AI Front Office for Accounting & Tax Firms. The AI receptionist for accounting firms, busy season included
Zanus AI is an AI receptionist for accounting firms that answers every call, website chat, e-mail and web form, day and night, in the client's language. It tells clients what to bring, books drop-offs and signings with the right preparer, follows up new inquiries and hands every tax question to a person.
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7 days free · per company, never per seat · nothing to install
Easy setup
Answers & books
Sells
Helps your team
You talk. Lisa sets it up.
You“Tax desk: AI first, transfers to the preparer; bookkeeping: your people first.”
Lisa“The tax desk is now AI first and transfers each caller to the preparer on the file; bookkeeping keeps your people first. Apply?”
Any setting, in any module · applied only on your yes
Start with the one thing you need. Add more anytime by asking Lisa.
The whole Front Office › · All industries ›
Who reaches you
Who the AI answers for Accounting & Tax Firms
- Individual filers asking what to bring and when they can sign their return
- Business owners and office managers with payroll, bookkeeping and year-end requests
- Prospects after a business launch, a marriage, an inheritance or a letter from the tax authority
- Clients on extension who want the next step before the fall deadline
- Lenders, attorneys and financial advisors introducing a client to the firm
- Employees of payroll clients looking for a copy of their W-2
The front office
What an AI receptionist for accounting firms takes off your desk
One front office answers every door a client knocks on, from the same information your partners approved.
Every call, first ring
AI Phone answers the main line day and night, tells new prospects from existing clients and books, transfers or takes the message with the callback number read back.
Website questions
AI Webchat answers the frequently asked questions about your services, offices, hours and how to become a client, by text or voice, from your own pages only.
New-client forms
AI Web Forms starts client intake the moment an inquiry arrives: it replies, asks your fit questions, such as individual or business and which states, and offers consultation times.
The firm inbox
AI E-mail sorts client mail to the tax, bookkeeping or payroll desk and drafts each reply; a desk set to a person keeps every reply waiting for a click.
Drop-offs and signings
AI Booking offers only each preparer's free times, keeps drop-offs, signings and first consultations to their own lengths and sends the reminders by itself.
One client record
AI CRM puts every call, chat, e-mail and form on the client's record with its source, so the preparer calling back reads what was already said.
Tax season
From the January rush to extension season at a CPA front desk
Late January
Wage statements reach mailboxes and the phones wake up: what do I bring for tax prep, are you taking new clients, can I drop off on Saturday. Each caller leaves with an answer or a booked time.
Lunch in March
Every preparer is with a client and the front desk is at lunch. Calls are still answered from your approved information, and each message waits in the list of the preparer who will call back.
The deadline week
In the last week the phone calls never stop. The AI answers the common questions, drop-offs fill the last free windows, and every call asking for a preparer is announced before it connects or becomes a message.
Saturday drop-off hours
One person runs the counter. The AI answers the phone behind her, books Monday's signings and turns a business owner's payroll question into a request for the payroll desk.
A letter arrives
A worried client calls about a letter from the tax authority. The AI interprets nothing, opens a request for her preparer with her own words and tells her when to expect a call.
Extension season
In September, clients on extension ask what is still missing. The question reaches their preparer, and a reminder of the date your firm publishes goes to every client tagged on extension.
Real screens
Real screens of the AI receptionist for CPA firms
Real Zanus AI screens with demo data, each one framed for the desk of a CPA firm in tax season.
Compared
An AI receptionist for CPA firms or a tax season answering service?
Many answering services for accountants take a message for the morning, while an AI receptionist answers from your approved information and finishes the job with the client still on the line.
| What a CPA firm needs | A person at the front desk | An answering service | Voicemail | Zanus AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A call at 7 PM in March | Rings out after hours | An agent writes a message | Heard the next morning | Answered: and the drop-off booked during the call |
| What to bring, where to park | Answered between walk-ins | Read from a script | Nothing | Your approved answers: in the client's own words and language |
| A question about a return | Passed to the preparer | Noted for a callback | Left on the tape | Sent to the preparer: as a transfer, a message or a client request |
| The deadline-week rush | Hold music | Callers wait in line | A mailbox that fills up | Answered on the first ring: with no hold queue and no menu |
| What is written down | What someone types later | A message slip | A voice message | Every conversation: with its transcript and summary on the record |
Guardrails
What the AI hands to a preparer, a partner or a person
Your firm sets the call handling once: what the AI answers alone, what goes to the right person, and the questions it never touches.
Tax and accounting questions
What can I deduct, what do I owe, should I file an extension: each one gets your approved line and becomes a transfer, a message or a request for a preparer.
Notices and letters
A letter from the tax authority is never interpreted. The client's words and the details she gives go to her preparer, with the promise of when she will hear back.
Figures and documents
The AI never reads a figure from a return or a statement aloud and never releases a document; sending one stays a decision for a person at the firm.
Fees beyond your list
Fees come only from the list you load, and every quote waits for a partner's yes; a service your list does not price waits for a person to set it.
