Keep PostedGuides › Recurring dates
The recurring dates small businesses forget — and what forgetting costs
Every business runs on a hidden calendar. Most of it lives in one person's head — and heads take holidays.
Keep Posted Guides · General guidance
Your customers' dates — the ones worth money
If your business serves customers on a cycle, every one of those cycles is revenue with a date on it:
- Annual services — boilers, appliances, air-con, equipment maintenance
- MOTs and vehicle servicing for garages and mobile mechanics
- Renewals — contracts, memberships, support plans, subscriptions, insurance-backed guarantees
- Re-inspections and re-tests — PAT testing, alarms, extinguishers, lifting gear
- Season-driven work — gutter clears, chimney sweeps, garden contracts
Every one of these forgotten is a customer who either goes without (and lapses) or gets the job done by whoever did remind them. The reminder isn't admin — it's the repeat business itself. A garage that reliably reminds its customers about MOTs isn't being organised; it's quietly taking that customer off the market every year.
Your own dates — the ones that cost money
- Filings — accounts and confirmation statements to Companies House, VAT returns, Self Assessment, payroll and pension duties. Most carry automatic penalties for lateness.
- Insurance renewals — where an accidental lapse can mean trading uncovered
- Licences, certifications and memberships — trade-body registrations, waste-carrier licences, professional cover
- Equipment and vehicle dates — your own MOTs, calibrations, inspections
- Reviews with dates attached — fixed-rate deals ending, contract break clauses, price-review windows
The asymmetry worth noticing: remembering a date is worth a little every time. Forgetting one is occasionally catastrophic — a lapsed insurance policy, a £150-and-rising filing penalty, a key customer quietly poached at renewal. Systems beat memory not because memory usually fails, but because when it fails, it fails expensively.
Why the usual fixes don't hold
The wall calendar doesn't chase anyone. The spreadsheet is only as good as its last update, and it emails nobody. The phone reminders belong to one person — and so does their annual leave, their busy week, and their eventual departure. What actually holds is a system where each customer's dates are recorded once, and the reminders — to them and to you — go out automatically every time the cycle comes round.
Record each customer's recurring dates once. Keep Posted sends the reminders on schedule — every renewal, every service, every year — and your repeat business stops depending on anyone's memory.
Register interestThis guide is general guidance, not legal or financial advice. Filing deadlines and penalties change — check GOV.UK for the current position on your specific obligations.