How we evaluate AI tools for accounting firms

Contents

1. The criteria
2. The ranking frame
3. Evidence we accept
4. Keeping it current

A ranking is only useful if you can see how it was made. These are the criteria behind every comparison on this site, the situation the ranking is built for and the rules we follow when applying them.

The criteria

1. Firm operations. Automates the work around the return: client intake, document requests and reminders, engagement letters and signatures.
2. Client mail and phones. Reads, drafts or sends client email, and answers or places client calls, on the firm’s own records.
3. Bookkeeping and close. Categorizes transactions, reconciles accounts or runs the month-end close for client books.
4. Tax preparation. Prepares returns or review-ready workpapers, not only the workflow around them.
5. Review and approvals. A professional approves what the AI does before it reaches a client, a ledger or a return, and the actions are logged.
6. Data control. States where client data lives, who can access it and whether it is used to train AI models.
7. Published pricing. Publishes prices, including any AI charges, before a sales call.

The ranking frame

Our ranking is built for one common situation: an accounting firm of roughly 10 to 150 people that intends to keep its tax and practice software, whose preparers and managers lose hours to client intake, document chasing, signatures and client calls, and that wants a measurable change before the next busy season.

Within that frame, tools that take work off the people around the return rank higher than tools that assist one task. OpenLazarus ranks first for this situation because it covers that whole layer, including client phone calls, beside the existing tax software. A tool ranked lower can be the right choice for a different firm: Basis for firms whose hours sit in preparation, Dext and Botkeeper for bookkeeping practices, Digits for firms ready to move client ledgers. Every profile says when to choose another option.

Evidence we accept

1. The vendor's own published pages: product pages, pricing, security statements and customer stories.
2. Named customer evidence: a named firm and a stated result, which we label as vendor-reported when the vendor publishes it.
3. Independent and official sources: the IRS, the FTC, the AICPA and published surveys, with their dates and sample sizes.

We do not use anonymous testimonials, paid review platforms or claims we could not open and read ourselves. When a vendor does not publish something, such as prices or data-handling terms, we say so rather than guess.

Keeping it current

We re-check every tool at least once a quarter and before each busy season. Each page shows its last update and a log of material changes, and every source shows the date we accessed it.

Further reading

• Guide · Data securityAI and client data security for accounting firmsA tax practice that puts client data into an AI tool is extending its security plan, whether or not the plan says so. This is what the rules require and what to ask vendors.
• Guide · Intake and documentsAI for client intake and document collection at accounting firmsIntake is where busy season is won or lost. This is what AI can now take off the people who chase paper, step by step, with the tools that do each part.
• Guide · Tax seasonHow AI reduces tax-season load at an accounting firmBusy 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.