Set-up
An AI receptionist for tax preparers, set up in 2 minutes
Forward your line
Forward the number clients already call to your Front Office line. There is nothing to install and no porting, and calls are answered from that moment.
Tell Lisa your firm
Your services, preparers and offices, your season hours and the appointment types you offer: Lisa reads your website and asks for the rest by talking.
Draw the lines
Say which questions always go to a CPA, which desks the AI may answer alone and what it must never say. Lisa shows each change before you apply it.
A week on your own clients
Run it for 7 days with no credit card, then read every call, chat and booking it handled for your firm before you decide.
Questions & answers
Questions firms ask about an AI receptionist for accounting firms
What does an AI receptionist for accounting firms do?
It answers the firm's phone, website chat, e-mail and web forms from the information your partners approved. Zanus AI tells callers what to bring and when you are open, books drop-offs, signings and consultations with the right preparer, opens a client request when a preparer must answer, and writes every conversation onto the client's record.
Can an AI receptionist handle tax season call volume?
Yes. The AI answers calls 24/7 on the first ring, with no hold queue and no menu to sit through, so calls during tax season get the same welcome as a quiet day in July. Your desk can take calls first in office hours while the AI picks up the overflow during peak weeks, and the AI answers everything on evenings and Saturdays.
Will the AI give tax advice or tell a client what they owe?
No. It never says what a client owes, what may be deducted, whether to file an extension or how to answer a notice. It answers only from your approved information about the firm, and every tax or accounting question becomes a transfer, a message or a client request for a preparer, with the client's own words attached.
Can it tell a client whether their return is ready?
It does not read your tax software, so it never announces a status on its own. It takes the question, opens a request or a message for the preparer with the callback number read back, and tells the client when to expect an answer under the reply-time promise your firm sets. The preparer answers.
How much does an AI receptionist for a CPA firm cost?
Zanus AI is priced per company, never per seat or per preparer, so the seasonal desk needs no seats of its own. You pick the modules your firm uses, such as the phone, the booking and the chat, and add others later. Your partners find the plans on the pricing page, and the firm's 7-day free trial asks for no credit card.
Is an answering service worth it for an accounting firm?
A call nobody answers in February can be a new client who rings the next firm on the list. A classic answering service writes a message for the morning; an AI answering service such as Zanus AI answers from your approved information, books the appointment during the call and writes the whole conversation down, at any hour.
Can we keep our number and our front desk staff?
Yes. Forward the phone number clients already know to your Front Office line; no porting is needed. Each department can be answered by your people first, by the AI first or by the AI alone, so the receptionist who knows your clients still picks up while the AI catches the calls she cannot take.
How is client information protected?
Access follows each person's level and department, so seasonal staff see only what you open to them. Exports of client data are reserved to Managers and each export is logged with its author, personal data is never learned by the automations that improve the AI's knowledge, and call recording stays off until your firm switches it on.
Can clients reach the firm in Spanish, Vietnamese or another language?
Yes. Callers speak their own language and an AI voice answers in it, the website chat speaks 40 languages, and e-mail replies and form answers go out in the language the client wrote in. Calls can also be routed by language, so a client who needs a person reaches the preparer who speaks it, which matters to firms serving immigrant families and family businesses.
What software do CPA firms use, and where does Zanus AI fit?
Most firms run tax preparation software, a practice management system, a client portal and accounting software for their bookkeeping clients. Zanus AI is the AI receptionist for accounting & tax firms that sits in front of them: the calls, chats, e-mails, forms, bookings, follow-ups and client requests, all on one client record. It does not prepare returns or keep the books.
Will AI replace the receptionist at a CPA firm?
As a virtual receptionist for accounting firms, it takes the calls nobody can pick up: the overflow at noon, the evenings, the Saturdays and the week before a deadline. Your receptionist keeps the walk-ins, the clients who ask for her by name and the judgment calls, and starts each morning with the overnight calls already written down in the briefing.
How long does it take to set up before tax season?
It is ready in 2 minutes. Forward your main line, then tell Lisa your services, preparers and offices, your season hours, your appointment types and which questions always go to a CPA. Set it up in December and the January rush meets a front office that already knows your firm.
How is AI being used in the front office of accounting firms?
Mostly on the work between clients and preparers: answering calls and chats, booking drop-offs and signings, replying to routine e-mail, following up new inquiries and writing meeting notes for a partner to approve. Zanus AI is an AI front office for accounting firms that does this work from your approved information and leaves every tax and accounting judgment to your professionals.
Award-winning AI
Winner at CES 2026, ISE 2026 and TMCnet Enterprise AI Product of the Year.
REAL AI - the whole Front Office is AI, not old software with an AI button.
Awards & trade shows ›
Give Lisa your website.
She sets up your business in 2 minutes.
Other software makes you learn it. Zanus AI learns your business.
Try it free on your own business — no credit card, per company, never per seat.
Ready to buy? See plans & pricing ›
Or call +1 (954) 736-3939 — the AI answers.