The month will not close because one transfer has no category, or a receipt never arrived, or a loan payment hit a personal account. Your assistant drafted a helpful note about "a few things to tidy." A few things is how a close slips a week. The client will answer one question from a phone. They will archive a tidy-up.
This is not getting a tax theory checked. That article is the client writing to a licensed professional with a conclusion in hand. This one is you, the bookkeeper, writing to the client for a fact you need to finish the month.
One item, named as they would see it
Open with the month and the blocker. "To close March I need to know whether the 18th transfer to Jordan is a draw or a contractor payment." Give the amount as it appears on the feed, the counterparty name as the bank printed it, the date. Then a closed set: draw, contractor, something else they will name.
Do not attach the export. RelayLink does not carry attachments. Describe the line. If they use a portal for files, say you will put the screenshot there, and still ask the question in words.
If you have three blockers, send three briefings, or send the one that unlocks the others. A list of ten lines is a homework packet.
Mark what you guessed so they can cheaply disagree
You assumed the name on the feed is the same Jordan they pay for design. You assumed the personal card charge is meals for a trip they already told you about. Write the assumption as a sentence they can answer no to. A wrong category that ships in the close is more expensive than a blunt correction now.
An assistant will invent a story that fits the memo field. The memo field is not a story. Label the inference.
Follow up without growing the ask
You approve the package. They do not need an account to receive it or to reply from the email. If they already have an activated account, a new thread needs an accepted pair. A nickname you use for the entity stays on your side.
If they do not answer, follow up once with the same question and the same close date. Do not add two more items to prove you were busy. Silence is usually a message they could not finish, not a refusal of the books.
Say what you will do if you still do not hear: hold the month open, or post to an ask-the-client account you both already use. Honour it.
What this message is not
It is not a mini-audit. It is not a lecture about receipts. It is not tax advice. If the answer changes how something should be treated for a return, that is a later message to the person who signs that work — and often a different professional.
Get the fact. Close the month. Leave the theory for the conversation that is actually about theory.