The three emails FlowFi sends you and why

Nobody opens bookkeeping software for fun. You open it because something needs doing, and the hard part of running your own books is knowing when that is. So FlowFi does most of its talking by email, and we have been deliberate about keeping it to three kinds once you are past the first fortnight. Each one exists to put a number in front of you at the moment it is useful, and each one can be switched off.

This post is the full list, what is in each email, the reasoning behind it, and the settings.

Email one: the statement digest

When: the morning after you upload a bank statement and new transactions have been categorised.

Subject line: "Your statement is in: 143 transactions categorised", with your number.

What is in it:

• How many transactions were processed and where they landed: income, expenses, and, if you are registered, the GST on sales and on purchases.
• Where the money went, as a short list of the biggest categories with counts and totals.
• How many lines need a quick look, with a button that opens exactly those. If there are none, it says so.
• The next step: sort the flagged ones, then open the BAS page, where the quarter's figures are already in the ATO's labels.
• The date of your next BAS and how many days away it is.

Why it exists: the best time to review a categorisation is the day after you uploaded, while you still remember that the $184 at Bunnings was a job and not a hose. The digest turns a monthly upload into a five-minute review the next morning, and it makes the BAS a running figure you glance at rather than a quarterly reconstruction. It is only sent when something new was categorised; if you do not upload, it does not send.

Email two: your week in FlowFi

When: Monday morning, Sydney time, covering the previous seven days.

Subject line: "FlowFi week: $8,400 in, $3,100 out, 4 to review", with your numbers, or "quiet week, here is your position" if nothing moved.

What is in it:

• Money in, money out, and net for the week.
• Transactions added and how many need a look.
• Invoices outstanding, the total, and how many are overdue.
• Your GST position for the current quarter, if it can be estimated: what you would owe or be refunded if the quarter ended today.
• Days until the next BAS.
• One thing to do this week. Not a list; one thing, chosen from what the numbers show: review the flagged lines, chase the overdue invoice, upload a statement, or nothing at all.
• During a trial, how many days are left.

Why it exists: most sole traders have no idea of their position between BAS deadlines, and the answer is usually fine, which is worth knowing too. A short Monday email gives you the week's shape before it starts, and the one-thing rule keeps it from becoming another to-do list. If the week was quiet, the email says so and still shows the BAS countdown, because that is the date that sneaks up on people.

Email three: BAS reminders

When: seven days before your BAS is due, and again two days before.

What is in it: the quarter it covers, the due date, and a link to the BAS page where the labels are prepared from what you have uploaded. If you have not uploaded the quarter's statements, it says so, because that is the thing to do first.

Why two: a week out is enough time to export the last month's statement and review it. Two days out is the nudge for the people, all of us, who read the first one and thought "next week". The due dates are 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July, rolling to the next business day when the 28th is a weekend; the BAS due dates guide has the calendar and the BAS due dates tool has a countdown.

What we do not send

There is no marketing sequence after the first fortnight. In the first 14 days you get a short set of getting-started emails (a welcome with a three-step plan, a nudge if you have not confirmed your address, tips on days one, three and seven, a request for feedback around day ten, and reminders at three days and one day before the trial ends), and there are a handful of milestone notes: the first time a BAS is ready, the first invoice sent, the hundredth transaction categorised. Those are one-offs and they stop.

We do not send a newsletter. We do not send "we miss you". If your trial ends without a plan, you get one email saying your data is safe and read-only, and then nothing.

The settings

Every email carries a link to your preferences, and the same toggles are in Settings inside the app. There are four:

• Activity summary: the statement digest.
• Weekly summary: the Monday email.
• Tips and getting started: the first-fortnight emails and milestone notes.
• Reminders: BAS and trial reminders.

Turn off any of them and it stays off. The unsubscribe links in the footer are signed, so one click works without logging in. Emails about your account itself, such as a billing receipt or a password reset, are not optional, because you need them.

Why email at all

Because you are not in the app. A sole trader opens their bookkeeping a few times a month at most, and the useful moments are not evenly spaced: the day after an upload, the start of a week, the week before a deadline. Email reaches you at those moments without asking you to remember to check. The test we apply to every email is simple: does it carry a number from your books that changes what you do today? If not, it does not get sent.

If you are new, upload a statement and the first digest will arrive tomorrow morning. If you have been with us a while and want fewer, Settings is where to go. If you think one of the three could be better, tell us through the support link in the app; we read every message.

FlowFi keeps your books from your bank statement and tells you, by email, only what needs doing. Sydney-hosted, 14-day free Pro trial, no card. Start at flowfi.com.au