Tax-season client communications
A supervised AI workflow that helped a two-person accounting firm prepare for tax season when one partner needed to step away for a family emergency.
- Client
- Two-person local accounting firm
- Constraint
- Tax season approaching with reduced capacity
- Work
- Supervised email and client-workflow automation
The situation
A family emergency meant one partner had to leave just months before tax season. The remaining partner needed to keep client communication moving without losing the context, files, and follow-ups that sit behind every reply.
Together, we mapped the work between messages: finding the right email, locating supporting documents, checking a client’s status, and handling small administrative tasks. The firm estimated that email replies, email retrieval, and this related administration were taking about 35% of its time.
How we approached it
We set up ChatGPT Business with Microsoft 365 connections and defined the permissions and scopes around the firm’s work. The resulting rules organized and routed inbox activity so the partner could open a client message with a context-enriched draft already prepared, rather than beginning each response by reconstructing the situation.
We also created a single workspace for client activity, communications, and outstanding issues. Purpose-built agents checked factual claims before a draft was used, retrieved relevant files from OneDrive, and surfaced where the client was in the process and what still needed to be completed.
A reply, with its case file.
Hi Alex — I’ve reviewed the information we have. To move your return forward, please send the remaining T4 and investment statements when you have a moment.
Once they’re in, we can complete the next review.
What changed
The firm had one place to work through client communication and related issues, instead of switching between inboxes, files, and informal status tracking. The remaining partner could review a prepared draft with the relevant context already assembled.
The client reported that average daily administration time fell from roughly two to three hours to just under one hour. That gave the firm more room to serve clients during a high-pressure period while preserving human review for client-facing work.
Could a supervised AI workflow take repetitive administration off your team’s plate?
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