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Research a tax question and draft the client summary

An AI research tool finds and cites the rules, and AI drafts the client-facing summary, so a day of research becomes a couple of hours.

Last verified October 11, 2026We may help you set these up. Tools don’t pay us for placement.
Hours back
1 to 3 hrs a week
Monthly cost
$20 to $100 a month
Setup
Moderate
Evidence
Seen in the field
FitsCPA firms

Worth it if

You handle advisory questions that take hours of research.

Skip it if

Your work is mostly routine compliance.

What gets set up

A tax research tool that cites its sources finds the relevant rules, and a general AI helps organize the findings into follow-up questions and a client summary. A seven-person Florida firm told the Journal of Accountancy it answered an M&A and state-move question in about two hours this way. The CPA checks every citation.

Who’s done it

Real exampleTrade press

A seven-person firm answers a deal-and-move question in two hours

One Stop CPA's founder used an AI research tool and ChatGPT to answer a client's M&A and state-move question.

Use case estimate: 1 to 3 hrs a week ours, not theirs
Time savingsBigger tickets

What they did. Used BlueJ for cited tax research and ChatGPT Enterprise to organize findings into follow-up questions and a client summary.

How it went. He produced the answer in about two hours, which he says would have taken much longer before.

Worth knowing. He's built reusable prompt templates, and treats AI output as a draft.

“AI is a starting point, not the final answer.”
Source: Journal of Accountancy · Aug 2026Read the original

You’ll need

  • A research tool that cites primary sources
  • Time to verify every citation

Try it

No copy-and-paste version on purpose: a general chat AI can make up tax citations, so this one starts with a research tool that cites primary sources. Have this set up for you.

Run your own numbers

Count research-heavy questions in a typical week.

Your numbers
Use your own numbers. Nothing you type is saved or sent.
Hours back
–
Worth a month
–
After the tool
–

Why it matters

A client asks something complicated, like a deal or a move to another state, and the research and write-up take most of a day.

How I estimated the hours

1 to 3 hrs a week: 1 to 2 research-heavy questions a week, each cut from half a day to about two hours. Rounded down.

Sources (2)

Sources

  1. Claude Pro pricing, https://claude.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-11)
  2. Journal of Accountancy, https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2026/aug/real-life-ways-small-firms-use-ai/ (accessed 2026-10-11)

Questions

Only as a starting point. The Florida CPA's own advice was that AI is a starting point, not the final answer. Check the primary sources.

BlueJ for cited research and ChatGPT Enterprise to organize findings. Prices for research tools aren't listed here because they aren't published.

Related use cases

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