AI Chatbot for Accountants & CPAs
Capture and qualify new tax clients while you're neck-deep in returns. The AI answers fee and deadline questions, screens the inquiry, and books the consultation.
Free plan. Pro $19/month, Business $59/month, 30-day trial on paid plans. Setup takes about 2 minutes from your website URL.
What does an AI chatbot do for an accounting practice?
An AI chatbot for an accounting practice answers the fee, deadline and "are you taking new clients" questions from your own price list, screens whether the visitor is an individual or a business filer, and books a consultation while you are buried in returns.
Tax season is brutal. From January through April, your phone rings with prospects asking the same five questions: "Do you do my type of return? How much do you charge? Are you taking new clients? When can we meet? Can you handle the years I missed?" Meanwhile, you are trying to get actual returns out the door. Chatonbo gives your website an AI assistant that handles those questions instantly from your own fee schedule and services page, qualifies prospects (individual or business, complexity, urgency), captures their contact details, and books consultation slots, all without interrupting your work. It knows your fee structure, your specialties, the client types you accept, and the deadlines that matter. It will not interpret tax law or tell a visitor what they owe. It will make sure that when your voicemail is full on April 14th, you still have a list of qualified leads ready to onboard in May instead of a pile of missed calls. Visitors who reach your site in the evening or on a weekend get the same clear answer they would get from your front desk on a Tuesday morning, in 50+ languages, and every one of them who wants to talk leaves a name and a way to reach them.
Questions people ask on an accounting practice website
The real questions, and how the assistant should answer each one once it has your pages.
1.How much do you charge for a personal tax return?
Ideal answer: States the starting fee for a 1040 from your price list, lists what changes the price (states, schedules, investments), and offers a fixed quote after a short consult.
2.Can you do my back taxes? I haven't filed in three years.
Ideal answer: Reassures that catch-up filing is a service you offer, avoids any advice about penalties or what they owe, and asks for contact details so a CPA can review the situation privately.
3.When is the deadline to file, and can you still take me before then?
Ideal answer: Gives the filing and extension deadlines you have published, states your cutoff for new clients this season, and offers the next available consult slot.
4.Do you work with LLCs and S-corps?
Ideal answer: Confirms the entity types you serve, mentions the starting fee for business returns, and asks about number of states and owners to route to the right specialist.
5.How much is monthly bookkeeping?
Ideal answer: Quotes your bookkeeping tiers or "starting at" price, explains what is included (reconciliations, reports, payroll if applicable), and asks about transaction volume.
6.Do I need to come in, or can we do everything online?
Ideal answer: Explains your remote process (secure portal, e-signature, video calls), your office hours for in-person visits, and asks which the visitor prefers.
7.Are you taking new clients this season?
Ideal answer: Answers yes or no from your current status, states any waitlist or cutoff date, and captures name and email so your team can follow up.
What a good answer looks like
Three example exchanges from an accounting practice assistant. Prices and names are illustrative; yours come from your own pages.
Are you taking new clients for this tax season?
Yes, we're accepting new individual and small business clients through March 15. Can I ask: are you filing as an individual (1040), a small business (S-corp, LLC, sole prop), or both? Knowing that helps me check if we have the right specialist available and book you a quick 15-minute discovery call.
How much do you charge for a small business return?
For LLCs and S-corps, our small business returns start at $850 and go up based on complexity (number of states, K-1s, depreciation schedules). That includes federal and state filing, plus a year-end planning call. Want me to schedule a free 20-minute consultation so a CPA can give you an exact quote for your business?
I haven't filed taxes in 3 years, can you help?
Yes, we help clients catch up on prior-year returns regularly, and it's more common than you might think. The first step is a confidential consultation where a CPA reviews your situation and explains your options. I can't advise on penalties or amounts owed here, but I can capture your name and number and have a CPA reach out to schedule that call. Would that work?
What to feed the assistant
It only answers from what you give it. For an accounting practice, these are the pages and documents that matter.
- 1
Your fee schedule or "starting at" prices for individual, business and bookkeeping work
- 2
Services page with the entity types and situations you take (and the ones you do not)
- 3
New-client process: portal, documents checklist, e-signature, what to bring
- 4
Office hours, seasonal cutoffs and your consultation booking link
- 5
Your existing FAQ, plus the deadline dates you publish each year
Paste your website URL and the pages are crawled automatically. Anything not on the site (a price sheet, a policy document) can be uploaded as a PDF or typed in as a Q&A. If a price or policy is missing, the assistant says it does not know and offers to take the visitor's details instead of guessing.
What 5,470 real website chats show
From our study of website chat conversations across 246 live assistants, June to September 2026.
On service business websites, 18.3% of chat conversations ended with the visitor leaving contact details, and 39% of all chats started outside 9 to 18 local time, which is exactly when a CPA is either with a client or done for the day.
Source: What shoppers ask an AI chat assistant: 5,470 conversations analyzed (2026)
Where an accounting practice loses enquiries
Tax Season Phone Overload
From January to April, your office can't pick up every call. Prospects who get voicemail try the next CPA on the list, and the callback comes too late.
Wrong-Fit Inquiries
Personal tax preparers get called about S-corp returns. Business CPAs get called about simple 1040s. Without screening, you waste time on cases you don't want.
Slow Onboarding Loses Clients
A prospect who has to wait days for a callback has already met with two other accountants. Instant engagement turns curiosity into commitment.
What it will not do
The assistant will not give tax advice, interpret tax law, estimate what a visitor owes, or comment on a specific return. It answers from the fees, services and process you give it and hands anything situational to a human. It cannot see your calendar unless you connect a Calendly or Cal.com link through the Booking Agent, and it will not quote a price you have not published to it. When a visitor asks for a person, it captures their details and routes them to you.
AI chatbot questions from accountants & cpas
Will the chatbot give tax advice to visitors?+
No. It answers questions about your services, fees, deadlines and process, and it is configured to refuse specific tax advice or interpretation of tax law. Anything situational is captured as a lead and routed to your team.
Can it book consultations into my calendar?+
Yes. Connect a Calendly or Cal.com link through the Booking Agent and the assistant sends visitors straight to your live availability. Without a link, it captures the preferred time and contact details and emails them to you.
Does it work with Karbon, Canopy or TaxDome?+
Captured leads can be sent by webhook to Karbon, Canopy, Jetpack Workflow, TaxDome, or any system that accepts incoming webhooks. Each lead includes the name, email, return type and the full conversation transcript.
How do I keep it accurate during tax season when prices and cutoffs change?+
Update the price list or cutoff date in your knowledge base and the assistant uses the new version immediately. It only answers from what you give it, so it will not invent a fee or a deadline.
What does it cost for a small practice?+
There is a free plan to start. Pro is $19/month and Business is $59/month, both with a 30-day trial. Setup takes about 2 minutes from your website URL, and the assistant replies in 50+ languages.
Related for accountants & cpas
Lead Generation Agent
Qualifies individual versus business filers and captures contact details before tax season peaks.
Lead capture use case
How the assistant turns a "how much for a return" question into a named lead for your team.
Not an accounting practice? See all industries or the small business overview.
Put an AI assistant on your accounting practice website
Paste your URL, check the answers, add the one-line embed. About 2 minutes. Free plan to start, 30-day trial on Pro and Business.
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