I’ve been using basic Zapier functions for a while but I’m contemplating something more ambitious and I’m not sure of the best approach to start. I do have a coding background -- used to be a programmer -- but for the past 15 years I’ve been in the income tax services field.

When we embark on preparing a return for a client, we almost always need some additional information. We do have an up-front questionnaire that tries to get as much data as possible but almost always we unearth something else we need -- an answer, a document -- as we work on the return. We send of an email with a list of questions, but clients don’t always answer everything or it comes back one answer at a time, days apart.

I want to build an app that:

• Allows the staff member to add any number of line items to a list of missing information
• Save the list so it can be built over time
• Send a link to the client to view and interact with the list
• The client should be able to answer the question (text field) or check that they’ve added the information to their client portal
• The client should be able to save the list and come back to it as needed
• If a certain period of time has passed, email the client that items are still outstanding
• Detect when all the items are completed/answered and notify the staff member
• Allow the staff member to edit the list if needed to add new items or reopen items that were not usefully answered
• Obviously clients should only be able to see only their own requests and answers

I think I’m okay with the external integrations; what I’m grappling with is how to structure the app itself, including both how to store the data and how to create the interfaces. Any thoughts on how to approach this would be appreciated!