An AI receptionist for accounting firms that gets you through tax season
From February to April 15th your phone does not stop, and most calls start the same way: are you taking new clients, how much is a return, I got a letter from the IRS. GateKeeperAI is an AI receptionist for accounting firms and tax practices that answers those calls while you are heads down in a return, and sorts each one before it reaches you.
Where leads leak
Why tax season calls cost you clients
It starts with the questions that sort a tax call. Is this a personal return or a business? If a business, is it an LLC, an S corp, a partnership? Do you need tax prep, bookkeeping, payroll, or help with a notice? Who did your taxes last year? A new 1040 client, a sole proprietor three years behind, and a panicked caller holding a CP2000 each land in your CRM as a different kind of lead.
When a prospect is a fit, the engagement letter and document checklist go out from your firm’s own email, straight from their record.
Tax season turns the phone into a second job
Every call in March pulls you off a return you have to finish. Let them go to voicemail and you spend your evenings returning calls, half of which are people asking whether you have received their documents.
Not every caller is a client you can take
Some want a complicated multi state partnership return on April 12th. Some need a bookkeeper, not a CPA. Without a few questions up front, you find that out twenty minutes into a free consultation.
IRS notice calls cannot sit until Monday
A notice has a response date on it, and the person holding it is worried. If they reach voicemail on Friday afternoon, they may call three other firms before you call back, and the one who answered gets the engagement.
Intake
Sorting a new client from an IRS notice
What the AI asks your callers
- Is this for your personal taxes, a business, or both?
- If it is a business, how is it set up? A sole proprietorship, an LLC, an S corp, a C corp, or a partnership?
- What do you need help with: tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, or a letter from the IRS or the state?
- If you received a notice, what is the notice number in the top corner and the date you need to respond by?
- Do you think you will need to file an extension this year?
- Who prepared your return last year, and are there any years you have not filed?
- What is the best email for sending you our document checklist?
What lands on the lead card
- Name, phone and email
- Individual, business, or both
- Entity type
- Service needed: tax prep, bookkeeping, payroll or notice help
- Notice number and response deadline
- Extension needed, yes or no
- Prior preparer and any unfiled years
- Recording and transcript of the call
On the phone
A CP2000 notice call, handed to a preparer
Sample call. The business and the caller are fictional.
GateKeeperAI: Thank you for calling Whitfield Tax and Accounting. How can I help?
Caller: I got a letter from the IRS saying I owe more for 2024. I don’t understand it.
GateKeeperAI: I can help you get that to the right person. In the top right corner of the letter, is there a notice number, like CP2000?
Caller: Yes, CP2000. It says to respond by the 28th.
GateKeeperAI: Thanks. Did you file that return yourself, or did someone prepare it for you?
Caller: I did it myself with software. I have a small side business too.
GateKeeperAI: Understood. One of our preparers can review the notice with you. I can transfer you to our office now, since we’re open. Is that okay?
Caller: Yes, please.
GateKeeperAI: Transferring you now. I’ve noted the CP2000, the 28th deadline and your side business so you won’t have to repeat it.
After the call
Engagement letters, deadlines and consultations
Engagement letters from your own mailbox
Send your engagement letter and document checklist from your firm’s Gmail or Microsoft account, right from the lead. Replies come back to your inbox, and the whole thread sits on the client’s record.
Operate and up
A pipeline built around April 15th
Move each prospect from inquiry to engagement letter sent to documents received to filed. Add a task on every extension so the October deadline has an owner long before it arrives.
Included on every plan
Consultations clients schedule themselves
Share a booking page for new client consultations and tax planning meetings. Clients pick a time, get a reminder, and your calendar fills without another round of email about Tuesday or Thursday.
Operate and up
How the AI receptionist sorts and transfers callsSee pricing before tax season starts
Two ways to start
Handle the phone yourself, or hand it off for the season
CRM only
Every lead in one place
Calls ring through to you and are recorded and written up. Forms, chat and lead ads land in the same pipeline. From $40 a month.
CRM + AI Receptionist
Every call answered
The AI picks up day or night, asks your questions, books the appointment and puts it all in the CRM. From $200 a month.
Questions
Questions from CPAs, preparers and bookkeepers
Will the AI give tax advice or tell someone what they owe?
No. It collects the facts your preparers need, like the notice number, the tax year and the response date, and hands the conversation to your team. Advice stays with the professionals signing the return.
Can it quote a price for a tax return?
If you want it to. Some firms give a starting price for a simple 1040 and say business returns are quoted after a consultation. Others prefer no numbers on the phone at all. You write the answer.
Can clients sign the engagement letter through GateKeeperAI?
No. You send the engagement letter and checklist from your own mailbox, and the client signs it the way they already do with your firm. The email and replies are kept on the client’s record.
What happens to calls during tax season crunch?
The AI answers every one, day or night. During the business hours you set, it can live transfer urgent calls, like an IRS notice, to your office. Everything else is written up in the CRM so you can return calls in a batch.
Does it work for a solo bookkeeper, not a full CPA firm?
Yes. The questions are yours to write, so a bookkeeper might ask about monthly transaction volume and which accounting software the client uses, while a CPA firm asks about entity type and prior returns.
Client intake for law firmsBuyer and seller calls for real estate agentsSee how GateKeeperAI is set up for other industries
Get through tax season without living on the phone
Set this up before February, while the phone is still quiet. On a setup call we write questions for individual returns, business entities and IRS notices. If you would rather keep the phone yourself, the CRM trial starts today.