You’re sipping your morning coffee, scrolling through your inbox, when you see it – yet another anxious client email asking about their tax return status. You sigh, knowing the next 15 minutes will be spent digging through practice management software and crafting a reply. But what if there was a better way?
In a recent episode of The Accounting Podcast, hosts Blake Oliver and David Leary reveal how they’re using AI at their company, Earmark, to boost productivity and client service without resorting to fee hikes.
Their big idea? By strategically integrating AI into your existing processes and datasets, you can unlock massive efficiency gains, deliver proactive client communication, and increase profits – without charging a penny more.
In this deep dive, we’ll explore two key themes from Blake and David’s AI playbook:
- The AI Pricing Paradox: Is “smarter” software a justification for higher fees, or a tool for doing more with less?
- The Power of Practical AI: How no-code tools like Zapier can help you automate routine client communication by connecting siloed data.
Along the way, we’ll challenge some common AI misconceptions and share actionable tips for kickstarting your own AI experiments. Let’s get started!
The AI Pricing Paradox: Efficiency Driver or Fee Inflator?
A recent Thomson Reuters survey found that 40% of tax pros believe AI will enable them to charge higher fees, with a bold 2% even predicting “significant” rate bumps.
But as early AI adopters, Blake and David aren’t buying the hype. In their experience, AI’s magic is its ability to supercharge efficiency, not justify steeper invoices.
“At Earmark, we’re seeing AI drive 4-8x productivity gains,” Blake reports. “That means we can slash labor costs and pass those savings on to clients.”
Rather than inflating prices, they see AI as a powerful deflationary force, exerting downward pressure on fees as more firms reap its efficiency rewards.
Cutting Through the AI Fog
So, what explains the chasm between the survey respondents’ bullish predictions and Blake and David’s more measured take? They chalk it up to a simple truth: many accountants haven’t logged enough hands-on hours with AI to separate hype from hard-won insight.
In other words, the survey likely captures more AI daydreams than real-world road tests.
Bidding Billable Hours Farewell?
Looking ahead, Blake and David predict AI’s relentless efficiency march will sound the death knell for billable hours, forcing firms to embrace flat-fee and value-based pricing.
Imagine an AI-augmented staffer cranking out in one hour what used to take eight. The old “bill-for-time” model crumbles fast in that brave new world.
Forward-thinking firm leaders proactively align their pricing with delivered value, not logged hours, positioning themselves to thrive in an AI-transformed marketplace. Luddites clinging to the billable hour risk being left in the dust.
The Power of Practical AI: Automating Client Comms with Zapier
Pop quiz: what’s the one email every accountant dreads? If you guessed “client asking for a status update,” you’re not alone. But what if you could banish those pesky requests for good without lifting a finger?
Enter Blake’s ingenious AI hack, courtesy of the no-code automation platform Zapier. With just a few affordable tools and clever stitching, he conjured an AI assistant that auto-responds to client status checks – no human intervention required.
Anatomy of an AI Email Wizard
Here’s a peek under the hood of Blake’s automation magic:
- A client sends a status request email
- Zapier AI parses the sender’s address
- AI matches the address to the client database (in this case, a Google Sheet)
- Presto! AI plucks client info like name, return status, and open items
- AI whips up a bespoke email with all the key details, fires it off to the client
The best part? The whole thing unfolds in seconds, without an accountant lifting a finger.
Slashing Labor Costs, One Zap at a Time
Let’s do some back-of-napkin math. Manually checking a return status and pecking out an update could easily take 15 minutes. Multiply that by dozens of pings from antsy clients, and you’re wasting hours.
Blake’s AI sidekick liberates your team for higher-impact (and higher-profit) work. Even better, by proactively pinging clients, you can short-circuit many requests before they hit your inbox.
Anyone Can Build an AI Assistant
You don’t need a computer science degree or a seven-figure software budget to conjure your own client comms wizard. As long as your client data lives in a structured format (yes, even a Google Sheet), you can sic an AI on it to automate those repetitive pings.
Case in point: Blake spun up his prototype in under an hour.
Your AI Swiss Army Knife
Once you’ve caught the automation bug, the possibilities are endless:
- Pinging clients about missing paperwork
- Generating fee quotes and engagement letters
- Confirming estimated tax payments
If it’s a predictable client exchange, there’s a good chance AI can handle it. Think of every minute you’ll save – and every billable hour you’ll free up – by outsourcing those routine pings to your AI email genie.
AI as a Catalyst for Reinventing the Billing Model
But AI’s true potential lies not in isolated tools, but in its power to reimagine firms from the spreadsheets up. In an industry sickened by a dwindling talent pool and the specter of commoditization, smart automation could be a potent antidote, freeing weary accountants to rediscover the strategic magic that drew them to the profession in the first place.
Imagine an AI-powered firm where every employee is a virtual CFO, unencumbered by the drudgery of data entry and free to build deep client relationships. AI, in other words, could be the catalyst for a new golden age of accounting – but only if we’re brave enough to change.
Embarking on Your AI Journey
The AI revolution is no longer a distant dream for accounting firms – it’s a present-day reality full of potential for those ready to embrace it. The question is not if your firm will adopt AI, but when and to what extent.
If you’re eager to start with AI, the best approach is to start small. Choose a single process and focus on automating it. Blake and David’s podcast offers a practical, actionable blueprint for implementing your first AI workflow in a week.
The path to a more efficient, profitable, and fulfilling accounting future begins with a single automated process, a single minute saved, and a single client impressed. The choice is yours: will you watch from the sidelines as others reap the benefits of AI, or will you take the helm and chart your course?
The opportunity is here, and the future is bright. Your AI journey awaits – it’s up to you to take the first step.