GTD for Accounting and Law Firms: Recurring Tasks That Run Themselves

The same GTD® method works in any firm, but accounting practices and law firms each have patterns worth borrowing. These playbooks are adapted from Chapter 10 of The Calm Firm, our free playbook for professional service teams.

Toodledo supports your workflow. It doesn't replace a court docketing or practice management system, or professional judgment on statutory deadlines. Always verify critical dates against the authoritative source.

Accounting and tax practices

Folders: one per recurring client; one per one-off engagement ("Hale & Co – 2026 audit"). Tags: service line, season and client code.

A monthly bookkeeping client, on autopilot

• Request bank and card statements: Next Action, @Computer, monthly on the 1st business day.
• Waiting: client – statements: Waiting, start date the 3rd.
• Reconcile accounts: Next Action, start date the 5th.
• Review management accounts: start date the 8th.
• Send monthly pack and invoice: due the 10th.

Complete one occurrence and the next one appears automatically.

Tax season survival rules

• Create every return as a project in January, with "Send organizer" as the first next action.
• Use the Waiting list as your missing-documents tracker, tagged by client.
• Reserve due dates for filing and extension deadlines only.

Law firms

Folders: one per matter, named with matter number and short name. Tags: practice area, responsible attorney and court or agency.

Matter-opening checklist

1. Run conflict check (Next Action).
2. Send engagement letter (Hold until conflicts clear).
3. Waiting: client – signed letter and retainer.
4. Open matter in billing and document systems.
5. Calendar key dates in docketing, with a matching task in Toodledo.
6. Send client welcome email.

Deadline discipline

Each deadline lives in your docketing system first. In Toodledo, build a backward chain of start dates (first draft, internal review, client review, final) with the deadline as the only due date. The responsible attorney keeps a Delegated item for every task handed to an associate or paralegal.

Every firm: the compliance calendar

Repeating tasks for licence renewals, CPE or CLE, insurance and regulatory filings, each starting 60 days before the deadline.

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Related: How to run GTD across your whole firm

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