How accountants deliver year-end packs and returns to clients in 2026
Practices still email a draft PDF, then a transfer of schedules, then a third set when the bookkeeper changes. Client pack delivery in 2026 is one URL: a cover they can check, a password, the issued files they can open in month nine.
How accountants deliver client packs is still, in too many practices, an email chain and a transfer that dies before the next filing. Each hop is a place a draft goes stale, or a full schedule leaves in the first look. This page is a file door, not advice on tax, audit, or who may see a return.
This is the year of jobs: an engagement pack, a draft for review, an issued return, a new bookkeeper. Spike can be that URL. It does not replace your practice software. It is the door you hand a named person. How lawyers deliver case files is the sealed-bundle cousin.
Why client packs still wander
- A full working file in the first email is already the delivery.
- A new bookkeeper asks in month nine. The transfer is gone.
- A shared drive shows every draft next to the issued set.
- Fees are still due, and the schedules already left.
How this looks on a year of filings
Engagement pack
A treated letter and a contents page. Not every working paper. Password the door. If a remaining fee is due before papers go out, put the price on that URL. Get paid before sending files. Your engagement letter still governs the work. Spike only holds the pack they are allowed to take.
Draft for review
One folder per entity. Name files for humans: draft accounts, not scan003. A short note of what they should check. Replace a revised sheet in place. Tell them the URL did not change. If two directors should not see the same set, use two doors.
Issued return
The pack they file or keep. Leave the link up on Pro or Business if they will come back at the next deadline. Free shares last three days, which is not a filing clock. Rotate the passphrase when the bookkeeper changes. Free-plan files follow 30-day retention.
Handover
A dated issued set when a client moves. The new person fetches the same URL. You are not hunting a ZIP from last spring. Working papers stay off that door unless your rules say they should travel. How to share files with clients is the generic door.
Put this entity in one folder
Cover, issued accounts, filing copies you mean to issue. Nothing from another client.
Password the door
Send the URL and the passphrase on different channels. A cover they can check. Not the full working file as the first look.
Price it if a fee is still due
The firm payment link is the folder. When checkout completes, the same URL is the download.
Spike takes 5% on Free, 1% on Pro, 0% on Business, from the payout, when you price the folder. Sharing can stay free when the fee already cleared. Free-plan files follow 30-day retention. A live filing season belongs on a paid plan. How lawyers deliver case files is the sealed cousin. Keep Xero or your practice suite for the workbench. The client does not need a seat there to fetch what you already issued.
If they can read the cover, they should be able to take the issued set without joining your working papers.
Questions
Good to know
Put the cover, issued accounts, and filing copies in one folder. Let them preview a contents page. Password the door. Unlock the issued set on that URL. This is not tax advice. It is a file door.
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Try the workflow in the article.
Upload a folder, protect the preview, share or sell from one link.