An AI front desk for accounting firms in tax season
How a tax and accounting firm uses an AI front desk to handle the February phone: booking with the right preparer, flagging notices with deadlines, sending document checklists and keeping every document off text.
Frontiva · · 3 min read
An accounting firm's AI front desk handles tax-season intake: it works out whether the caller is a new client, a returning one, or someone with a notice and a deadline, books with the right preparer, sends the document checklist for their situation, and points every document to the secure portal. It gives no tax advice, discusses no client's figures, and never asks for a Social Security number or a W-2 by text.
The February phone
From late January to mid-April, the phone is the bottleneck. Every call is a preparer interrupted or a client sent to voicemail. New clients who cannot get through go to the next firm; existing clients who cannot get through get anxious. The AI answers every call and text immediately and does the intake a receptionist would, so preparers prepare.
Sorting the caller
Personal or business. New or existing. Deadline or notice, or routine. In person or online. Four questions, asked in conversation, and the AI knows who should see them and how urgently.
Notices and deadlines first
"I got a letter from the IRS" gets the same-day treatment: the AI asks whether there is a response deadline on the letter, flags the conversation for the preparer who handles that client, books a review, and tells the client to upload the letter through the portal. It does not interpret the notice or suggest what it might mean.
Booking with the right preparer
Returning clients are booked with the preparer who handles them. New clients are matched by situation (individual, self-employed, business entity) to the preparer or CPA who takes that kind of work. Appointments are the right length for the situation, and the confirmation includes the checklist.
The checklist
Per situation: W-2s, 1099s, mortgage interest, childcare, business income and expenses, and so on, in your words. Sent at booking so clients arrive prepared, which is the single biggest saver of preparer time in the season.
Documents never by text
Every request for documents points to the secure portal. If a client sends a photo of a W-2 by text anyway, the conversation is flagged for a person, the AI does not process the image, and the client is asked to use the portal. This is a fixed rule, not a preference.
Off-season
Bookkeeping questions, payroll, quarterly planning calls, extension requests, and the September and October deadlines. The same intake, at a lower volume, without a preparer being interrupted.
Frequently asked questions
Can it answer "where is my refund"?
It can send the client the IRS refund tracker link from your knowledge and let the preparer know. It does not look up or discuss the client's return.
How does it handle documents?
By pointing to your secure portal every time. Images sent by text are flagged for a person and not processed.
Does it work outside tax season?
Yes. Bookkeeping, payroll and planning enquiries are booked the same way, year round.
What Frontiva does here
The accounting and tax page shows the workflows. In Frontiva today the AI answers from your approved knowledge (your portal link and document checklists included), clients book themselves on your public booking page, and SMS reminders go to clients who ticked the consent box. For the boundary on what it will not say, see what an AI receptionist should refuse to answer.