From what you send to what we sign.
What happens when you engage the firm, from the first document to the signed deliverable. If a step takes judgment, a human does it. If it doesn’t, it is automated, and it still passes a licensed review before it ships.
Five steps to fully onboarded.
Send
Send what you have through secure guest access on the file exchange. No account needed, and nothing by email. Last year’s return, your books, a notice. We read it and tell you what the engagement looks like and where the pricing starts. Rather talk first? Start with the intro. Not sure what to send? Build a document list first.
Connect
Once we review what you sent, we assign your portal login. Documents, deliverables, and the look-back all move through it, encrypted.
Engage
The engagement letter sets the scope for your track, plus any consents federal law requires before technology touches your return information, in plain language. For a tax return, the final fee is set near completion, once its actual complexity is known. Advisory and representation fees are fixed from the scope call, before work begins. Nothing starts until everything is signed.
Work
The engagement runs on the process below. Questions are answered along the way and never billed by the minute. Working sessions are scheduled when there is something to hand you, never sold as an hour up front.
Review
Nothing gets signed or filed that you do not understand. A return arrives with a written look-back as page one: what actually happened this year and why, the red flags worth watching, and the openings worth acting on before next year closes. Ask for a walkthrough and we record one: the document on screen, narrated, yours to replay and to keep. Everything is delivered through the portal, never the inbox.
Same route. Three kinds of work.
The steps are the same for every track. What changes is the deliverable.
A Return
Books and source documents in; a prepared, reviewed, and principal-signed return out. The work is reconciliation, classification, and the judgment calls in between. Those calls are the part that takes a license. You see the return, and the look-back that explains it, before anything is signed.
An Advisory Matter
An entity decision, a compensation structure, a purchase worth modeling before it happens. We work it against your actual return and your actual books. The deliverable is a written position and a prioritized action list, plus a working session to walk it through, scheduled once the analysis exists.
A Matter in Front of the IRS
A notice, an examination, an information request, an appeal. We read the file, establish what the record actually supports, and prepare the response. You see what is being filed on your behalf and what it argues before it goes. We describe what we will do. We never predict what the IRS will decide.
The CPA in the loop.
AI handles the arithmetic. A license handles the judgment. Every deliverable travels all three stations.
First Drafts
Governed AI tools handle intake, document extraction, and first drafts inside our secured environment. The hours that used to go to keying and tie-outs go to reading your numbers instead.
A CPA Verifies
A licensed CPA or EA reviews every figure against source documents. Reconciliations tie to the penny, or the work doesn’t move forward.
A License Stands Behind It
Nothing is filed or delivered without professional sign-off. Every tax return is reviewed and signed by the firm’s principal CPA before it goes out. In Kevin’s words: “If my signature’s on it, it’s my return.”
Every consult is prepared in advance.
A paid consult is only worth your money if we walk in knowing your numbers. So it starts with paperwork. The calendar comes last.
- Complete the intake.Each answer shapes the next, and it builds your document list as you go.
- Download it and send it.Download the intake as a PDF and upload it with the documents it lists through our secure file exchange. Never by email.
- We review it.If anything is missing, we tell you exactly what.
- We meet prepared.By the time we talk, we’ve read everything you sent.
Not sure you need a paid consult? Start with the free fifteen-minute intro.
How the process works.
How long does onboarding take?
Onboarding moves at the pace documents arrive through the portal. That is the pacing item. Time-sensitive situations (a deadline, a notice) are triaged accordingly. Tell us the date you’re facing and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s makeable.
What happens in the first meeting? Do I need to prepare anything?
Nothing to prepare. Just tell us how the business really runs. Prior returns and current books help if you have them handy, but the first conversation is diagnostic: what you have, what hurts, and what engagement actually fits. You’ll leave knowing the recommended next step and the scope it would cover.
Can I switch to you mid-year from another accountant or bookkeeper?
Yes, and it’s routine. We request records from your prior provider (or you upload what you have), reconcile forward from the last clean point, and carry year-to-date payroll and books across so nothing is orphaned. Managing the professional handoff is our job.