Short answer: you stop chasing foreign clients by replacing reminders with a system. One onboarding pack in English that explains what you need and when. Bank data that comes to you directly instead of as statements someone has to remember to send. Receipts captured at the moment of payment, not at the end of the quarter. A fixed monthly cutoff with a clear consequence. And one batch of questions a month instead of thirty emails.
Disclosure: I build MoneySky, a finance app for freelancers and small companies, which comes up at the end. Everything before that works with whatever tools your office already uses.
Why foreign clients are harder
Expat clients are not worse clients. They are different in ways that break a process built for Czech ones:
Their money is spread out. A Czech account for the authorities, Revolut or Wise for daily spending, an account back home, sometimes PayPal or Stripe payouts.
Several currencies. Income in EUR or USD, costs in CZK and GBP, each needing a rate.
They do not know the Czech calendar. Monthly VAT returns, kontrolní hlášení, the přehledy and the identified person regime are unfamiliar, so they do not see why the 10th matters.
Official letters go unread. The data box (datová schránka) is in Czech and easy to ignore.
Receipts from everywhere. Foreign receipts, app subscriptions billed from Ireland, invoices in four languages.
1. Onboard once, in English
Give every new foreign client a short pack, ideally one page, that answers:
What you need every month or quarter (bank data, issued invoices, received invoices and receipts), and by which day.
The deadlines that apply to them, written as dates, not as Czech form names.
What happens if documents are late.
Which official letters they must forward and how.
Who to ask, and through which single channel.
Also sort access on day one: a power of attorney for the tax office, ČSSZ and the health insurer, and authorised access to their data box, so official letters reach you even when the client is travelling.
2. Keep a calendar per client type
| Client type | What you need and when |
|---|---|
| Non-VAT payer OSVČ | Income and expenses once a year, ideally quarterly so the spring is not a rush |
| Identified person | Every month with an EU B2B invoice or a service bought from the EU, in time for the 25th |
| Monthly VAT payer | All documents for the month early enough for the VAT return and kontrolní hlášení on the 25th |
| s.r.o. | Monthly for bookkeeping and VAT, plus year-end documents |
The identified person row is where foreign clients most often get caught: they invoice a German company once and nobody files anything for that month.
3. Get bank data without asking for statements
Bank statements are the document clients forget most, and the one you need most. Remove the client from the loop where you can:
Ask for automatic statement exports in a format your software reads (CSV or CAMT, depending on the bank), sent by the bank or the client's app on a schedule.
Or ask clients to use an app that connects to their banks through PSD2 open banking, read-only, so the transactions arrive without anyone exporting anything. This also covers neobanks like Revolut and Wise.
Once transactions arrive on their own, you are no longer asking "did you send the statement" but "what is this payment", which is a much shorter conversation.
4. Capture receipts at the moment of payment
A receipt photographed at the till is an asset. The same receipt looked for in March is a problem. Ask clients to snap every business receipt into one place immediately, matched to the bank transaction, and explain the rule in one line: if it is for the business and should be deducted, we need the document. For VAT payers, add what a valid tax document must contain, because a card slip alone often is not enough.
5. Set a cutoff and a consequence
Pick a day, for example the 10th of the following month. Documents that arrive later go into the next period or carry a fixed surcharge, and the client knows which before it happens. A rule you announce once and apply calmly does more than any number of polite reminders.
6. Ask questions once a month, as a list
Instead of emailing about each unclear transaction, send one list a month: date, amount, counterparty, and a column for the client to explain. Clients answer a list of seven items in ten minutes. They do not answer seven separate emails.
7. Templates you can copy
Monthly request
Hi Anna, it is time to close October. Please upload by 10 November: invoices you issued, invoices and receipts you received, and anything you paid from accounts we do not see (for example your UK card). Anything after the 10th goes into November. Thanks!
Questions about transactions
Hi Anna, seven October payments need a word from you. They are in the attached list with date, amount and recipient. Please add one line each: what it was and whether it was business or private. Ten minutes, and October is closed.
Price it honestly
Foreign clients usually mean more currencies, more accounts, English communication and more VAT edge cases. A separate price for them, or a surcharge per extra account or currency, is fair and makes the system above easier to enforce.
FAQ
How do I get bank statements from foreign clients on time?
Do not rely on the client sending them. Set up automatic exports from the bank, or have the client connect accounts through a read-only open banking app so transactions arrive by themselves.
What do foreign clients most often miss?
VAT obligations as an identified person after invoicing an EU business or buying services from the EU, the přehledy for social and health insurance, and official letters in the data box.
Should an accounting office communicate with expat clients in English?
If you want to keep them, yes. Short English templates for the recurring requests cover most of it, and the client stays responsible for the facts, not for knowing Czech terminology.
Where MoneySky fits
MoneySky works on the client side of this. Clients connect their Czech and foreign accounts through open banking, including Revolut, Wise and N26, scan receipts as they pay, issue invoices with reverse charge in any currency, and work in English or Czech. You get transactions with documents attached and accountant-ready exports instead of a folder of PDFs. If your office looks after foreign freelancers or small companies and you would like to try it with a few of them, write to me at anton@moneysky.app.
For your clients, the guide to freelancing in Czechia as a foreigner and the expat tax return guide explain the basics in English, so you do not have to.