "No way I could ever" and then, one breath later, "some will embrace it." She already knows it isn't all of them. She's just letting the balkers run the whole decision!
Here's what I'd tell her.
First, quantify it. "They'll balk" is a feeling, not a number. Pull your client list and put an x next to the ones you genuinely believe will push back, not the ones who might sigh, the ones who'd actually leave over a portal. Now add up the revenue on those names. Then ask the harder question: how profitable are those clients, really? Because the client who can't handle a login is often the same client who emails you a shoebox of photos in April.
Second, look at the actual world your clients live in. They log into a portal for their bank, for their kid's school, for their doctor's lab results… The accounting profession did not invent secure document upload! You're not dragging them somewhere strange, you're just catching up to where they already are everywhere else.
And here's the reframe: You're treating this like something you're doing TO your clients. It isn't. You have real reasons! Security, speed, lower costs, fewer things lost in the mail… So say them. A clear, reasonable explanation earns a reasonable response. "We're moving to electronic data collection this year. It's faster for you, it's more secure for your information, and it lets my team spend time on your return instead of chasing paper. Here's how it works."
Some clients still won't come along. That's allowed! You cannot run a firm at the pace of your single most reluctant client. Letting a handful self-select out isn't the system failing… it's the system working.
Your firm should run the way you wish it could.
The boundary is the service.
— Rebecca
Got a boundary that you wish you could hold?
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