Book a Demo AI RECEPTIONIST · TAX PREPARATION
The AI receptionist for tax preparation firms absorbs filing-season overflow and handles new-client intake. It books appointments, chases documents, and answers return status — inside QuickBooks, Karbon, and Canopy — so your preparers stay on the returns.
One demo line · every tax & accounting workflow
Try: “I have the documents you asked for.”
No signup, no sales rep — just call it.
Identify exactly what is missing, securely collect the correct document, validate that it is usable, update the checklist, and keep the return moving.
Hi, may I speak with Ava? This is Mateo calling from Meridian Tax and Accounting. I’m helping your preparer finish the document review on your return, and there’s just one item left before we can move forward.
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Identify exactly what is missing, securely collect the correct document, validate that it is usable, update the checklist, and keep the return moving.
+270 moreResolution rate
Always available
Languages
Avg. handle time
Platform integrations
Keep your stack. Lumi works on top of it.
No rip-and-replace — Lumi layers onto your practice-management & tax software. 270+ integrations.
QuickBooks Online
XeroUCUltraTax CSLaLacerteDrDrakeCACCH AxcessTaxDome
Canopy
KarbonSaSafeSendThe filing-season floods
None of them need a preparer to pick up the phone — they need someone to read the status, name the missing documents, and book the appointment. And in season they arrive faster than any front desk can answer.
The status question that interrupts a preparer mid-return for thirty seconds of information already sitting in TaxDome. It repeats a hundred times a week from February on.
The missing-document question — W-2s, 1099s, receipts — that decides whether the return gets filed before the deadline or stalls waiting on the client.
A new-client call during the surge who will book with the next preparer the moment this line rolls to voicemail. Peak season is when they're all shopping.
The fee question that gates the engagement. Answered with your pricing and process it books the appointment; unanswered it sends a busy filer elsewhere.
A substantive tax question the front desk must never answer under Circular 230 — captured and routed to your preparer, not improvised by an intake line.
Every one of these pulls a preparer off a return — or rolls to voicemail and walks. A system should answer it, read the status, and book the client before your line ever rings out.
What is an AI receptionist for tax preparation firms?
An AI receptionist for tax preparation firms answers the filing-season call surge the moment it hits — when volume runs 200–300% of baseline — so preparers never stop preparing to pick up the phone. It verifies the client, reads the engagement stage in TaxDome, Canopy, or Karbon and relays where the return stands, names the documents still missing and sends the secure upload link, books new-client prep appointments, and nudges e-signatures and deadlines. It answers factual questions about the firm in 70+ languages — and consistent with Circular 230 it is administrative only: it never gives tax advice and never represents the taxpayer, routing every substantive question — deductions, notices, strategy — to a licensed preparer. It verifies identity before sharing status, uses client information only to serve the client (§7216), and operates inside the firm’s WISP. Lumi is the front desk that scales with the season.
The difference a busy filer feels
A voicemail or answering service
Lumi
A voicemail during the surge is a new client who already booked elsewhere and a preparer pulled off a return. A status answered in one touch is a filer you keep — and a preparer who never stopped preparing.
Answering the call is just the front door
Absorbing the surge is where Lumi starts. It keeps going — reading status, chasing documents, booking new clients, nudging e-signatures — always routing anything substantive to your licensed preparers.
Voice, SMS, web chat, WhatsApp, email — the client who calls for status and texts the upload link an hour later stays one engagement. Nobody re-explains where their return stands.
It verifies the client, reads the engagement stage in your practice software, and relays exactly where the return stands — so your preparers never stop preparing to answer the phone.
It watches the outstanding-items list, names the specific documents still missing, answers what-counts questions, sends the secure upload link, and follows up until the file is complete.
Under Circular 230, Lumi answers factual questions about your firm and process — never what's deductible, what a notice means, or how to file. Every substantive question routes to your licensed preparer.
Return-ready notifications, e-signature walk-throughs on the 8879, extension and filing-deadline reminders, appointment confirmations — the season-keeping a slammed firm can't staff for.
During the surge a new filer who can't get through books with the next preparer. Lumi answers, screens the return type, and books the prep appointment before your line ever rings out.
70+ languages, 24/7 — the client who calls after the office closes gets the same patient service, and the intake lands in your system in English for the team.
TaxDome, Canopy, Karbon, CCH Axcess, UltraTax CS, QuickBooks Online — status, intake, and appointments land where your preparers already work. No rip-and-replace. 270+ tools.
Why the season breaks a front desk
Inbound volume climbs 200–300% from January to April while your preparers are heads-down on returns. Every call that spills past the front desk to voicemail leaves at roughly $2,400 in prep-and-lifetime value. Here’s the curve Lumi answers underneath.
