Clients, returns and every filing date, on one system
Organizers go out in January and come back in pieces. Engagement letters wait for a signature, and WIP waits for a bill. Bring it into one place beside your tax software, and put AI teammates on the chasing.
A trusted firm that runs on its people’s evenings
Most firms your size run on tax and practice software, a client portal and a dozen logins around them. It holds because good people work late from February to April, and again in October.
- Half of busy season is chasing paperOrganizers go out in January. By March a third of clients still owe a K-1, a 1099 or a property-tax bill, and seniors spend their evenings writing the same reminder.
- Signatures hold up the workNo return starts without a signed engagement letter, and none is filed without a signed 8879. Both sit in inboxes while the 15th gets closer.
- Who is waiting on what lives in a spreadsheetThe tax software knows the due dates. Which returns are stuck, on whom, and which need an extension lives in a manager’s spreadsheet, updated on Fridays.
- WIP waits weeks for a billA return filed in April is invoiced in June. By then nobody remembers why the hours ran over, and the partner writes it down.
- RingCentral Core
- Zoom Workplace Pro
- Calendly Teams
- HubSpot Sales Hub Professional
- Asana Starter
- Otter Business
- Mailchimp Standard
- QuickBooks Online Advanced
- Power BI Pro
$78,351$0 a year, at list price, for Whitlock Ota’s 9 subscriptions
Whitlock Ota LLPSacramento, CaliforniaWhitlock Ota does the tax, the audits and the monthly books of 1,800 farms, family businesses and their owners across the Sacramento Valley.
Dean Whitlock and Kenji Ota opened the firm in two rooms on J Street in 1986, doing returns for the rice and almond growers Kenji grew up among. Kenji’s daughter Naomi has been managing partner since 2019: 90 people, two offices and 3,600 returns a year, on tax and practice software, a client portal and nine subscriptions that don’t talk to each other.
- 90
- people
- 12
- partners
- 1,800
- clients
- 3,600
- returns a year
Naomi Ota Managing partnerDesigns Whitlock Ota’s system with OpenLazarus in the film below.
Whitlock Ota LLP is an invented example, not a client: a company like the ones we build for, made up to show how one would run on OpenLazarus. Its people, numbers and photographs are illustrative.
What Whitlock Ota runs on it
The modules carry the firm’s names, not ours. The AI teammates work on the same clients, returns and dates its people do, and a CPA decides anything that changes a return.
- Returns3,600 returns a year by status, read from the tax software
- RequestsWhat each client still owes their return, and who is asking
- DocumentsEvery K-1, 1099 and statement, filed on the right return
- ProposalsNew work, from the first call to the signed engagement letter
- Clients1,800 clients, their entities and every conversation
- PhoneSix lines for the front desk and client service
- BillingEach return billed from its WIP the day it is filed
- ReportsWIP, realization and returns by status, by partner
Sam OkaforAIClient requestsMatched 212 portal uploads to their returns and sent 46 reminders
Grace LindqvistAIDeadlines and engagement lettersSent 38 8879s for e-signature and moved 17 complete returns to prep
Joyce BautistaAIClient accountingMatched 3,940 bank lines in the books of 118 monthly clients
Inés DuarteAIBilling and WIPBilled the 64 returns filed last week, straight from their WIP
Companies like Whitlock Ota usually start with Sam, Grace and Inés.
What it could change in a year
An illustrative estimate for Whitlock Ota, worked from its example numbers: the subscriptions it would stop paying for, the hours its people would get back, and the paper nobody chases by hand.
- $15,000
- a year it would keep after paying for Lazarus, its server, six phone lines and an engineer’s time
- 5,600
- hours a year it would give back to preparers, the front desk and billing
- 9 days
- from the first request to a complete file, down from 24 when reminders went out by hand
Example figures for an invented company. The savings and hours are worked out from its example tools and plan at list prices; the third figure is an illustrative goal, not a measured result.
Run your practice on a system you own
Tell OpenLazarus how your firm takes on clients, chases documents and bills. You’ll see your system take shape in the conversation, with your names, your teammates and what it saves.
We already have tax and practice software. Do we replace it?
No. Returns are still prepared, reviewed and e-filed there. Lazarus reads each return’s status and due date from it and writes back what changed, so requests, deadlines and billing sit around the software your preparers already know.
What about client confidentiality and taxpayer data?
Everything runs on the firm’s own server: mail, documents, calls and the AI’s work. Access follows the roles you set, every action is logged, and nothing the firm holds is used to train anyone’s model. It goes into the written security plan you already keep as a preparer.
Does the AI prepare or sign returns?
No. The teammates chase documents, send engagement letters and 8879s, keep the deadlines and bill. Your people prepare and review every return, and only the signing CPA releases an e-file.
Do our people have to give up Excel?
No. Workpapers stay in Excel and your tax software. Lazarus takes the phones, meetings, client requests, deadlines and billing around them.
How long does it take to set up?
The design takes one conversation with OpenLazarus, like the one in the film. Our engineers then connect your tax and practice software, your portal and your phone lines in a few weeks. Most firms start between seasons, in May or November.