How to set up Canopy client requests and portal reminders

Tax season document chasing has a pattern. You send 200 clients the same “please upload your W-2s and 1099s” email, 60 respond in a week, and the rest need two, three or six nudges. Canopy can run that whole cycle from its client portal: the request, the reminders, a confirmation when the client finishes, and a handoff to whoever prepares the return. This guide sets it up in order, starting with the step most firms skip, which is getting clients into the portal first.

What you need

A Canopy subscription. Canopy’s pricing page lists Standard at $74/user/month, Plus at $109 and Premium at $149 (billed annually), with Enterprise on request. It lists the client portal and workflow automation as part of the platform on all tiers. Tax workflow automation and some other “power-ups” cost extra, so check those separately.
Clients invited to the client portal. Canopy’s own blog notes that requests sent to clients who haven’t been invited are saved as drafts until they accept the portal invitation. This is the number one reason a request “didn’t send.”
One contact per person. Canopy separates contacts (people, with email addresses) from clients (the person’s personal return, their business, and so on). Portal invites are tied to contacts, and Canopy recommends each contact has their own login.

Step by step

1. Invite every contact to the portal first

For one contact: open the client’s record, go to the contacts section on the left, expand the contact, and select Send Invite. Confirm the email, add a personal message or pick a template, and send.

For everyone on a client record at once, use the three dots at the top of the Contact section.

Write the invite message so it explains why, not just how:

“We’re moving document exchange to a secure portal so your tax documents never sit in email. Click below to set your password. It takes 2 minutes. Next week you’ll get a checklist of what we need for this year.”

Send invites a week before your first request. That gives people time to set up their login without a deadline on top of it.

2. Build a client request template

Templates keep the same request worded the same way every year. A client request template can include instructions in the description and attached files. Canopy also lets you put client requests inside task templates as subtasks, which matters for step 5.

Example for an individual tax client:

Name: “2026 tax documents”
Description: “Upload everything below that applies to you. If something doesn’t apply, comment ‘N/A’ so we know you checked. W-2s, 1099s (all types), 1098 mortgage interest, property tax bills, childcare receipts, charitable receipts over $250, and any IRS or state letters.”

3. Send the request with reminders

Select the Global + icon, then Client Request. Fill in:

Request name or pick your template.
Client from the dropdown.
Description, attachments or links.
Priority and internal assignees.
Due date for the client.
Reminders: pick an interval from the two dropdowns. Canopy’s help article gives the example “Every Monday for 15 days.”

Then choose Send now or Save as draft, and pick which contacts receive it.

Two details worth knowing. Reminders start once the request is created and sent, not while it’s a draft. And clients can snooze a reminder until the following Monday, so a weekly Monday cadence fits how the snooze works.

A reasonable schedule for tax documents: send in late January with a due date of February 28, and set reminders for every Monday, with the duration as close to the due date as the second dropdown allows. That’s about 5 Mondays. If the duration options run out early, send a fresh request for the stragglers in mid-February.

4. Send to many clients at once

For the annual tax request, don’t send 200 one at a time. Select two or more contacts in the contact list, use the bulk action, and fill in one form with the template, priority, description, assignee, due date and reminders. Canopy creates a separate request for each.

Run the bulk send only after step 1. Anyone not yet invited gets a draft instead of a request.

5. Add automations for the handoff

Confirmation email. On the client request, select Add an Automation. Set the condition to “When the request has a status of” Needs Review, the action to “then send a client email,” and pick an email template. Enter the email address that should get replies, preview, and select Add Automation. Now clients get a thank-you the moment they submit. Example:

“Got it, thanks. We’ll review what you sent within 5 business days and let you know if anything’s missing.”

Assign the next step. If the request sits inside a task template, add an automation to the next subtask with the condition “When the previous subtask or client request has a status of” Needs Review and the action Set assignee(s). The preparer gets assigned as soon as the client’s documents come in. Other available actions include recording a date and notifying team members.

6. Tell clients how to answer

Canopy’s requests are answered in the portal, not by replying to the email. Put that in your instructions, because clients will try to reply. In the portal, the client goes to their To-do list, opens the request (it has a clipboard icon), adds a comment, uses the paperclip to upload files, selects Send, and checks Mark as complete. The mobile app has the same mark-complete option.

A one-line reminder in every request description helps: “Please upload in the portal. Replies to this email don’t reach us.”

Common mistakes

Sending requests before portal invites. They sit as drafts. Invite first, request a week later.
Shared logins. Spouses or business partners sharing one contact makes it unclear who uploaded what. Give each person their own contact.
Setting reminders on a draft and assuming they’re running. They start after the request is sent.
Not saying “N/A is fine.” Clients stall on items that don’t apply to them. Tell them how to say so.
Skipping the confirmation email. Without it, clients email you to ask whether you got their documents, which is the email you were trying to avoid.

When it’s worth getting help

The steps above are all native to Canopy and most firms can set them up in a day. Where it gets more involved is lining up task templates, client request subtasks and automations across tax, bookkeeping and advisory work so every handoff happens on its own. If you’d like help with that, see the accounting page for how I work, or try the accounting cost calculator.