A weekday in late February, 10:40 a.m. The preparer at the back desk has a 1040 open and one K-1 still missing. The front line rings for the sixth time in half an hour. “Hi, just checking if my return is done.” The next caller wants to know what to bring on Thursday. The one after that has a 1099 that came late and no idea where to send it.
From the first week of February to April 15, most tax season phone calls are the same ten questions. Few of them need a preparer. Most need an answer your firm already knows, given in the same words to every caller. The rest need a person, and those are the calls worth keeping prep time open for.
Below are the ten, roughly in the order they peak, with who should take each one.
Sort the calls before the season starts
Your front desk sorts calls all season anyway, in their head, one ring at a time. Writing the sort down takes an afternoon in December. For each call below, settle three things: the answer, who gives it, and what happens when that answer isn't enough.
A call can go four ways. A person takes it. A text answers it before anyone dials. A page on the website, or the client's request form, answers it. Or your firm's AI assistant answers from the facts you gave it, and hands over to staff when it can't.
1. “Is my return done?”
This is the call that fills February and March. The client isn't impatient so much as uninformed: nothing has told them where things stand since they dropped off their documents.
Who answers: whoever moves the return along. On a board with stages (documents received, in prep, in review, ready to sign, filed, picked up), the stage is the answer. When a preparer moves a return to its next stage, a short text tells the client where it stands. Many of these calls never get made.
When someone does call, the answer comes only from the stage your staff set. Not from a guess, and not from whoever picks up opening the tax software. If the caller isn't the client on the record, say a spouse on another phone, a preparer calls them back.
2. “What do I need to bring?”
New clients ask it, and so do clients of ten years who lost last year's list. Your firm already knows the answer: a photo ID, last year's return if they're new, W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, mortgage and tuition statements, childcare receipts, and anything from a new job, a sale or a rental.
Who answers: a written list. Put it in the organizer, on your website's tax-prep page, and in the reminder text before every drop-off appointment. The front desk reads from that same list, and so does an AI assistant if you use one. Nobody makes it up on the spot.
3. “Where do I send my 1099?”
The 1099 that showed up in late February, the corrected K-1, the brokerage statement the client forgot. They want to know whether to email it, mail it or drive it over.
Who answers: a link. A client's request form can hold one upload slot per document, so a W-2 arrives under its own name instead of in somebody's inbox. When something is still missing, a text names it and brings the client back to the form to send it. “Did you get my documents?” gets the same answer: the form shows what came in.
Ask clients not to email tax forms as attachments, and give them the link instead.
4. “How much will it cost?”
Prospects ask it first. Returning clients ask when something changed: a new business, a house sold, a second state. Answer from your published fee list, with a starting fee for an individual return, a business return and an extension.
Who answers: the person at the front counter, or the AI assistant, reading the fee list and nothing else. Keep the list current, since Circular 230 holds a firm to a published fee for at least 30 days. A quote outside the list goes to the owner or a preparer on a booked call. Three unfiled years, a rental and two K-1s is that kind of quote.
5. “Can I come in now?”
Walk-ins peak in the last two weeks before April 15. A few offices welcome them. Most run better on drop-off appointments.
Who answers: your hours and your calendar. Publish the drop-off and pick-up times, let clients book a slot online or by text, and have the reminder say what to bring. Someone hoping to come in right now gets the next open slot, not a maybe.
6. “Are you taking new clients?”
In January the answer is yes. On April 10 it may be no, or “only as an extension”. Either way, the caller deserves a straight answer, and your firm should hear about every good fit.
Who answers: whoever picks up, working from the cutoff date you set. Before the cutoff, book an intro call. After it, take the details, offer an extension appointment if you do them, and add the caller to your off-season list. A business owner asking about monthly bookkeeping gets a call back from the owner within a day.
7. “When will I get my refund?”
Nobody at your firm knows, and nobody should guess. Once a return is filed, the timing belongs to the IRS.
Who answers: a link. The IRS runs its own refund-status tool, and the answer to this call is that link, sent by text. No estimate, no amount, no “should be soon”. An AI assistant gives the same link and nothing more.
8. “Can you file an extension for me?”
These start in late March and pile up in the final week. Some callers are clients still waiting on a K-1. Some are strangers who just noticed the date.
Who answers: a preparer decides. The intake can come first: name, number, what's missing, and whether they're already a client. A preparer then decides whether the firm files it. Once filed, the client moves to an Extensions board with an October 15 due date and reminder texts of its own.
9. “I got a letter from the IRS.”
Sometimes it's a balance due, sometimes a question about income the IRS has on file, now and then a levy. The caller is worried, and the letter has a reply date.
Who answers: a preparer, before the day ends. An after-hours line should ring this one straight through to the preparer on call that night, along with two lines on what the letter says. If nobody is on call that night, the caller hears when a preparer will phone back, and the preparer does.
10. “Can I ask you a quick question?”
“Can I deduct my home office?” “Should I itemize this year?” “Does my kid need to file?” It is never quick, and it is tax advice.
Who answers: a preparer, often on a booked, paid consultation. The front desk doesn't answer it, and neither does an AI assistant. A good script says kindly that a preparer will take the question, and offers a time.
Who takes what, at a glance
| The call | Who answers it |
|---|---|
| Is my return done? | The stage text, then a person |
| What do I bring? | The written list |
| Where do I send my 1099? | The upload link |
| How much? | The fee list, then a person for quotes |
| Can I come in now? | The calendar |
| New clients? | The desk or the AI, the owner for good fits |
| My refund? | The IRS link |
| An extension? | A preparer |
| An IRS letter | A person, same day |
| A quick question | A preparer |
Seven of the ten can be answered without a preparer picking up. That is the whole point of the sort: preparers keep their prep time, and the three that truly need a preparer get one quickly.
If you want those seven covered at 8 p.m. and on Saturdays too, AccrueNest's AI receptionist picks up under your firm's name. Each call opens with a plain statement that the caller has reached the firm's AI helper, not a staff member. It works from your fee list, your what-to-bring list and your board, gives no tax advice, and anything that can't wait goes to the phone of the preparer on call.
AccrueNest
AccrueNest runs the phones, texts, organizers, website and marketing at the front of small US accounting firms. Each post starts from something an owner, office manager or front desk asked our team during setup.
