Client folders, engagement letters and K-1s, searchable without a public AI
A private AI agent on a computer your firm owns. It answers from your own files, shows the file it used, drafts meeting follow-ups and runs routine tasks, and your staff check every answer and approve every draft. It doesn't replace your written security plan.
- In business since 2020
- Your firm owns the computer or cloud account
- Your files are never stored on my computers
- We respond within 24 hours
What an accounting firm runs into
Last year's file takes a person to find
"Which clients got an extension letter?" or "What scope did we agree to in this client's engagement letter?" means opening folders one by one. A search that answers from your own files, with the file it used, turns that into a question you type.
Pasting client data into a public tool is a security decision
Client tax records are exactly what IRS Publication 4557 tells preparers to protect. Pasting them into a public AI tool is a choice your firm's security plan should make on purpose, not one an employee makes in a hurry in March.
Busy season is a pile of email and forms
Client emails, intake forms and meeting notes pile up when time is shortest. Sorting and first drafts are the kind of work an AI can do, with someone on your staff reviewing the result.
The Safeguards Rule, and where I fit
IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, says the FTC Safeguards Rule covers professional tax preparers, and that preparers must create and enact a written security plan to protect client data. The plan has to fit the firm's size and the sensitivity of the data. Among other things, the publication says the plan must designate a qualified individual to run it, use multi-factor authentication for anyone accessing customer information, assess risks, and "select service providers that can maintain appropriate safeguards, make sure your contract requires them to maintain safeguards, and oversee their handling of customer information."
Because I reach the computer to keep it updated, plan on listing me as a service provider in your plan, and check that with your counsel. I work under a written agreement that says what I can access and how. This setup doesn't replace your plan or make your firm compliant. It is one more system your plan has to cover, built so the answers to the plan's questions are short: where the client data lives, who can reach it, what is logged and what leaves the computer.
That applies to firms that prepare returns. If your firm does bookkeeping or advisory work only, ask your counsel which rules apply to you.
How it starts
Estimated timeline Audit report usually within a week of the session. Pilot usually 4–6 weeks.
These are estimates, not a promised date. The pilot length depends on the use you choose and how quickly staff can review the output.
Step 1: AI Workflow Audit
A 90-minute working session on what your files look like, who needs to see which, and the one first thing you'd want your AI agent to do. You get a written report. $500, credited in full against a build bought within 30 days.
90 minutes, then the report usually within a week
Step 2: Discovery
We count your documents, check a sample of any scanned paper, set the collections and who can open each, and pick the computer.
After the audit report
Step 3: Pilot
One use goes live for four to six weeks and is measured against how long it took before. Your staff check the output the whole time.
Usually 4–6 weeks
Step 4: Monthly care
Monitoring, patches, backups, updates and re-indexing new files, under a written agreement that says what I can access.
Ongoing after the pilot
A few things firms might ask their agent to do. If there's something you want an AI agent to do, we can likely make it possible.
Search by client and year
"Find the engagement letter for this client." "Pull the K-1s from last year's filing for this estate." You get the files and the pages, not a guess.
Answer from the firm's own procedures
Ask your agent for the firm's own review checklist, the intake steps for a new client or the document retention policy, from your own documents instead of from memory.
Meeting follow-ups
An agent turns a client meeting into a draft summary, action items and a follow-up email draft for someone to review. On a computer in your office, the audio stays there.
Intake to a record
An agent turns an intake form or organizer into a structured record and a pre-filled document for staff to check, instead of being retyped.
Inbox triage
An agent that runs overnight and sorts the inbox into urgent, client, IRS and state notices, vendor and ignore. It sorts and drafts, and never replies on its own.
Something else
Tell me what your firm still does by hand. If an AI agent is a poor fit for it, I'll say so plainly.
Where this lines up with IRS Publication 4557
This is not a checklist your firm can sign off on. Your qualified individual and your counsel decide that. Here is what Publication 4557 asks for, and what the setup does about each:
- Limit access to taxpayer data to the people who need it. Access is set per collection of documents.
