The Library · By industry

AI agents for accounting and CPA firms

What a custom agent looks like inside a tax and accounting practice — the ten roles in your language, and what each one plugs into in a firm running Lacerte, UltraTax or Drake alongside Karbon, QuickBooks and a client portal.

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An accounting firm's constraint is not knowledge, it is throughput during a window that does not move. Most of what compresses that window is not accounting work — it is chasing clients for documents, answering the same status question, assembling the same workpapers, and moving information between a tax program, a practice management system and a client's bookkeeping file that were never designed to know about each other. The technical work is the part the firm is good at. The administrative work around it is what determines how many returns a season holds.

What an agent plugs into here

The honest version of "does it integrate with my software." These are the systems this industry actually runs on, and what each one means for a build.

Lacerte / UltraTax / Drake / ProConnectTax preparation

The production system. Integration is generally limited and version-bound, so most agents work alongside it — on the intake and review sides — rather than inside it.

Karbon / Canopy / JetpackPractice management

Where jobs, deadlines, client tasks and internal workflow live. The natural anchor for anything about status, chasing or assignment, and generally the most integration-friendly system in the stack.

QuickBooks Online / XeroClient bookkeeping

Where write-up and advisory clients' books live, usually across dozens of separate client files. Well documented and straightforward to read across a portfolio.

Client portal and document collectionDocument intake

SmartVault, Liscio, TaxCaddy or the portal built into practice management. The chase for missing documents is the single largest recurring administrative cost in a tax practice.

Document managementFiles

Where prior year workpapers, engagement letters and permanent files live. Frequently a folder convention rather than a structured system, which is workable but needs the convention explained.

E-signatureEngagement and authorizations

Engagement letters, e-file authorizations, and the chase for signatures that hold up filing.

Time and billingRevenue

Either inside practice management or separate. Realization by client and by job is the number most firms want and few produce without effort.

Bank and payroll feedsData sources

Transaction and payroll data flowing into client files, with the coding and exception handling that follows.

EmailClient communication

Where the vast majority of client work actually arrives, including documents that should have gone to the portal.

The ten agents, in your language

Each of these is a real build, not a feature of a product you already pay for. Follow one through to see how it works in general.

The Follow-Up

Nothing you are owed gets dropped.

  • Clients with outstanding document requests, chased with the specific list attached
  • Engagement letters and e-file authorizations awaiting signature
  • Unpaid invoices on clients whose next-year work is already being scheduled
  • Extension clients who still have not sent anything in August

The Intake

Whatever arrives, in whatever format, becomes a clean record.

  • Client documents arriving by portal, email and photograph of a shoebox
  • Reading and classifying source documents against the prior year's list
  • New client onboarding information from four different directions
  • Notices from tax authorities forwarded by clients without explanation

The Drafter

Writes the recurring document from your own past work.

  • The client-facing explanation of what changed on their return this year
  • Responses to routine tax authority notices, from the file and the prior return
  • Advisory and planning summaries assembled from the client's actual numbers

The Watcher

Knows what expires, renews or comes due — and says so first.

  • Filing deadlines by entity type, and the internal dates before them
  • Estimated payment due dates across the client base
  • License renewals and continuing education for staff
  • Engagement letters not yet in place for work already underway

The Answer Desk

Answers from your own records, not from the internet.

  • "Where is my return?" — answered from practice management, without a partner
  • What we did for this client last year and why, asked mid-season
  • Internal questions about firm policy and workflow, answered for new staff

The Scribe

The conversation becomes the record, without anyone typing it up.

  • The client planning meeting becomes notes, action items and a follow-up letter
  • The review conversation becomes documented workpaper comments

The Reporter

Assembles the recurring report from systems that do not talk.

  • Season progress by preparer, stage and deadline, updated without anyone building it
  • Realization by client and by service line
  • Which clients have not been contacted about planning before year end

The Reconciler

Matches two sets of records and queues only the exceptions.

  • Client bookkeeping against bank and payroll data, with only exceptions surfaced
  • Time recorded against work in progress and what was actually billed
  • Documents received against the request list, so the gap is always current

The Connector

Two systems that do not talk, now talking.

  • Practice management and the tax program, so status is not maintained twice
  • Client portal activity flowing into job status automatically
  • Time capture and billing

The Gatekeeper

Applies your rules, escalates only what needs judgment.

  • Whether a return is complete enough to move to review
  • Scope change and out-of-scope work requests, against the engagement letter
  • New client acceptance against the firm's written criteria

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