Buyer's guide: AI tools for a tax firm
Before you buy an AI tool,ask these 26 questions.
Your firm signs the return and answers for the client's data, whatever tool helped.These questions work for any vendor, ours included.Send them, score the answers, then run a pilot on your own returns.
A spreadsheet with a column for the vendor's answer, a score from Yes to No, and a total.
Part 1
How much does it cover?
Start here. A tool that handles a few jobs leaves the rest of the engagement to other tools, and to your people.
Which jobs in our engagement does it handle, from first contact to the response to an IRS notice?
List the jobs, then count the ones it does not do. Those still land on your team.
What practice system sits behind it: client portal, workflow, time, billing, e-signature, dashboards?
Without one, the tool's output has to be moved by hand into the systems you already run.
Does every feature work from the same client record?
Separate copies of a client's data disagree sooner or later, and then somebody referees.
A worked example: how AccuMax answers question 1
AccuMax is our product, so treat this as one vendor's answer and not a standard. Fourteen Agents cover the engagement, from the first website visit to the response to an IRS notice, all on one client record inside a complete practice OS.
- FrontDesk Agent
- Intake Agent
- Profiler Agent
- Recognizer Agent
- Extractor Agent
- Bridge Agent
- Preparer Agent
- Reviewer Agent
- Researcher Agent
- Planner Agent
- Defender Agent
- Concierge Agent
- Responder Agent
- Scribe Agent
Part 2
Who is accountable for the output?
Your firm signs the return. The tool should make review easy and the evidence visible.
Does a qualified person review every output before it is final, and does the product make that the default?
The firm stays responsible for the work whatever tool produced the draft.
Does every answer show its sources, including your own procedures if you upload them?
Citations let you check an answer before you repeat it to a client.
What does it work from: only what you paste in, or the client's own record?
An answer built on the client's facts is worth more than one built on a prompt.
Can you see what was extracted from a document next to the original?
A side-by-side view is the fastest way to trust or correct a number.
What does it do when it is unsure, and where does it say it cannot help?
A tool that never says "I don't know" is guessing.
Part 3
What happens to client data?
Tax preparers are expected to keep a written information security plan (IRS Publication 4557) and to oversee their service providers. These are the questions that plan needs answered.
Is client data ever used to train a model, yours or anyone else's?
Ask for the answer in writing. "We don't sell your data" is not the same as "we don't train on it."
Which model providers does the product use, and do they keep prompts or outputs, or train on them?
Your data may pass through a third party the vendor never named.
Where is the data hosted, and in which region?
Some clients and engagements care where their data lives.
Is data encrypted at rest and in transit, for all content?
Both, and for everything, including documents and chat.
How is access controlled: roles, multi-factor sign-in, and separation between firms and between clients?
One firm's data should never be visible to another, and staff should only see what their role allows.
Who at the vendor can see client data, and under what conditions?
Support access is a common gap.
Which subprocessors handle the data, and are you told when that list changes?
Your plan has to cover every party that touches client data.
How long is data kept, what happens to it when you leave, and can you export it in a usable form?
The exit is part of the security story.
What is logged, and can you see who did what and when?
An audit trail is how you answer a client or a regulator later.
What independent security assurance does the vendor itself hold, and can you see the report?
A cloud provider's certificates cover its platform, not the vendor's own controls. Ask which is which.
How and how fast will you be told of a breach, and is that written into the contract?
You may have your own notification duties to clients.
How often is the product tested by an outside party, and can you see a summary?
Independent testing is a sign security is maintained, not just claimed.
Our own answers are on the security page. Send us your questionnaire and we will complete it.
Part 4
Contract and fit
The tool has to work in your firm, in season, and be easy to leave.
How is it priced: per user, per client, per prompt? What happens at the peak of tax season?
Pricing that moves with volume is hard to budget in January and still be right in April. Ask what it costs in your busiest month.
What does it connect to, and does it require you to replace your current tools?
Replace-everything projects stall in season.
What is the term, and what is the exit: notice period, return of your data, fees?
Know how to leave before you commit.
Who owns the content you upload, including procedures, training and recordings?
Your firm's know-how stays yours.
What support do you get in season, and how fast?
February is the wrong month to find out.
Can you run a pilot on your own returns before you commit?
Your returns are the only test that counts.
Run a pilot before you commit
Pick ten clients from last year, a mix of easy and awkward. You already know the right answers.
Write down what success looks like before you start: time saved, errors caught, questions answered correctly.
Time the work with the tool and without it.
Have your reviewer score the output, and check that every answer shows a source you can open.
Put the data-handling questions to the vendor in writing, and keep the answers with your information security plan.
Red flags
- It will not say which model providers it uses.
- The answer on training is vague, or is about selling data instead.
- Its security answers point to a cloud provider's certificates, not its own controls.
- Answers do not show their sources.
- The vendor cannot tell you what a busy month would cost.
See it on your own returns
Book a 30-minute walkthrough, or start the trial and try it against a real engagement.
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