Why it matters
The inquiry that arrives in March
A freelancer realizes on a Sunday night in late March that they have unfiled self-employment income. A friend recommended your firm, so they open your website and send the contact form: are you taking new clients, and what would it cost?
You're working through a stack of returns and don't see it until Wednesday. By then they've booked with the firm whose website answered both questions and showed a way to book.
The referral did its job. It sent a ready client to your site in the one month you have no time to reply, with two questions your fee page and your services page already answer.
- 81%of tax practices that answered on their website said they use it mainly for awareness, and 31% for lead generation, in a 2020 national survey of mostly small practices (the typical one had 1.2 principals and 2.9 full-time staff; 45% of respondents were enrolled agents).National Society of Accountants, Income and Fees survey 2020-21 (1,009 firms)
- 73.9 millionreturns had been e-filed by tax professionals in the IRS's 2026 filing season count through April 24. A new client's inquiry lands on top of that pile.IRS, filing season statistics for the week ending April 24, 2026
- $323was the average fee for an itemized Form 1040 with a state return in the same survey, for one return in one year.National Society of Accountants, Income and Fees survey 2020-21
Example conversation
A new-client inquiry on a Sunday night
- Do you take new clients? I'm self-employed and haven't filed last year yet.
Checks your site: new-client availability and services
- Yes, we're taking new clients, and we prepare returns for self-employed people, including prior years. Are you a sole proprietor, or do you have an LLC or S corp?
Asks how the business is set up, because it changes the quote
- Sole proprietor. How much would it cost? And what do I owe in penalties?
- Individual returns with a Schedule C start at $425 on our fees page, and the final fee depends on your return. What you might owe is something our accountants need to look at with you, so I won't guess. Can I take your name and number so they can call you? Please don't type any Social Security or account numbers here.
Quotes the published fee, declines tax advice, keeps sensitive data out
- Sam Ortiz, 555-0142. Evenings are best.
- New lead · Sam Ortiz · 555-0142 · Prior-year return, sole proprietor · Evenings
Emailed to you in seconds
Try a sample
Ask a sample assistant yourself
Sample Accounting & Tax
SampleA sample accounting practice, made up for this demo.
Nothing loads until you tap. No account, and nothing you type is saved.
What customers ask
The questions prospective clients ask first
- Are you taking new clients this season?
- How much do you charge for my kind of return?
- Do you work with sole proprietors, LLCs and S corps?
- Can you file an extension for me?
- Can you help with an IRS letter?
- Do you do bookkeeping and payroll?
- What documents will I need?
- Are you CPAs or enrolled agents?
It answers these from your own website, and hands over any it can't.
What it does
What it does for you
Answers from your pages
Services, fee ranges you publish, new-client availability, document checklists and office hours, all quoted from your website.
Qualifies the inquiry
Asks whether they're a sole proprietor, partnership or company, and what return or service they need, before it takes their details.
Treats deadlines as urgent
A filing deadline or an IRS notice gets their contact details taken at once and an alert sent to you.
Books a consultation
Opens the scheduler you already use, inside the chat if it's Calendly, Acuity or Cal.com, or offers open slots from your Google Calendar at the length you set, so a March inquiry becomes a call on your calendar rather than an email to answer.
Rules it follows
Built around the rules your firm works under
No tax advice
Circular 230 sets standards for written tax advice, including advice sent electronically. The assistant never says what someone owes, can deduct or should do. It hands the question to your team.
Keeps tax information out of the chat
Tax return information is protected under IRC section 7216. It never asks for Social Security numbers, tax documents or account numbers, and asks people not to type them.
Published fees only
It quotes fees exactly as your site states them, including any note that extra costs apply, and hands negotiation to you.
You stay in charge of data
The FTC Safeguards Rule treats a chat vendor that receives client information as a service provider your firm has to oversee. Our security page and privacy policy say what's stored and who receives it, so you can check both against your written information security plan.
What reaches you
What reaches your inbox
What they need in a line, including how the business is set up, so you can tell a quick 1040 from a three-year catch-up before you call.
- Name
- Sam Ortiz
- Phone
- 555-0142
- Needs
- Prior-year return, sole proprietor
- Best time
- Evenings
Your tools
Where an AI chatbot for CPA firms fits next to your software
- Karbon
- Canopy
- TaxDome
- Financial Cents
- CCH Axcess
- Drake
- Calendly
Questions
Common questions
What does it cost, and how long does setup take?
There's a free plan with 100 customer messages a month and no card, and paid plans start at $19 a month. Setup is paste your firm's website, let it read your pages for about a minute, then add one line of code to the site or install the WordPress plugin.
Won't prospects hate talking to AI?
Some people hang up on an AI phone line, and this doesn't answer your phone. It sits on your website, where the alternative is a contact form nobody reads until Wednesday. If you already send new callers to a scheduling link, this does the same, after it has told them whether you take their kind of return. Every chat says it's an AI assistant, and a Talk to a person button stays under the message box for anyone who'd rather not type to one.
Will an accounting firm chatbot answer clients' tax questions?
No. It gives general information your site already publishes, such as services, fees and deadlines, and hands anything about a person's own taxes to your team.
What happens if a client types their SSN anyway?
It asks them not to send that kind of detail through the chat and carries on with their name, contact details and what they need. Anything they typed is still in the conversation record, which is why the assistant asks for none of it in the first place.
Can it handle tax-season inquiry volume?
Yes. It answers visitors at the same time, day or night, and each lead reaches you as a short email you can work through between returns. If a busy March uses up your plan's monthly messages, answers pause until the 1st and the chat shows a contact form, so prospects can still leave their details. It never adds an overage charge.
Will it tell prospects we're CPAs?
Only if your website says so, and in the words it uses. It never adds a credential, a designation or a state license that isn't on your pages.
Will it chase prospects who go quiet?
No. It answers people who write to it and never messages anyone first, so it can't keep contacting a prospect who has said no.
Similar businesses
Close to yours
- Law firmsAn AI chatbot for law firms: legal intake on your website that says it's AI, gives no legal advice and emails each inquiry to your intake team.
- Insurance agents and mortgage brokersAn AI chatbot for insurance agents and mortgage brokers: answers visitors from your own pages, books the call, emails you each lead and never quotes a rate.
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