Every accountancy practice has the same annual shape: eleven months of manageable workload and one stretch where the enquiry volume triples while capacity stays flat.
And a large share of what arrives in that stretch isn't work so much as questions. When's the deadline. What do you need from me. How do I send you my records. Have you filed it yet. How much will this cost.
Every one of those interrupts someone doing chargeable work, at the exact point in the year when chargeable hours are worth most.
The deflectable layer
Sort your inbox during a busy period and it separates cleanly.
Fully deflectable: deadline dates, document checklists, fee questions, how to submit records, what your process is, what a particular form is for in general terms, opening hours.
Deflectable once written down: the process questions your team answers verbally but has never documented. Onboarding steps, what happens after you receive records, how long turnaround takes.
Not deflectable: anything about a specific client's affairs, anything requiring judgement, and status chasing that needs a look at your practice system.
The first two categories are usually most of the volume. That's the case for automating the first line.
Document checklists are the highest-value answer
The single most repeated exchange in an accountancy practice is some version of "what do you need from me?"
It's answered by a checklist that already exists somewhere. In an email template, a PDF, a page nobody links to. A bot that produces the right checklist based on what kind of client someone is (sole trader, limited company, landlord, employed with additional income) saves an enormous amount of aggregate time and, more usefully, gets records in earlier and more completely.
Records arriving complete the first time is worth more than the deflected question. Chasing missing documents is the real cost of busy season.
The advice boundary
Clear and easy to hold.
Fine: what a deadline is, what a form is generally for, what your fees are, what services you offer, what documents are needed, how your process works, what happens if something is late in general terms.
Not fine: whether a particular expense is allowable, how much tax someone will owe, whether they should incorporate, what they can claim, or anything else that applies rules to a person's circumstances.
The correct response to "can I claim my home office?" is that it depends on the specifics and an accountant will go through it. Here's how to book a call.
Configure it to hand over readily. In this sector a bot that over-answers creates a liability, and one that under-answers just books a call, which was the goal anyway.
Status chasing
"Has my return been submitted?" is the most common busy-season question and the one a bot can't answer, because the answer lives in your practice management system.
Handle it honestly. The bot explains your turnaround policy, confirms what stage the process usually takes, and routes the request to the right person. Better still, if you publish a clear service standard ("returns are filed within X working days of complete records") the bot can give that, which answers most of the anxiety behind the question.
Worth noticing why clients chase in the first place. It is rarely impatience. It is that nobody told them what to expect, so publishing a turnaround standard and letting the bot state it removes most of the chasing on its own.
New client enquiries
Prospective clients ask two things before they'll engage: what do you charge, and do you handle businesses like mine.
Practices that won't answer the first without a meeting lose enquiries to ones that will. Publish your fee structure (fixed fees where you offer them, hourly where you don't, what's included in a standard package), and let the bot answer.
Then capture properly:
- Business type and structure
- Rough turnover band
- What services they need
- Current arrangement. Do they have an accountant, and when does that end
- Contact details
That last question is the one that determines whether this is a live opportunity or a diary note for next year.
Onboarding
There's a quieter use worth building in. New clients generate a burst of process questions in their first month. How do I access the portal, who do I send things to, what's the schedule, how does authorisation work.
Answering those automatically improves the onboarding experience at the point where clients form their opinion of the firm, and it saves the admin time that new clients disproportionately consume.
What to configure
Point it at your website. Services, fees, process, deadlines, and any checklists you publish. Upload your onboarding pack and document checklists; those are the documents that do the most work.
Then set the boundary instruction: no advice, ever, route to a qualified person. And set a rule that anything about a specific client's affairs goes straight to a human.
The number that tells you it worked
Enquiry volume reaching fee earners during your busiest month, and the proportion of client record submissions that arrive complete first time.
The second is the one that matters most. Deflected questions save minutes; complete records save the days that busy season actually consumes.