Updated October 28, 2026
An accounting answering service is supposed to protect your time in the weeks you have none. Most calls to a tax or bookkeeping office in season are status and document questions from existing clients, so a service that only takes messages turns every call into a callback. Here is what the calls are, how to handle them safely and what they cost.
Quick answer: An accounting answering service should verify the caller is a client, give return status and missing-document reminders from your workflow, send your secure upload link, book a call with the preparer for anything needing judgment, and never disclose tax information to an unverified caller. In tax season, most calls are routine status and document questions that can be answered on the first call.
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An accounting answering service answers your firm's phone when nobody in the office can: during client meetings, in the weeks before a filing deadline, and when everyone is heads-down in returns. A basic service takes a message. The question for a firm is whether a message is enough, because most calls to an accounting or tax office in season are not new business. They are clients asking where their return is, whether you got their 1099, or whether they need an extension.
The volume is real. By April 17, 2026, the IRS had received 72.8 million returns e-filed by tax professionals (IRS filing season statistics, week ending April 17, 2026). Most of those were prepared in the same eight to ten weeks, which is when your phone rings the most and you have the least time to answer it.
| Call | When it peaks | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| "Is my return done?" | March to April 15, then September to October 15 | A status from your workflow, given only to a verified client |
| "Did you get my documents?" | February to March | A check against the missing-documents list, and an upload link |
| "Do I need an extension?" | First two weeks of April | Booking a short call with the preparer; never advice from the phone |
| IRS or state letter | All year, spikes in summer | A copy of the notice uploaded and a callback booked |
| New client or bookkeeping inquiry | January, and after year-end | Your intake questions, a fee range and a consult booked |
| Billing question | After invoices go out | The invoice resent with a pay link |
A message-taking service handles only the last column badly: every one of these becomes a callback for your team. What saves the hours is answering the routine ones on the first call and booking the rest.
Tax return information is protected. The IRS describes section 7216 as covering the disclosure and use of tax return information by preparers without taxpayer consent, with criminal and civil penalties (IRS Section 7216 Information Center). Whatever answers your phone has to follow the same rule your staff does: verify the caller before giving any status, never read figures from a return, and send documents only through your secure portal. Ask any service how it verifies callers and what it can and cannot see. If the answer is vague, it is the wrong service.
This is an example conversation showing how the AI Office Manager handles a routine call for a tax practice. Names are made up.
Caller: Hi, this is Dana Ortiz. I dropped off my papers three weeks ago and haven't heard anything.
AI Office Manager: Thanks, Dana. Before I look that up, I'll text a code to the mobile number on your client file. Can you read it back to me?
Caller: It's 4-1-7-9.
AI Office Manager: Thank you. Your return is in progress. We're still missing one document: the 1099-INT from your credit union. I'm texting you the upload link now. Once it's in, the preparer expects to finish within five business days.
Caller: Do I need to file an extension?
AI Office Manager: That's a question for your preparer, Sam. I can book a ten-minute call with Sam tomorrow at 11:30 or Thursday at 9. Which works?
Caller: Tomorrow at 11:30.
AI Office Manager: Booked. You'll get a text confirmation, and I've noted the extension question for Sam.
Nothing in that call needed a person, and nothing was disclosed before the caller was verified. The one question that needed judgment went to the preparer, with the context already written down.
These are assumptions for illustration. Change them to fit your firm.
| Line | Assumption | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Calls per day, February 1 to April 15 | 18 calls, 5 days a week | About 390 calls a month |
| Routine calls (status, documents, billing) | 70% of calls | About 273 a month |
| Staff time per routine call | 6 minutes including the note and callback | About 27 hours a month |
| Cost of that time | $35 an hour, loaded | About $955 a month in season |
The bigger cost is the work that does not get done while those calls are answered: returns that slip into an extension because the preparer was on the phone. Our bookkeeping pricing calculator shows what an hour of preparer time is worth at your fees.
Unmanually is a 24/7 AI Office Manager for accounting and bookkeeping firms that you run by voice. The AI Office Manager answers every call, verifies clients, gives status and missing-document reminders, books preparer calls, resends invoices with a pay link and chases documents before the deadline, then tells you what it did. See Unmanually for accountants and bookkeepers and our guide on the tax-season deadline problem.
Client calls answered, documents chased, invoices paid.
Monthly fees from transactions, accounts and hours.
Where a tax practice loses hours between February and April.
Getting client documents in without chasing by hand.
It answers your firm's calls when staff cannot. A basic service takes messages; a better one verifies clients, gives return status, sends upload links for missing documents, books preparer calls and resends invoices.
Only after verifying the caller, for example with a code texted to the number on file. Tax return information is protected under section 7216, so the same rules that apply to your staff apply to whatever answers your phone.
From February to April 15 and again before the October 15 extension deadline, plus a spike after IRS and state notices go out in summer.
No. Questions like whether to file an extension should be booked as a short call with the preparer, with the question written down in advance.
Owners spend about 11 to 16 hours/week on admin, and a lead reached within an hour is nearly 7 times more likely to turn into a real conversation (HBR). Knowing what to do is the easy part; the money leaks out in the calls you can't take, the follow-ups nobody sends and the invoices that sit unpaid. Unmanually is a 24/7 AI Office Manager for accountants and bookkeepers that you run by voice from your phone:
Sources: admin hours, Time etc / Censuswide 2023 and Amex SME Barometer 2026; speed to lead, HBR audit of 2,241 US companies (2011).
Unmanually is an AI Office Manager that works 24/7 and that you run by voice from your phone. Leave your mobile number and the AI Office Manager calls you right away, the same way it would call back one of your customers. That call is the demo: it answers, books you a 15-minute time with the founder and follows up.
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