Greene, Dorff & Associates has prepared returns in Lacerte and run SmartVault alongside it since 2022. This past season, the firm became one of the first to add SmartRequestAI, SmartVault’s feature for automating the collect stage of the tax prep workflow. Before SmartRequestAI, the admin team printed organizers, waited on clients to scan or drop […]
Resource Topic: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Why Accounting Firms Struggle with Pricing
You already know your pricing is off. You’ve known it for a while — maybe since last April, when you closed out the season and looked at what you billed versus what you did. The plan, as usual, is to fix it in the off-season: raise rates, build out your pricing packages, and get more […]
Best Practices for Modern Tax Intake Workflows
1. Personalize every document request The most common failure point in tax intake is a generic request list. Whether it’s a 30-page organizer or a condensed digital questionnaire, sending every client the same set of questions sets you down the wrong path from day one. You’ve probably filled out a few generic forms in your […]
How to Build Reviewer-Ready Tax Binders: A Guide for Accounting Firms
What Makes a Tax Binder Reviewer-Ready A reviewer needs two things in front of them to work efficiently. First, the client’s questionnaire responses — what they said about their income, deductions, and anything that changed this year. This is the context that makes the documents make sense. When a reviewer can see the responses before […]
Which Tasks Should Accountants Delegate to AI? Start Here.
How Accountants Already Decide Which Tasks to Delegate to AI Think about the last time you delegated something to a new staff member without a second thought. It probably wasn’t a client advisory conversation or a complex planning discussion. It was something administrative like pulling together documents, organizing a file, building a request list from […]
The #1 Thing Accountants Fear About AI — and Why SmartRequestAI Was Designed Around It
Nearly three quarters of accountants believe AI will have a “profoundly positive impact” on their work — changing the type of work they do, creating new opportunities, and making the profession more efficient. The profession wants this tech to work out. But when Accounting Today asked those same accountants how they thought AI might hurt […]
Why Accountants Are Right to Be Cautious About AI
What the concerns are actually about Data security sits at the top of the list for a reason. According to Accounting Today, 83% of accountants are concerned about AI exposing client data — and that concern maps directly to something that’s already happening. In early 2025, one major accounting software provider temporarily suspended its AI […]
Fragmented Accounting Workflows: Why Busy Doesn’t Mean Productive
It’s 7pm on a Thursday in late February. You’ve been at it for 12 hours. You updated client statuses, moved files, reconciled version conflicts, sent dozens of emails. You feel accomplished. But how many billable hours did you log today? For a lot of firms, the answer is close to zero — and that’s the […]
Not All AI Carries the Same Risk. Here’s What “Private AI” Means for Accounting Firms.
The hesitation around AI in the accounting profession is a little striking when you look at it up close. According to AccountingWEB, 71% of accountants are already using tools like ChatGPT to get work done — and yet in that same study, data security is the single biggest barrier to AI adoption, cited by 62% […]
3 Questions Every Accounting Firm Should Ask Before Adopting AI
If your firm is evaluating AI tools for tax client intake — or any AI-powered workflow — the right move is to ask hard questions before you buy. The CPA.com AI Working Group agrees. Their AI Due Diligence Guide identifies five things every firm should verify before adopting AI tools. Three are questions with direct, […]
AI and the Future of Tax Workpapers: How Automation is Changing the Way Firms Work
There is a step in every tax workflow — specifically in tax workpaper creation — that firms have learned to live with rather than solve. The client submits their documents, then down the line, the reviewer eventually opens the file. In between, someone on staff downloads everything, saves documents to the right folders, checks what’s […]
Visibility Isn’t Control: Why Tax Prep Still Feels Out of Control
Between status dashboards, project management tools, and color-coded trackers showing exactly where every return sits at any given moment, most firms have more visibility than ever before. And yet, tax prep still feels like it could tip at any moment. You can see exactly where things are backing up — like watching traffic slow to […]
The Growth Ceiling Most Tax Firms Don’t See Coming
Most firms aren’t in full crisis mode, falling apart or having to shut their doors because they can’t keep up with the workload. Sure, tax season is exhausting, and there are more late nights than anyone would like. But ultimately the work gets done: returns get filed, clients are feeling alright, and the team makes […]
Why Tax Prep Still Feels Broken
Most firms didn’t design their workflow. They assembled it, one tool at a time, from systems that were never meant to work together. That fragmentation is why tax season still feels harder than it should — even when your tech stack looks more modern than ever. This guide shows you where the breakdown happens, and […]
The Myth of the Modern Accounting Tech Stack (and Why More Isn’t Better)
Missed Little League games. Relaxation reminders on your smart watch. Chasing down clients, documents, and another cup of coffee because it’s going to be a late night. You thought your new intake platform and e-signature app would make things smoother — less stress, less chaos. Instead, you’re stuck managing multiple platforms on top of client […]
Why Fragmented Workflows Feel Productive (Until They Don’t)
It’s 7:00 pm on a Thursday in late February — peak busy season. You finally lean back from your desk, stretch, and exhale. Another 12-hour day down. Despite the long day, you feel accomplished. You spent all day updating client statuses. Moving documents between platforms. Reconciling version conflicts. Sending 47 emails. Feels productive, doesn’t it? […]
What “Control” Actually Means in an Accounting and Tax Firm
Most firm owners will tell you they’re in control. Without even looking at their computers, they can tell you exactly where every client file is, the status of projects, and which returns are with preparers, which are in review, and which are waiting on client signatures. Sometimes that’s true. If a well-designed system is surfacing […]
Client Intake + AI: The Document Foundation Firms are Missing
Adding AI to our tech stack doesn’t automatically make work faster, more accurate, or more secure. That’s because AI is only as effective as the data it’s built on. In this session, we’ll explore why document and data management must be the foundation of any firm’s AI strategy, especially during tax season, when accuracy, compliance, […]
If Client Intake is Automated, Why Does It Still Take Hours?
Your client shares their source documents and exhales — “Cool. I did my part,” they think as they shut down for the night. The work is officially in your hands. But before your team can start the return, someone has to figure out where everything landed. The engagement letter lives in the eSignature tool. Source […]
How Firms Unintentionally Add Chaos to the Tax Prep Workflow
Every year, firms tell themselves the same story: “Next tax season will be different. We’ll get ahead of it this time.” That promise usually comes right after a decision to add something new to the tech stack — a tool meant to fix a very specific pain point. But then January hits, and within two […]