A manageable trickle — status, planning, the occasional new client. The front desk keeps up.
W-2s land and the phones wake up. Early filers and refund-anticipation calls start stacking.
The surge hits — 200–300% of baseline. Every status call pulls a preparer off a return.
Peak. New clients shop for whoever answers, and missed calls quietly leave at roughly $2,400 each.
The deadline crush. Extensions, last-minute filers, e-sign chases — and voicemail is where clients go to leave.
Index vs. an off-season baseline of 100. Lumi answers every call on the curve — status read, documents chased, new clients booked — so the surge never reaches voicemail and your preparers never leave a return.
No rip-and-replace
Your practice-management system, your tax software, your calendar — Lumi works inside them, not instead of them. Status lookups, intakes, appointments, and document chases post straight into the systems your preparers already trust — 270+ tools in all.
QuickBooks OnlineXeroUCUltraTax CSLaLacerteDrDrakeCACCH AxcessTaxDomeCanopyKarbonSaSafeSendSwitched on before the surge
Every play is wired before the first W-2 lands — inbound reception that absorbs the surge and outbound recovery that keeps documents and signatures from slipping. Turn any one on or off; add your own.
Built for a firm bound by Circular 230
A filing-season line needs walls, not improvisation. These four are wired in before the first call — so the front desk stays administrative and never crosses into giving tax advice.
Under Circular 230, Lumi never gives tax advice and never represents the taxpayer before the IRS. It answers status, books appointments, and chases documents. Every substantive question — what's deductible, what a notice means, how to file — routes to your licensed preparer with context attached.
Lumi confirms the caller against your records before disclosing any return status or client detail, and uses client information only to serve that client (§7216) — never repurposed, never sold.
It runs within your written information security plan — access scoped, minimum necessary handled, and every interaction logged back to the file. It's an extension of your front desk, held to your controls.
Lumi reads and writes your existing practice software — TaxDome, Canopy, Karbon — so your preparers keep the systems they run. There's no rip-and-replace and nothing to migrate.
Case file · tax preparation firm
~600 client returns · TaxDome + seasonal call surge · before: a seasonal front-desk hire and a full voicemail box every afternoon
answered from the engagement record, not off a preparer's desk
the Feb–Apr surge handled without a seasonal phone hire
no more fielding status calls mid-return
new filers booked instead of lost to the next preparer
“In March my preparers used to lose half their day to ‘is it done yet?’ calls. Now Lumi reads the status straight from TaxDome, tells clients which documents are missing, and books the new ones — and anything about deductions or a notice comes straight to me. We didn’t hire seasonal phone help this year.”
Illustrative composite from typical filing-season results — names and figures are illustrative, not a guarantee of results, until our first public prep-firm case study lands.
Objections, welcome
No — and it's built not to. Consistent with Circular 230, Lumi is administrative only: it answers status, chases documents, and books appointments. It answers factual questions about your firm and process — never what's deductible, what a notice means, or how to file. Every substantive tax question routes to your licensed preparer with context attached.
Lumi verifies the client against your records, then reads the engagement stage directly from your practice software — TaxDome, Canopy, Karbon — and relays exactly where the return stands. The preparer is never pulled off a return to answer 'is it done yet?' The status comes from the file, not the desk.
Lumi watches the outstanding-items list in your practice software. When a file is incomplete it reaches out — email first, then SMS or a call if needed — names the specific documents, answers questions like whether a year-end statement counts, and sends the secure upload link. It keeps a polite cadence until items arrive, then logs completion. Staff see a shrinking list instead of running one.
Lumi verifies identity before discussing any client matter or return status, shares only the status you've authorized, and uses client information only to serve that client consistent with §7216. It operates inside your firm's written information security plan, and never gives tax advice — deduction, notice, and strategy questions route to your preparers. Bring your specific obligations to the demo and we'll walk through the data flow.
The workload changes shape and Lumi changes with it: quarterly-estimate reminders, extension follow-ups, bookkeeping document collection, monthly-close status calls, and renewal outreach for next season. Firms typically keep the receptionist workflows running year-round and dial the document-chase machinery back up in January. You configure which workflows are live.
Flat monthly pricing, so the February surge doesn't produce an April invoice surprise — cost scales with the workflows and channels you enable, not with call counts. Book a demo scoped to your firm — client count, software stack, seasonal pattern — and you'll have an exact figure to weigh against a seasonal phone hire.
Guides & comparisons
Give her your season line.
Open the demo and treat it the way a client does in March — ask for status, ask what’s still needed, then ask a deduction question. Watch it read the status, name the docs, and route the tax question to a licensed pro. Then bring your season volume and your practice software to a walkthrough.
(520) 464-4494
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