Client intake and conflict-check prep
Inquiries become structured intake records. Party names are pulled out and searched in your system, and possible matches are presented to an attorney to decide.
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Industry · Law firms, CPAs & bookkeepers
Automation for law firms and CPAs. The judgment stays yours.
Your billable hours belong to analysis, advice and advocacy, not to chasing signatures and renaming PDFs. We build AI for accounting firms and automation for law firms that handles intake, document collection, deadline tracking and first drafts, with a professional reviewing everything that matters and client files kept private.
Where the time goes
The admin behind every matter and every return.
Firms we talk to rarely say the professional work is the bottleneck. It's everything that has to happen before and after it, much of it done by your most expensive people.
In a law firm
- Intake calls and forms that need to become a contact, a potential matter and a conflict search
- Engagement letters drafted, sent, chased and filed before work can begin
- Documents requested from clients again and again, then renamed and filed
- Deadlines and court dates pulled from notices and orders and entered by hand
- Long documents read end to end just to find the few pages that matter
- Routine letters and status updates written from scratch every time
In an accounting or bookkeeping firm
- Tax-season intake: checklists, uploads, missing forms and reminder emails, multiplied by every client
- Receipts and bank feeds categorized one transaction at a time
- Month-end close slowed by the same reconciliation questions each month
- Client questions that need someone to look up a status and reply
- Engagement letters and organizers sent and tracked by hand each year
- Reports pulled together manually for partners and clients
What we build
Automation for law firms and accounting practices.
Each automation prepares the work and hands it to a person. Your team reviews and decides; the agents do the gathering, sorting and drafting.
Engagement letters
Letters are generated from your approved templates with the right client, scope and fee details, sent for e-signature, followed up and filed when signed.
Document collection and chasing
Clients get a clear list of what you need. Uploads are identified, renamed and filed, and polite reminders go out until the list is complete.
Deadline and court-date tracking
Dates are pulled from notices, orders and correspondence into a draft calendar entry. A paralegal or attorney confirms each one before it's added.
Summaries and first drafts
Long contracts, records and transcripts are summarized with page references, and routine correspondence is drafted for attorney or accountant review.
Bookkeeping and month-end support
Receipts are matched, bank-feed transactions get suggested categories, and close checklists track what's done, with the unclear items set aside for the bookkeeper.
Watch it work
New inquiry to consult-ready.
Here's the activity log of a law firm intake agent. It records the inquiry, runs the conflict search you'd run and sends your intake questionnaire. The moment a name might match an existing client or adverse party, it stops and asks an attorney.
By the time the consultation starts, the attorney has a one-page intake summary instead of a stack of emails.
Example workflow
Tax-season intake, organized before prep.
An illustrative example for a small CPA firm. The checklist rules, portal and review points are built from your own process during the audit.
- 01
Engagement signed, checklist sent
When the engagement letter is signed in your client portal, the client gets a personalized document checklist based on what they provided last year.
- 02
Uploads are read and filed
As documents arrive, the agent identifies each one, renames it to your convention, files it in the client's folder and checks it off the list.
- 03
Missing items are chased
Clients get friendly reminders listing exactly what's still outstanding, on a schedule you set, so your staff aren't writing the same email all spring.
- 04
Surprises are flagged
A form that wasn't there last year, a missing page or an unreadable scan goes to a staff member with a note, rather than being guessed at.
- 05
Ready for prep
When the file is complete, the return moves to ready-for-prep in your workflow tool and the assigned preparer is notified with a short summary of what's inside.
- 06
The professional does the professional work
Your preparer reviews, prepares and signs. The automation never decides how anything is treated on the return.
Confidentiality
Client confidences stay confidential.
Attorneys and accountants carry professional duties around client information, and your automation should respect them. We design every system with those duties in mind and work alongside your IT provider and your firm's own policies.
- Least access: each automation can only reach the folders, matters and fields it needs
- Your accounts: everything runs in systems your firm controls, with logs of what was done
- Local AI option: models can run on hardware in your office, so sensitive files are processed where they already live
- A professional always reviews: drafts, summaries and suggestions are prepared for review, never sent or filed on their own
your firm's network
client files
practice system
email
Local AI model
summarizes, sorts and drafts, on your hardware
summaries
intake records
drafts for review
client data stays inside
Your tools
Around the systems your firm trusts.
These are tools we commonly see in law and accounting practices. We connect tools like these rather than replacing them, and the integration options for your specific accounts are confirmed during the audit.
- Clio
- MyCase
- PracticePanther
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- Karbon
- TaxDome
- Canopy
- Outlook & Microsoft 365
- Gmail & Google Workspace
- DocuSign
- Dropbox
- OneDrive & SharePoint
- Excel
FAQ
AI for accounting and law firms: questions.
Will the AI give legal or tax advice to our clients?
No. The agents we build handle administrative work: collecting information, organizing documents, tracking dates and preparing drafts. Advice, strategy and anything that requires professional judgment stays with your attorneys and accountants, and client-facing messages follow templates you approve.
Is it safe to use AI with confidential client files?
It can be, if it's set up carefully. We give each automation access only to what it needs, keep the work inside accounts your firm controls and log what it does. For files that should never leave your office, we can run AI models on hardware you own. We work alongside your IT provider and follow your firm's confidentiality policies.
Can you work with Clio, MyCase or PracticePanther?
Those are tools we commonly see in law firms, along with Karbon, TaxDome and Canopy in accounting practices. We build around the practice management system you already use. Exact integration options for your account are confirmed during the audit.
Does the AI draft documents that go to court or to clients?
It prepares first drafts of routine correspondence and summaries of long documents for a professional to review, edit and approve. Nothing is filed, signed or sent to a client without a person on your team reviewing it first.
Can automation help our firm during tax season?
Tax-season intake is one of the best fits we see. Agents send personalized document checklists, sort and file uploads, chase missing items and flag anything unexpected, so your preparers start each return with a complete, organized file.
How does bank-feed categorization work with a bookkeeper in the loop?
The agent suggests categories for transactions based on your client's history and your rules, and matches receipts where it can. Clear matches are queued for quick approval, and anything uncertain is set aside for the bookkeeper to decide.
Related
The services behind it
Private & local AI
AI that runs on hardware your firm owns, for files that should never leave the office.
ExploreDocument processing
Uploads, statements and notices turned into organized, searchable records.
ExploreAI agents & assistants
Intake and document-chasing agents that know when to stop and ask.
ExploreWorkflow automation
Engagement to invoice, without re-typing between your practice system and accounting.
ExploreReporting & dashboards
Matter, workload and close-status reports delivered to partners automatically.
ExploreLocal to Wilmington, NC
We meet firms in person across southeastern North Carolina and work remotely beyond it.
ExploreFree workflow audit
Give your billable hours back to the work.
We'll map how intake, documents, deadlines and drafting move through your firm and show you what can be prepared automatically, with your professionals still making every call. No cost, no obligation.
or email tom@columbusinnovate.com