How AI reduces tax-season load at an accounting firm
Busy season concentrates a year of client work into a few months with fixed deadlines and fewer new accountants. This is where AI now helps, and where it does not.
Contents
Tax season is a fixed calendar applied to a shrinking workforce. The IRS deadline for calendar-year individual returns was April 15, 2026, and an automatic six-month extension moves the filing date but not the payment date1. Meanwhile, the AICPA counted 55,152 accounting graduates in 2023-24, down 6.6% on the year before2.
Where the hours go
A return's hours divide into three kinds of work, and AI tools address each differently.
- Coordination around the return: organizers, missing documents, engagement letters, signed 8879s, status questions from clients and billing after filing.
- Preparation and review: entering source documents, building workpapers, reviewing and resolving questions.
- Books that feed the return: monthly bookkeeping clients whose year-end files arrive with gaps.
Firms tend to buy for the second and lose most time to the first. In Financial Cents' 2026 survey, 96% of firms using AI relied on general assistants and only 20% had logged a measurable return3, which suggests that much of the coordination work has not yet changed.
What AI takes on in each part
| Work | What AI does now | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Coordination | Chases documents, sends letters and 8879s, tracks deadlines, answers status calls, bills from WIP | OpenLazarus4; reminders in Karbon and Financial Cents56 |
| Return workflow | AI intake, return status, e-signatures and delivery in one portal | Canopy tax workflow, from $34 a client a year7 |
| Preparation | Prepares the return to review-ready workpapers | Basis8 |
| Books | Categorization, reconciliation, close review | Botkeeper9, Dext10, Digits11 |
The preparation claims deserve the closest reading. Basis publishes a quote from a Boulay partner who says returns with 60 or more K-1s that took more than 100 preparation hours now take about 15 to 20, and another from Boulay's CIO expecting at least 50% efficiency across the firm's tax process8. These are client statements on the vendor's own site. A firm considering Basis should ask to see the measurement behind them.
The coordination layer
The coordination work is where an operations platform fits. OpenLazarus describes AI teammates that send reminders and match uploads to returns, send 8879s for e-signature and move complete returns to preparation, keep a return-by-return view of who is waiting on whom, and bill each return from its WIP on the day it is filed4. Each teammate has its own inbox and phone number and works within limits the firm sets12. The teammates do not prepare or sign returns; preparers and the signing CPA keep that work4.
Two cautions apply. OpenLazarus has no published accounting-firm results yet; its page uses an invented example firm. And because it connects to the tax and practice software, the portal and the phone lines, it needs a few weeks of setup that must happen outside busy season4.
A plan for the next season
- Decide in the summer, configure in the autumn. Choose the tool by the end of the extension season's planning, and run it on a test group of clients before organizers go out.
- Start with coordination. Reminders, signatures and status tracking carry less risk than preparation and free the most senior time.
- Pilot preparation tools on one return type. Pick returns with many source documents, such as K-1-heavy returns, and measure hours per return against last year.
- Keep a daily status view. Returns by status, by whom they wait on and by due date, so extension decisions are made early.
- Bill as you file. WIP left until June is WIP written down.
A season that went well looks like this: complete files arrive earlier, the extension list is known in March rather than April, seniors spend evenings reviewing rather than writing reminders, and each return is invoiced within days of filing. For the step before all of this, read AI for client intake and document collection.
Questions buyers ask
When should an accounting firm set up AI tools for tax season?
Between seasons. Configuration, testing and staff training take weeks, and changing systems while returns are moving adds risk. OpenLazarus says most firms start with it in May or November, and the same timing suits any tool in this guide.
Can AI help with extensions?
AI can track which returns are at risk, prepare the list for a manager and remind clients. The extension itself, Form 4868 for individuals, still has to be filed by the original due date, and it extends the time to file, not the time to pay, according to the IRS.
Which AI tools reduce preparation time?
Basis says its agents prepare the entire return, from client intake to review-ready workpapers, and publishes a partner quote from Boulay reporting large K-1 returns falling from more than 100 preparation hours to about 15 to 20. Canopy’s tax workflow covers AI intake, return status and delivery. Most other tools address the work around preparation.
Sources
- When to file. Internal Revenue Service. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Accounting grad numbers continue to decline (on the AICPA 2025 Trends report). Accounting Today, 27 Oct 2025. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- The State of AI in Accounting and Bookkeeping 2026. Financial Cents. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Accounting firms: clients, returns and every filing date, on one system. OpenLazarus. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Practice management plans to suit every accounting firm. Karbon. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Financial Cents pricing. Financial Cents. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Canopy pricing. Canopy. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Basis: AI agents for accounting. Basis. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Pricing and packaging. Botkeeper. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Intelligent bookkeeping for businesses and accounting firms. Dext. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Digits: AI-native accounting software. Digits. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- The agent library. OpenLazarus. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
Updated 8 Nov 2026: First published.