HomeAssessmentAfterMethodAboutBook a Call

The AI Assessment

> four weeks. fixed scope. fixed fee.

One outcome: the partners know where the firm stands, what is worth doing, and in what order.

> how the four weeks run

We score what we see, not what we're told.

Week 1 — Kickoff
We sit with the partners and set the aim. What AI should do here. What stays human. Where the lines are. Nothing gets scored until we agree on what we are scoring for.
Week 2 — Interviews and inspection
Thirty minutes with each person who runs the work. Then we look at the systems ourselves — the practice-management tool, the document store, the licenses you already pay for.
Week 3 — Scoring and ranking
Six axes, each scored 0 to 4. Every opportunity we found, ranked by what it's worth against what it costs.
Week 4 — Readout
The roadmap. Now, next, later. A build-or-buy call on each item. Owners named. Delivered before busy season, not during it.

> what you walk away with

Seven things, on paper, that outlive the engagement.

01A maturity score

Six axes, one phase, one page. Where the firm stands today.

02A shadow-usage report

What staff say they use and what they actually use. The gap is the risk.

03An opportunity map

Every candidate for automation, ranked, and sorted into three buckets: core work, back office, client interaction.

04A build-or-buy call

On each opportunity. Sometimes the answer is a tool you already own with a feature switched off.

05A sequenced roadmap

Now, next, later. What to do first, and why that order and not another.

06A governance baseline

For tax firms, aligned to IRS Publication 4557 and the FTC Safeguards Rule — the Written Information Security Plan you are required to have anyway.

07A vendor pressure-test

When a tool is already on the table. The vendor's claim, checked against the firm's own numbers.

> the price

$2,500

Fixed. Four weeks, start to readout. No hourly surprises and no discovery phase that discovers it needs another discovery phase.

If the firm wants help executing the roadmap — architecture, data work, tool selection, rollout, pilots — that is a second engagement, scoped from the roadmap and priced after it. Not before. What comes after →

> when it's a fit

  • A vendor pitched you a tool in the last 90 days.
  • Staff use ChatGPT or Copilot on their own and the partners half-know it.
  • Someone spends an hour on a check a machine could do in a minute.
  • Two systems that don't talk, reconciled by hand in a spreadsheet.
  • A partner is worried about client data and hasn't said it out loud.

> when it isn't

  • You want a tool installed next week. We can help after — not before.
  • You want a chatbot for your clients. We don't touch the client relationship.
  • Everything is on paper. There is nothing to score yet.
  • You already have an AI team and a data platform. You need a different firm.

> questions partners ask

“We're too small for this.”

Small firms get hurt worst by a bad tool choice — there is nobody to absorb it. Four weeks now is cheaper than a year on the wrong system.

“We already use ChatGPT.”

Who uses it, for what, and with which client data? If you can answer that, good. If you can't, that is the assessment.

“Our vendor says their tool already does this.”

Maybe it does. We test the claim against your own numbers. If it holds up, the roadmap says buy it — and we say so in writing.

“We don't have time. It's busy season.”

Four weeks. Thirty-minute interviews. We work around your calendar and we are out before it starts.

“Is this about cutting staff?”

No. It is about what your people spend time on that isn't the work you bill for. Firms that do this well grow; they don't shrink.

“Just tell us what to buy.”

We will, in week four. The order matters more than the tool.

“What about client data?”

Governance is one of the two axes everything else depends on. The assessment includes the security baseline the IRS already requires of you.

Find out where you stand before you spend a dollar on tools.

> or see the work behind the advice.