Your Return Preparation Agent Builds the Draft So the CPA Reviews
The AgentWorks Return Preparation Agent takes the data-entry marathon off your preparers and gives your reviewing CPA a drafted return to review instead of an empty one to build. It pre-populates each return from last year's file and this year's documents, asks the client the questions the documents leave open, flags every change from the prior year, and keeps depreciation, basis and carryforwards on the file, so your people spend busy season with clients rather than keying numbers.
What it takes off your plate
Every tax season starts the same way in most firms. A preparer opens last year's return on one screen and this year's documents on another and compares them line by line to find what changed. A new rental property, a closed brokerage account, a client business that switched entity type. State returns treat the same income differently, so the work gets done again with adjustments.
Depreciation schedules, carryforwards and basis calculations live in spreadsheets that one senior person built and only that person understands. When they are out, the file waits. Review notes go back and forth because the reviewer finds a change the preparer missed, then a question for the client nobody asked, then a schedule that did not roll forward. Each round costs a day, the engagement slides toward the deadline, and the client hears from the firm only when something is wrong.
What the Return Preparation Agent does, step by step
The Return Preparation Agent starts with the questions, because a return cannot be drafted around a gap.
- Asks the client what the documents leave open. If last year showed a rental property and this year has no rental income, the agent emails the client a plain question: was the property sold, converted or still rented? Replies go on the engagement.
- Follows up until it has an answer. When a question sits unanswered, the agent sends a reminder and tells the preparer which items are still open, so nobody discovers the gap at review.
- Answers review notes it can. When the reviewer leaves a note asking where a figure came from, the agent replies with the source document and the line it came from, and routes the rest to the preparer.
- Pre-populates the return. In Intuit ProConnect, the agent rolls forward last year's return and enters this year's figures from the documents in SmartVault and the client's books in QuickBooks.
- Flags changes from the prior year. Every material difference is listed at the top of the file for the reviewer: new income sources, missing ones, large swings, changed elections.
- Calculates depreciation and tracks basis. Asset additions and disposals update the depreciation schedule; basis and carryforwards roll forward on the file, not in a private spreadsheet.
- Builds the state adjustment schedules. For each state the client files in, the agent prepares the adjustments that state requires for the same income items.
Positions, elections and every judgment call stay with the CPA, who reviews, approves and signs. The agent prepares; the professional decides.
Where the work is recorded
An agent that cannot record its results is a chatbot. The Return Preparation Agent writes its work where your team already looks.
In the CRM, each client's engagement shows every question sent, every reply and every open item, so when the client calls, whoever answers sees exactly where the return stands and picks up from the last message. If documents are still missing, that sits beside the work the Tax Document Collection Agent does to reclaim your tax season, and client files arrive through the Document Agent that stops the chase for client files.
In the tax software, the draft return, the change list, the depreciation schedule and the state schedules are on the file. The next morning the reviewer opens one engagement and sees a draft, a short list of changes to look at and the source for every figure. When the return is final, next year's payments line up with the Estimated Tax Calculations Agent.
What your people do instead
Your CPAs review, advise and sign. They call the client whose business had a big year and talk through planning before the next one, instead of spending the evening rebuilding a depreciation schedule.
Your preparers move from typing to checking, which is where they learn. Your partners spend the season with clients and prospects rather than chasing review notes. Client service and client satisfaction are the human job. The AgentWorks Return Preparation Agent keeps the questions, the drafts and the schedules moving around them.
Find out where to start
Return preparation is one workflow; your firm may have a louder one, like document intake or onboarding. The free Industry Assessment for accounting firms shows which workflow an agent should take first, and the accounting industry page walks through the agents built for CPA practices.
See where the Return Preparation Agent would start in your accounting business.
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