--- title: "Ask a client for bank data and answers" description: "Ask a client to connect their bank and answer your questions from one email link, or a link you send yourself. They confirm with a one-time code from their email, with no password to set up." section: "Advisors" canonical: "https://banksync.io/docs/advisors/client-requests" specs: ["client-requests"] operationBindings: [{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.list"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.create"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.get"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.withdraw"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.resend"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.respond"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.public.preview"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.public.code"},{"capability":"client-requests","operation":"client-requests.public.verify"}] --- A **request** is how you ask a client for their bank data and the answers you need. Your client opens one link, proves it is them with a one-time code sent to their email, confirms they are happy to share with you, connects their bank and answers your questions, on a phone or a computer. There is no password to set up. > **Before you start:** Requests are free on every plan, Free included. You need to be an owner or admin of your workspace. Who pays for the client's banks depends on the choice you make when you add them: see Who pays for a client. ## Send a request 1. Open **Clients** and choose **Add a client**, or open an existing client and send them a new request. 2. Enter the **Client's email**. Only this address can open the request. 3. Choose who pays: **Client pays** (the default) or **You cover** (Professional, Business and Enterprise). 4. Give it a **Title** and, if you like, a **Message** your client sees with it. 5. Leave **Ask them to connect a bank** on to ask for a bank connection. 6. Add up to 20 **Questions**. Each can be a short answer, long answer, number, date or a choice from your options, and can be required or optional. 7. Set a **Deadline** if you need one, then send it. BankSync emails your client straight away. The email comes from you, shown as "Jane Smith via BankSync". If they haven't finished, BankSync reminds them 3 and 7 days after you send it, and the day before your deadline. ### Send it through your own channel Choose **Copy link** on a request to send it yourself, by your own email, a text message or your practice software. The link still asks for the code BankSync emails to your client's address, so a forwarded link is no use to anyone else. Copying the link makes a new one, so the link in the email BankSync sent stops working. Each copy counts as a resend: it uses one of the request's 5 resends and counts toward your daily sending limit. You can copy the link until your client enters their code. ## What your client does 1. They open the link and see who is asking, what you're asking for, and the confirmation that they're happy to share with you. 2. They choose **Email me a code** and enter the 6-digit code from the email. Entering the code confirms sharing. 3. If they pay for themselves, they choose a plan for their own workspace. 4. They choose **Connect your bank** and approve access on their bank's usual consent screen. They can connect more than one. 5. They answer your questions. Answers save as they go, so they can come back to the same link later. 6. They send it to you. You get an email when they do. After sending, your client can open the same link for 30 days to see what they shared, or to stop sharing. > **Who the request names:** 'Once you verify your practice, the request shows your practice name with your domain, for example "Smith Bookkeeping (smithbooks.com)". Until then, it shows your email address. Verify by adding a DNS TXT record to your domain, or by opening a link sent to an address at your domain.' ## Track and follow up Each request on your client list shows where it stands: | Status | Meaning | | --------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | Sent | Emailed, or its link copied, and not opened yet | | Opened | Your client loaded the request page | | Verified | Your client entered the code and confirmed sharing | | Connected | Your client sent it: their banks and answers are in | | Stalled | Still open, with no progress for a week | - **Send reminder** emails your client again. A client is never emailed twice in one day about the same request. - **Resend** emails a fresh link and stops the old one working. You can resend a request up to 5 times, and each **Copy link** counts as one. - **Withdraw** stops the link working straight away. Anything your client already shared, including their answers, stays with you. A request that isn't completed expires 30 days after its deadline, or 60 days after you sent it if it has no deadline. ## Security - The code goes only to the email address you entered. A link locks for 30 minutes after 5 wrong codes and closes for good after 20. - Your client sees only their own workspace, never yours or your other clients. - An account that already uses two-step verification signs in the usual way instead of with a code. - Every request page has a link for your client to report a request they did not expect. A reported request is withdrawn and its link stops working. ## Limits - Until you verify your practice, you can have 10 requests open at once. A verified practice, or one on a paid plan (active or trialing), can have 100. - Until you verify your practice, you can send 20 request emails a day, counting new requests, resends and copied links. A verified practice, or one on a paid plan, can send 200. - An unverified practice with 2 reported requests in 30 days can't send, resend or remind until it verifies. A paid plan alone doesn't lift this. - When you cover a client and your plan's bank connections are all in use (or, during your trial, covered clients already hold 5), your client is told the limit is reached. Add bank connections from billing, then ask them to try again. > **Australian banks:** Australian (Consumer Data Right) banks work in requests. Your client connects them after confirming sharing, and if they stop sharing, those connections end straight away and you're told. ## Related guides - [Add a client](/docs/advisors/add-a-client): your client list and clients you cover. - [Who pays for a client](/docs/advisors/who-pays): client pays by default, or you cover them. - [Sharing with an advisor](/docs/advisors/sharing-with-an-advisor): the confirmation your client gives, and how they stop sharing. - [Share your workspace with your advisor](/docs/advisors/share-with-your-advisor): for clients who already have their own BankSync workspace.