I help owners and partners of accounting and CPA firms use AI to take work off their people without putting client data at risk. I'm Daniel Condell, an AI Strategist with DGC Strategy. Together we decide where AI fits, then I train and coach the whole team to use it on their own work.
The first question is about your firm. What would you like to be different by the end of next tax season? The tools come after that.
Mostly around the judgment. Your CPAs make the professional calls. Around those calls sits a lot of repeatable work, plus a few problems that keep coming back:
A tool can draft the email asking a client for a missing 1099. It shouldn't decide how to treat an unusual item on that client's return. Sorting one kind of work from the other is the first job.
In a small firm, the people who know the most also do the teaching. Each new hire takes that time again. When someone leaves, part of what they knew goes with them.
I sort that knowledge with one test. If reading something tells a person what to do next, it can be taught and written down. If it only lives in a conversation nobody wrote down, that's where we get an issue. That second kind is where the training hours go, so it's where I look first.
Yes, if the limits come first. Tax return information has its own federal rule. Section 7216 of the tax code restricts how tax return preparers can disclose or use it, and breaking it knowingly or recklessly is a crime. Your firm sets its limits with its own advisors. I don't give tax or legal advice.
My part is designing the work inside those limits. Before anything gets built, we agree on what client information stays out of which tools. The training then shows your team where that line is, on their own tasks.
Every engagement starts with one real problem in your firm. From there:
I work with firms online anywhere in the U.S., and in person in Central Louisiana.
An accounting firm owner I'm working with came in with a long list: staff training, billing, client communication, tax work, bookkeeping, IRS notices, staffing, document intake, privacy, and plenty of questions about AI.
Before automating anything on that list, we looked at how the work gets done today. Then we sorted the CPA judgment from the repeatable work around it.
One problem kept coming up. The firm's scarce expert time went to training, over and over, and what people knew could leave with them.
So the work moved toward capturing that knowledge in a self-service onboarding and training resource. The aim is for new hires to find answers without going back to the owner or another expert each time. That work is in progress, and there are no final numbers to report yet.
A 30-minute conversation about one problem in your firm.
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Technical skill isn't required. Training uses their own tasks, in plain English, and covers how to check what AI produces.
That isn't the goal, and I don't promise it. We look for the repeatable work around your people so their time goes where an accountant is needed. If staff are worried about it, we talk it through during training.
We start with it. Part of learning how your firm works is seeing which tools you already pay for and how your team uses them. New software comes up only when it fits the problem and your budget.
Your firm decides that with its own advisors. Tax return information falls under federal disclosure rules in Section 7216 of the tax code. Before anything is built, we agree on what stays out of which tools, and the training covers it.
No. I work with accounting firms online anywhere in the U.S., and in person in Central Louisiana.