In the last three weeks before a filing deadline, an accountancy firm's inbox changes character. The steady trickle of bookkeeping questions becomes a flood of people who have left it late: "can you still do my return?", "how much?", "what do you need from me?", often at 11pm, often in a panic.
Every one of those deserves a quick reply, and the people best placed to give it are the ones doing the returns. So the replies wait, the prospective client emails four other firms and by the time you respond, the work has gone somewhere else, or worse, you take it on without knowing their records are a shoebox.
An AI receptionist for accountants can take the first pass at that flood from your website. It can answer scope, fees and what to send, and screen out the work you cannot take. What it cannot do, and must be set up never to attempt, is advise anyone on their tax.
How the season actually unfolds
The questions shift as the deadline approaches. In the UK, for instance, individual online Self Assessment returns are due by 31 January, and the enquiry mix around that date is predictable. Adapt the timings below to whichever deadlines drive your own busy period.
| Period | What people ask | What the assistant should do |
|---|---|---|
| Two to three months out | Fees, services, switching accountants | Answer from your fee page, capture enquiries |
| Six weeks out | What documents do you need, how long does it take | Share the checklist, explain turnaround |
| Final three weeks | Can you still take me on | State the cut-off clearly, capture details either way |
| Final week | Panic, penalties, "I've lost my login" | Point to official guidance, capture details, no promises |
| After the deadline | Late filing, penalties | Explain whether you help with late returns, route to staff |
The pattern matters because it tells you what to write before the rush, not during it.
Decide your cut-off before the flood
The most useful sentence on an accountancy website in January is the date after which you no longer take on new returns for that year. Firms avoid publishing it in case they turn away good work. The result is that staff have the same polite no conversation forty times.
Publish it. The assistant can then handle the late enquirer gracefully:
Visitor: is it too late to get you to do my self assessment, I'm self employed Assistant: We stopped taking on new returns for this tax year on 10 January, so I'm afraid we can't guarantee this year's deadline. If you leave your details, the team can let you know about support for next year, and HMRC's website has guidance on filing yourself.
That reply keeps the lead, sets an honest expectation and does not suggest anything about the person's tax position.
The checklist that shortens every first meeting
Half of an initial call is telling the client what to gather. Put that on the website per service, and the assistant can hand it over at midnight. For a sole trader return, for example:
- Identity and access. Name, address, date of birth, and whether they already have their tax reference and online account set up (without typing the reference into chat).
- Income records. Invoices or a sales summary, plus any employment income documents.
- Expense records. Receipts or bank statements for business costs, mileage logs, use-of-home details.
- Other income. Rental income, savings interest, dividends, pensions.
- Last year's return, if another accountant prepared it.
Add a line about how to send documents. If you use a client portal or secure upload link, say so, and tell the assistant to point people there rather than inviting attachments in chat. If a prospective client has records in poor shape, it is better to know before the first meeting than during it, so the assistant can also ask, gently, whether their records are up to date or still need sorting.
Write equivalent lists for limited company accounts, VAT, landlords and payroll. These pages are useful to human readers too, and they give the assistant something precise to repeat instead of a vague "we'll need your records".
Scope and fees without advice
Accountancy clients ask questions that sit right on the line between service information and tax advice. The difference is whether the answer depends on their own circumstances.
- "Do you do returns for landlords?" is service information. Answer it.
- "What does a sole trader return cost?" is service information if you publish fee ranges. Answer it.
- "Can I claim my car as an expense?" is advice. Route it.
- "Should I register for VAT?" is advice. Route it.
Put that rule in the assistant's persona in plain language: it provides information about the firm's services, fees, processes and deadlines; it does not advise on anyone's tax position, reliefs, allowances or liabilities; those questions are captured for a qualified accountant. Test it with your ten most common advice-shaped questions.
Also tell it to discourage clients from pasting tax references, bank details or figures into chat. Our guide on keeping sensitive information out of chat has wording you can adapt.
Getting ready in November, not January
- List last season's twenty most common enquiries from your inbox.
- Write or update your fees page with ranges and what moves a job up the range.
- Publish a document checklist per service.
- Decide and publish the new-client cut-off date.
- Teach the assistant by crawling those pages and adding Q&A pairs for anything unwritten.
- Switch on lead capture, and consider support tickets for existing clients chasing progress, so each chase gets a number instead of a phone call.
- Test with advice-shaped questions until every one routes to a person.
For the replies your team still writes by hand in peak weeks, the reply generator can draft a first version to check and edit.
Before the next deadline
Pick your cut-off date for new returns and put it on your homepage now, while you have the headspace to decide it calmly. Then write the sole trader checklist, because it is the one most people ask for.
Once those two exist, look at the setup on our accountants page and ask it the questions that filled your inbox last January. If it answers the service ones and routes the advice ones, it is ready for the season.