AI plan
Sample- Prepared for
- A 12-person tax and bookkeeping practice
- Prepared by
- Arbren
- Date
- November 2026
Illustrative. The firm and its numbers are invented to show what you receive; nothing here comes from a real client. Prices are the ones on this site, checked November 2026.
01Where the time goes
From the listening session: hours a week across the firm, in tax season.
| Work | Hours a week | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Keying W-2s, 1099s and brokerage statementsTwo preparers and a seasonal admin | 38 | Two preparers and a seasonal admin |
| Client email and status questionsEveryone | 14 | Everyone |
| Chasing missing documentsOffice manager | 11 | Office manager |
| IRS and state noticesOwner, after hours | 5 | Owner, after hours |
| Engagement letters and 7216 consentsOffice manager, in December | 4 | Office manager, in December |
| Total | 72 |
Already licensed: UltraTax CS, Microsoft 365 Business Standard and a client portal. Two staff use personal ChatGPT accounts for client email, which is the first thing to fix.
02The three moves
Ranked by hours saved against effort. Everything else waits until the season's numbers are in.
- Move 1
Turn on the scanning you may already pay for
Check what UltraTax's document scanning costs on your license, then test it on 20 of last year's returns before the season, with a preparer reviewing every flagged field.
- Cost
- Check your license: included, or priced per return
- Effort
- Two days of testing in December
- Expect
- 15 to 30 minutes saved per 1040 after review: 150 to 300 hours across 600 returns
- Owner
- Lead preparer
- Move 2
Claude Team for all 12, replacing the personal accounts
Business seats with single sign-on and MFA. One shared Project holds the firm's tone, templates and notice playbook, so notice responses and client emails start as drafts.
- Cost
- $300 a month for the first two months on monthly billing ($25 a seat), then $240 on yearly billing ($20 a seat)
- Effort
- Half a day to set up; an hour of training each
- Expect
- Notices and client email drafted in minutes and checked by a preparer; no client data in personal accounts
- Owner
- Owner
- Move 3
Document reminders that send themselves
A Power Automate flow reads the missing-documents list every Monday, emails each client their own list from the office mailbox, and logs replies.
- Cost
- $0: included in Microsoft 365
- Effort
- A day to build and test
- Expect
- Most of the 11 weekly chasing hours
- Owner
- Office manager
03Not now, and why
- A website chatbot. Clients ask about their own return, which a public chatbot should never see.
- Per-return scanning services. SurePrep or GruntWorx are worth quoting only if the built-in scanning falls short in the test.
- Custom AI agents. The three moves cover the hours. Revisit in May with the season's numbers.
04Safe setup, before any client data goes in
- A one-page AI policy: Claude Team is the only approved assistant, and client data goes nowhere else.
- An AI section in the WISP: approved tools, what data may go in, vendor terms. IRS Publication 5708 is the template.
- Engagement letters updated, and signed Section 7216 consent for substantive AI work on return information.
- Single sign-on through Microsoft, MFA for everyone, personal AI accounts closed for work.
- Full SSNs and bank account numbers stay in UltraTax and the portal; drafts in Claude use the last four or a client code.
- A preparer reviews every AI draft before it reaches a client or the IRS.
05Timeline
By Dec 12
Policy, WISP section and engagement letters done; Claude Team live
Dec 15 to Jan 9
Scanning test on 20 returns; reminder flow built
Jan 15
Setup frozen for the season
Feb to Apr
Measure, and change nothing
May
Review the numbers together and decide what's next
06What it costs
| Claude Team, 12 seats (yearly billing, after two monthly months at $300) | $240 |
| Power Automate, in Microsoft 365 | $0 |
| UltraTax scanning | To confirm |
| $240 a month in new subscriptions, after two months at $300 | |
At $45 an hour, that pays for itself at 5.3 hours a month across the firm: about 6 minutes per person per week. The scanning test alone targets 150 hours or more a season.
Try your numbers07How we'll know it worked
- Minutes per return, scanned against unscanned
- Missing-document follow-ups a week, against last season
- Reviewer corrections on scanned returns
- Seats used each week; unused seats get cut