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Stacks AI Studio / CPA and Accounting Firms
AI for CPA and Accounting Firms
"I feel behind on AI, and there is no chance I can catch up." If that is the sentence in your head, you are exactly who I work with. I am not selling software or theory-based advice. I run my own ten person managed services business on Claude, I know the value it adds every week, and now I help owners do the same inside CPA and accounting firms like yours: your team trained, jobs automated, hours saved. Saying yes to starting puts you ahead of many of your competitors.
Experience, Not Theory
That is our first four automations at Stacks, across a ten person team. We took on more clients, and gross margin went from 26% to 56% in twelve months. AI was not the only driver. It was the biggest one. It also set a new standard for what my team sends out: the same bar for research, formatting, and finish on everything that leaves the building, no shortcuts.
Casey Templeton, Founder of Stacks. Nashville.
"In one week I went from a two-hour session with Casey to a brand new marketing site and firing the marketing firm I'd used for two years. If Casey wants to work with you, don't be a dummy. Just do it."
The Week
Your Week. I Know It.
Five jobs that eat busy season. This is the work an automation goes after first.
The organizer comes back half empty. Somebody emails the same client four times for one K-1.
A notice lands in the client's mail. The answer gets rebuilt from the last notice by hand.
The financials go out with no note attached. The client calls to ask what any of it means.
The close stalls on uncategorized transactions. Somebody retypes the same question list for every client.
The owner rebuilds the WIP report. Realization gets checked after the deadline, not before it.
When the bench is short, the chasing and the writing are what slip.
Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, June 2026.
The First Step
Two Sessions. Two Hours Each.
For most CPA and accounting firms, this is the first step. Homework first, then two sessions, two hours each. In person if you are near Nashville, or over Zoom. $1,950.
For the math: one person at $25 an hour who gets two hours a week back is worth about $2,600 a year. If the first automation does that for one employee, it pays for itself with room to spare. And if after our first session you do not see a job worth automating, you pay nothing.
An automation is a repeated piece of work you teach Claude once. Your team runs it every day, you own it and tune it, and it carries the work to 80 percent so your people finish the 20 that needs their judgment.
"Casey taught me how to actually put AI to work. I generate quotes faster, my workflow is smoother, and I'm making more money because of it. One of the best investments I've made in my business."
01
Homework
Before we ever meet, you pull real examples of the work that eats your week: actual documents, actual messages, nothing cleaned up for me.
02
Session One
Two hours. We map how your firm actually runs, get Claude set up for your team, and train you on how to operate it.
03
Session Two
Two hours. We start building your first automations and put together the training your team needs to run Claude every day.
04
What You Leave With
Claude running for your team, your people trained on it, and one job automated and in use.
Five Automations We Could Build In Your Firm.
One page, no obligation. Proof of what we could build together, before we ever talk.
One email with the PDF. No newsletter, no drip campaign.
of firms say most clients want a trusted advisor.
Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, June 2026.
Section 7216 sets the consent rules for using or disclosing tax return information, so the data path is written down and you approve it first.
The Stack
Claude Sits In The Middle.
It works with the tools you already run. It reads from your practice management system, your tax software, your document portal, and your books, and writes back where it can.
Start with one connection, not all of them. The first automation usually needs one export from one system, and that is the whole first step. Once it earns its keep, the next system comes in, then the one after that. Every automation gets sharper as it goes, because Claude can finally see the whole engagement instead of one screen at a time.
The Numbers
The Numbers Accountants Are Seeing.
That feeling of being behind is not in your head. The smallest CPA and accounting firms are furthest behind on tech, and the biggest are furthest ahead.
Call AI their top investment priority
Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, June 2026.
Firms of three or fewer, proactive
Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, June 2026.
Questions
Questions, Answered.
I feel like I am already behind on AI. Is it too late?
No, and you are not as far behind as you think. The owners who feel furthest behind often move fastest once they start, because they have not spent a year on tools that did not stick. You do not need a strategy, a budget cycle, or a technical person on staff. You need four hours and one job that is costing you time every week. That is the whole first step.
Will this replace my staff?
No, and that is the whole design. An automation carries a job to 80 percent quickly and your preparer takes the final 20 percent over the finish line. Efficiency goes up for everyone, the firm grows without the headcount it used to need, margins grow with it, and your team spends its time on judgment instead of menial work.
Will it work with the software we already run?
Usually, whether that is Karbon, Canopy, Lacerte, Drake, or UltraTax. Some systems give me an API, some give me an export, and a few give me nothing but a screen to copy from. I tell you which one you have before I scope anything.
Does any of this run into Section 7216?
Not if you use it the way the rule describes. Section 7216 prohibits preparers of tax returns from knowingly or recklessly disclosing or using tax return information, and the IRS says a taxpayer must provide written consent before a preparer uses or discloses it, outside the uses the regulations already permit. So I map where return information goes before an automation touches it, and you approve that map. Nothing gets used for anything you did not agree to.
What happens to client data?
You approve the data path before any automation runs. The IRS says tax and accounting professionals count as financial institutions under the FTC Safeguards Rule, regardless of size, and that keeping a written information security plan is a requirement of that rule. What I build gets documented inside yours, in plain language. Where a job can run on redacted material, I do it that way.
Does any of this touch the return itself?
No. Every automation hands you a draft, not a filing. An automation chases documents, drafts, summarizes, and organizes. It does not prepare a return, take a position, or sign anything. Professional judgment stays with the CPA, and the review step is part of the automation.
How long before we see something working?
The first automation runs in weeks, not quarters. The two sessions scope it, I build it against your real engagements, and your team uses it while I refine it. One automation in production beats five in a plan.
Who owns what you build?
You own the automations and the documentation. They live in your account, written in plain language, so your team can read them and change them. If you stop working with me, nothing walks out the door.
What if we get to the end and nothing is worth automating?
Then you pay nothing. If after our first session you do not see a job worth automating, the engagement ends there and there is no charge. The first session either surfaces a job worth the money or it does not, and that risk is mine, not yours.
Why $1,950?
Because the format is small on purpose. Homework, two working sessions of two hours each, and the setup work around them. For the math: one person at $25 an hour who gets two hours a week back is worth about $2,600 a year. If the first automation does that for one employee, it has paid for itself with room to spare. Every number in that sentence is yours to check.
Who You Will Be Working With
Casey Templeton.
Founder of Stacks, a ten person business in Nashville that runs on Claude. Both sessions are with him directly, and every message from this page lands in his inbox, not a queue.
Start Here
Start With A Conversation Between Two Small Business Owners.
Tell me about your firm. I take on two or three of these engagements a month. Every message comes to me and I answer it myself. The first conversation costs nothing.
Book A 15 Minute Call"A fear of not understanding AI had kept me from diving in. Casey's coaching changed that. It opened my eyes to a sea of possibilities and left me more confident to explore. Come open-minded, and see where your imagination takes you."
I reply to every message. No newsletter, no drip campaign.