FREE AGENT · CPA MAY COHORT
The nag list. Handled. By Monday.
We will build your firm a custom AI agent for one workflow you already run every week. Five business days, 100% free, yours to keep. Purpose-built for one job. Not a chatbot, not a blank canvas.
Limited May cohort. Free to the firm. No card, no subscription.
What you get
One production-ready AI teammate.
One custom agent, built for one workflow in your firm
Not a template, not a wrapper around ChatGPT. A production agent tuned to how your firm actually runs the workflow you pick on day one.
Five business days from kickoff to handoff
Day 1 is a 60-minute scope call. Days 2 to 4 we build while you review a mid-week demo async. Day 5 is the handoff and walkthrough.
A scoped, bounded job. Not a blank canvas.
Purpose-built for one workflow. You do not have to figure out what to ask it next. It does the one thing you hired it to do.
A 30-minute walkthrough at handoff
So an associate, a senior, or you can run it on day one. We show you what it does, how to steer it, and what to flag for review.
Full ownership of the agent
The running instance and the work product are yours. The agent keeps running after we hand it off. No subscription. No lock-in.
A clean handoff memo
What the agent does, what it does not do, where its data lives, and exactly what gets deleted when the engagement ends. Written plainly, so you can attach it to an engagement-letter amendment if your insurer asks.
What we need from you
A little skin in the game.
Free does not mean effortless. The best agents come from real workflows with real teams. Here is what we ask.
The owner on the discovery call
You, or you and one other decision-maker. No committee discovery calls. We will not waste your 30 minutes on a demo if there is no one in the room who can say yes.
One real workflow your firm already runs every week
Something you could hand to a new associate tomorrow with written instructions. If the answer to how we do it is it depends, it is not the right first agent.
A minimum viable stack we can work with
Gmail or Outlook for mail. QuickBooks Online or Xero for books. Excel for workpapers. PDFs for client documents. If your firm runs on these, we can build. No API keys from you, no IT work required.
Async touchpoints, not standing calls
About 30 to 60 minutes of your time across the five days. A kickoff call on day one, a Slack or email check-in mid-week, a handoff call on day five. We do not book daily standups.
A clear view of what client data the agent can touch
On the kickoff call we map the workflow and agree in writing on which folders, inboxes, and files are in scope. Nothing else is read. Nothing is copied outside your environment without written approval.
Honest feedback at handoff
If the agent does not do the job, we want to know. If it nails it, we want to know that too. That feedback is how the next build gets better.
Example workflows
Not sure what to ask for?
Pick one that sounds like your week. Your actual agent will be designed around the specific shape of your firm’s workflow. The list below is the shape of what we see most often in small CPA firms.
Turn your nag list into a dashboard
Reads the inbox for each client engagement, tracks which source documents are still outstanding, drafts the next follow-up in your firm's voice, and triages replies when they come in. You approve every outbound before it sends.
A clean exception list, not a raw reconciliation
Pre-reads monthly bank recs for your bookkeeping clients, flags uncoded transactions, unusual amounts, and statement-to-GL variances. Your associate gets a 10-line exception list instead of a 200-line reconciliation.
Chase your own past-due invoices
Tracks the firm's own outstanding AR, drafts graduated follow-ups in your voice, and escalates the clients who have gone quiet. Recovers realization that would otherwise get written off.
W-9 chase, ready for year-end
Starting in May means the 1099 workflow is fully ready before Q4. The agent builds a vendor-by-vendor W-9 status sheet, drafts the follow-ups, and hands you a clean list the week before filing season opens.
Watch the portal, file the PDFs
When a client uploads a statement, K-1, or 1099, the agent reads it, names it consistently, files it in the right engagement folder, and logs what arrived. Your associate stops being a file clerk.
From signed engagement letter to ready-to-work
Once an engagement letter is signed, the agent builds the PBC list, drafts the opening client email, requests prior-year returns, and opens the engagement folder with the right structure. The engagement starts the next morning instead of the next week.
Why free
Why it is free, and what the catch is not
Because asking a CPA firm owner to pay us to audition would be backwards. You have already been sold to this year. You do not need another deck, another demo, or another pilot program on your card. You need to see an agent do a real job in your firm, this week, and decide from there.
So here is the mechanic in plain language. Each build is roughly 40 hours of senior engineering time from our side. We cap the May cohort at 5 firms so every build gets the senior team, not a junior handoff. That is the only reason the number is 5.
What you pay: nothing. No card on file, no subscription trigger, no auto-renewal, no future invoice. The agent is yours, free, at the end of the five days. If we do our job, we hope you come back later for a full team. If we do not, you keep the agent and we part on good terms. That is the entire deal.
We are direct about our upside. If your agent earns its keep, we would like a short case study, a referral to one other firm, or the chance to talk about what a full agent team for your practice could look like. Any of those are voluntary. None of them are a condition of the free build.
Who qualifies
Is this for your firm?
You are a good fit if:
- Your firm is US-based and has between 2 and 25 people.
- You run your books or your clients’ books in QuickBooks Online or Xero, your mail in Gmail or Outlook, and your workpapers in Excel. Nothing fancier required.
- You already have one workflow in mind that you would hand over tomorrow if you trusted it. You do not need a strategy session to find it.
- The owner, managing partner, or firm principal can join the 30-minute call. If approval needs three partners, book when they can all join.
- Your firm can spend about 30 to 60 minutes async across the five-day build: a kickoff, a mid-week check, a handoff.
Respecting the CPA license
- We do not touch any engagement subject to PCAOB oversight, SOX controls, or SOC 1/SOC 2 evidence. We stay on the safe side of your license.
- We do not prepare, review, sign, or file tax returns, and we do not touch workflows that handle SSNs or full account numbers in persistent storage.
- We do not produce SSARS deliverables. No compilations, reviews, or audits. The agent helps your firm run; it does not issue work product.
- We do not draft tax advice, representation letters, or Circular 230-restricted communications. The agent supports the practitioner; it does not replace the practitioner.
Those disqualifiers are not limitations we are apologizing for. They are the line that keeps your license and your PL coverage intact. We would rather say no to a workflow than put either at risk.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Walk into next January with one less thing open in your head.
Thirty minutes on a call in May. Five business days of build. One workflow your firm never has to chase again. If the agent earns its keep, we talk about the next one. If it does not, you still keep it, and the conversation ends there.
Limited May cohort. Free to the firm. Applications reviewed in the order they come in.
By booking, you agree to the Free Agent (Accounting Cohort) Terms.