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 briefing: 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: Drake Tax, Drake Portals and Microsoft 365 Business Standard. 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
Check every document before anyone keys it
A document check on the firm's own PC, set up by Arbren. Each upload is filed and read, then checked: Social Security tax against wages, corrected forms replacing originals, a document with someone else's SSN, brokerage lots against the statement's totals. It lists what hasn't arrived compared with last year, and gives the preparer a keying sheet in Drake's screen order plus the Form 8949 import file Drake already accepts. When the return is done, every line is tied back to its documents. Drake's SmartExtract can key the W-2s and 1099s; the check covers what it doesn't.
- Cost
- Runs on your PC: no subscription, no per-return fee
- Effort
- Two days in December: last season's documents for 20 clients
- Expect
- Problems stopped before keying, brokerage statements imported instead of keyed, every return tied to its documents. Time saved is measured on the 20 test clients first.
- Owner
- Lead preparer
- Move 2
Claude Team for all 12, replacing the personal accounts
Business seats: staff sign in with their Microsoft work account and a code on their phone. One shared Claude 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
Missing-document requests, drafted every Monday
The document check drafts each client's list of what's still missing, compared with last year's documents. It asks only for forms that can have arrived (no chasing K-1s in February), drafts the reminders at one, two and three weeks, and from late March lists who needs an extension. The office manager reads the drafts and sends them through Drake Portals or the office mailbox in one pass.
- Cost
- $0: part of the document check
- Effort
- Under an hour a week, in place of the chasing
- 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.
- Scripts or bots inside Drake. Drake's 2026 license forbids automated tools and AI agents in the software. Everything here works beside it: people key, and Drake's own import does the rest.
- A service that prepares the return for you. Per-return AI preparation services hold your client files and charge every return. Worth comparing in May, against the season's measured 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 each client's signed Section 7216 consent on file before their documents reach any AI step. A client who declines is prepared the same way, without it.
- Single sign-on through Microsoft, MFA for everyone, personal AI accounts closed for work.
- Full SSNs and bank account numbers stay in Drake and the portal. The document check keeps only the last four; drafts in Claude use the last four or a client code.
- A preparer approves every value before it reaches a return, and 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
Document check run on last season's documents for 20 clients; Monday requests started
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, billed yearly | $240 |
| Document check, on your own PC | No subscription |
| Power Automate, in Microsoft 365 | $0 |
| $240 a month in new subscriptions ($300 for the first two months, billed monthly) | |
$240 ÷ $45 an hour = 5.3 hours a month across the firm, about 6.2 minutes per person per week. The document check is judged on the 20 test clients before the season starts.
Try your numbers07How we'll know it worked
- Minutes per return, checked against unchecked
- Problems stopped before keying, and differences found at tie-out
- Missing-document follow-ups a week, against last season
- Seats used each week; unused seats get cut