Tax season isn't short on expertise. It's short on people to chase documents.
Every February your preparers turn into a collections department for W-2s, 1099s and K-1s. My AI agents do the chasing, the engagement letters and the first pass at receipt coding, so your CPAs and bookkeepers spend busy season on the work only they can do.
Starting at $499 a month, flat and month to month. No seasonal surcharge.
Where the hours go in an accounting firm
Ask any firm owner what busy season really costs, and it's rarely the preparation itself:
- Chasing missing documents by email, then text, then phone, for the same three clients every year.
- Checking what's arrived against each client's organizer or checklist, by hand.
- Sending engagement letters every season and chasing the signatures.
- Coding receipts and bills and emailing clients to ask what a charge was for.
- Sending monthly close reminders for bank statements, payroll reports and sales tax deadlines.
- Answering "did you get my documents?" and "when will my return be done?"
- Portal invites and password resets for clients who log in once a year.
- January requests to bookkeeping clients for vendor details ahead of 1099 filing.
What my AI agents take off your plate
Document chasing in tax season
Agents compare what's in the portal against each client's checklist and send specific reminders: "We still need the 1099-B from your brokerage account," not "please send your documents."
AI lead follow-up →A client portal people actually use
A simple upload portal built around your checklist, with status your clients can see, in place of the per-seat portal they forget how to log into.
Custom tools and SaaS replacement →Engagement letters, out and signed
Letters filled from each client record in your approved template, sent for signature and tracked until they come back. Unsigned letters get flagged before work starts.
CRM cleanup and automation →Receipt and bill coding for review
Agents read receipts and bills, suggest categories based on how you've coded that client before, and flag anything unusual. Your bookkeeper approves every entry.
Business process automation →Recurring client reminders
Estimated payment dates, month-end close requests and seasonal client newsletters, drafted on schedule and reviewed by your team before they go out.
AI content production →A busy-season status board
Returns by stage, documents outstanding and clients who've gone quiet, on one page every Monday so you see the bottleneck before April does.
AI reporting and dashboards →Who does what
Agents prepare and remind. Licensed people decide.
| Task | What the agent does | What stays with your team |
|---|---|---|
| Missing documents | Matches uploads to the checklist, sends specific reminders | Deciding when a return goes on extension |
| Engagement letter | Fills the template from the client record, tracks the signature | Scope, fees and client acceptance |
| Receipt coding | Suggests categories and flags outliers | Approving every entry, anything with tax consequences |
| Bills | Reads bills into the software as unapproved drafts | Approving and paying them |
| Status questions | Answers "we have your documents and your return is in review" | Every tax question, without exception |
| Client letters | Drafts year-end and newsletter content | CPA review and sign-off |
Replace the software you've outgrown
Small firms often pay separately for a client portal, an e-signature service, a document request tool and a practice management or workflow platform, on top of tax and bookkeeping software. Several of them do overlapping jobs, and clients still email PDFs anyway.
Your tax and bookkeeping software stays. The tools around it are worth a hard look. Sometimes the answer is setting up the workflow platform you already pay for properly; that's CRM cleanup and automation. Sometimes it's a portal or tracker you own, built around your checklist, so a per-seat subscription can go. That's custom tools and SaaS replacement. Start with the SaaS cut sheet.
A small firm gets through March without a temp
Example (sample business, invented scenario): picture a firm with two CPAs, an enrolled agent and two bookkeepers. In past years, the owner hired a seasonal admin to chase documents and answer status calls from February through April.
This year, the organizers go out in January with a checklist built from each client's prior-year return. As documents land in the portal, an agent checks them off and sends each client a specific note about what's still missing. Clients who go quiet get a second reminder a week later, and a third goes to a preparer to decide whether to call.
Engagement letters go out from the template in the first week of January and get tracked until signed. On the bookkeeping side, receipts get coded as suggestions for the bookkeepers to approve during month-end, instead of entered from scratch.
Every Monday, the owner sees one page: returns by stage, documents outstanding and who's stuck. The seasonal hire becomes a decision rather than a default. The CPAs still review every return, answer every tax question and sign everything.
Licensed people make the calls
- Agents never move money. No payments, no transfers, no filing. They read, draft, remind and flag.
- No tax advice from agents. "Can I deduct this?" goes to a CPA or EA, every time. Agents are set up to say so.
- Coding is suggested, never booked. Your bookkeeper approves every entry before it hits the books.
- Client data needs a real security plan. The IRS and its Security Summit partners say tax professionals need a written information security plan. Any agent setup has to fit inside yours, with the least access each task needs. See my security page.
- This isn't tax or legal advice. Your firm decides what's compliant.
Questions from accounting firms
Can AI chase missing tax documents from clients?
Yes, and it's often the first item on the list. Agents compare what's arrived against each client's checklist and send specific, polite reminders on a schedule you set. Anyone who stops responding gets handed to a person.
Will it work with my tax and bookkeeping software?
I work inside the software you already use whenever possible, and coded entries land as drafts for approval. Where a program has no way to connect, we use exports or a simple handoff your team can check.
Is client financial data safe?
It's the first thing we plan. Agents get only the access a task needs, sensitive data like Social Security numbers stays in your systems, and the setup has to fit your written security plan.
What does it cost?
Starting at $499 a month, flat and month to month, with no task cap and no busy-season surcharge. Your software subscriptions aren't included, and agents never replace a licensed professional's review.
Keep exploring
- Business process automation
- Custom tools and SaaS replacement
- AI reporting and dashboards
- Can AI handle my invoicing and bookkeeping?
- Is it safe to give AI access to my business data?
- How do I measure the ROI of AI automation?
- Try the AI cost calculator
- All industries I work with
- Areas I serve around St. Louis
Plan next tax season before it starts.
Book 30 minutes. Bring your checklist, your engagement letter and your least favorite busy-season task, and I'll show you what agents can take before January.