- Keep audit logs of who did what. My access sessions are logged, and so is use of the system.
- Encrypt sensitive files. Data is encrypted when stored and when sent.
- Back up sensitive data to a safe source. Backups are encrypted, with an off-site copy and a restore I've tested.
- Oversee service providers by contract. I work under a written agreement that covers scope, data access, incident notice and what I hand over if we part ways.
- Multi-factor authentication for anyone accessing customer information. Publication 4557 says the Rule requires it. How your staff sign in to the system, and whether that meets your plan, is something we settle in discovery with your qualified individual.
What it can't do
It does not prepare returns, give tax advice or decide a return position. It reads your documents and drafts. A person reviews every draft, and nothing is emailed, filed or sent on its own. The AI can be wrong, so each answer shows the file it used.
It is also not for every firm. A one-person practice with a small set of files and no rule about where the data can go may be better served by a business plan from a cloud AI company. If your files include patient health records, I'm not set up to take on that kind of work.
Pricing
Start with the AI Workflow Audit. It's $500, and it's credited in full against a build bought within 30 days. Everything else is priced after the audit, once I know your files, your busy-season bottlenecks and what you want the AI to do.
AI Workflow Audit
A firm that wants a written, concrete picture of what private AI would involve before spending on a build.
$500
One time. Credited in full against a build bought within 30 days.
- A 90-minute working session on your files, staff and busy-season work
- A written report of what I'd build and what computer fits
- Written technical answers you can drop into your security plan review
- A straight answer if a cloud plan would suit you better
- Not included: The build, priced after the audit
- Not included: The computer, which you buy from the seller
- Not included: Monthly care, priced after the audit
- Not included: Legal or tax advice
Everything else is priced after the audit. Results are measured and reported, not guaranteed.
Questions people ask
Does this replace our written information security plan?
No. The FTC Safeguards Rule, as IRS Publication 4557 describes it, requires tax preparers to have a written plan, and your qualified individual owns it. This setup is one more system your plan has to cover. I can answer the technical questions your plan asks: where client data lives, who can reach it, what is logged, what leaves the computer.
Does a remote support provider count as a service provider?
Plan on it, and check with your counsel. Publication 4557 says to select service providers that can maintain appropriate safeguards, require them by contract to maintain them, and oversee their handling of customer information. I reach the computer to keep it updated, so I work under a written agreement that says what I can access, through an encrypted link you approve, with my own key and logged sessions.
Is this IRS or FTC compliant?
I don't say any setup is compliant, and no tool can make your firm compliant by itself. I set it up to support your own plan. Your counsel decides what is allowed.
Can it read scanned paper files?
Scanned pages may need extra work to become searchable text. In discovery I check a sample of your scans and tell you what it would take before you spend on a build.
Can it connect to our tax software?
It reads documents you give it. Whether it can connect to a particular tax or practice-management product depends on the product, and I check during the audit. Integrations with accounting tools are priced after the audit.
Can each staff member see only their own clients?
Access is set per collection of documents. A collection can be a team, a group of clients or a partner's own clients. How fine to cut it depends on the size of the firm, and we decide that in discovery.
What happens when the AI is wrong?
It can be wrong. Each answer shows the files it used so a person can open them, and everything it writes is a draft until someone on your staff approves it. Don't use it to decide a return position.
Do we need our own IT person?
Not to run the AI. I do that remotely. Someone on your side has to open the door once for the encrypted link I use, such as your IT company or office manager.
What does it cost?
The AI Workflow Audit is $500, credited in full against a build bought within 30 days. Everything else is priced after the audit.
Have you done this for an accounting firm before?
No. Private AI is a new service for GS46 Tech and I haven't installed it for a paying client yet. I build and test every system in my own lab on made-up documents, never real client data. We start with the audit and one small pilot, with your staff checking the output the whole way.
Start here
Takes about a minute. We reply within 24 hours.
A few short questions about what you need, then I get back to you.
Request sent. Thank you.
I'll reply within 24 hours.
What happens next: I read your answers and write back using the contact details you gave. If I need anything else, I'll ask then.