From January your phone belongs to filing season
Most of your callers want a deadline confirmed or a document chased. GreetKeeper handles those and books the prospective client you'd otherwise have rung back in March.
Caller
“I've just gone self-employed and I've got no idea what I'm supposed to be filing or when. Do you take on sole proprietors?”
What happened next
- Captured: new sole proprietor, first year, no bookkeeping in place
- Booked a 30-minute introductory call Wednesday 9:00am
- Summary flagged for the partner: new prospect, first-year filing
Seasonal volume with a team that cannot grow for three months
Between January and April your call volume multiplies and your headcount doesn't. Every hour you spend on the phone is an hour off a return with a deadline against it.
The calls hitting you in that window are mostly two things: an existing client asking where to send a document, and a prospect who's left it late. The first is routine. The second is the one you most want and least have time for.
Out of season the problem inverts. Nobody's on your desk at four on a Friday in August, and that's when someone who just registered a limited company rings three firms to ask about fees.
GreetKeeper answers year round with the same script. Routine questions get the answer you wrote, and a prospect gets a real slot in your calendar rather than a promised callback.
Sorting the deadline question from the new engagement
Existing client or prospect is your first branch, and everything else follows from it.
Establish which one is calling
An existing client gets routed by the rules you set, usually to their own accountant or to a message. A prospect goes into your intake questions instead.
Capture the entity and the year end
Sole proprietor, partnership, limited company, and when the year ends. Those two tell you whether this is a quick onboarding or a mess needing a conversation, and they're easy to ask.
Answer the deadline question from your own notes
Filing dates and what you need from a client are fixed facts you supply, so it states them. It won't calculate anybody's liability or interpret their position.
Book the introductory meeting
Your prospect leaves the call with a time in your calendar, read back before booking. Most firms lose that step to a voicemail.
What it connects to in a practice
Your calendar takes the meeting directly, and every practice system gets a complete first-contact record. Here's each route.
| Tool | How it connects | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Writes directly | Direct write. The introductory meeting lands on the partner's calendar. |
| Outlook Calendar | Writes directly | Direct write, and this is the common one in accounting. |
| Xero Practice Manager | Email or webhook | The lead is captured in full and entered by your team. |
| QuickBooks Online Accountant | Email or webhook | Your team adds the client from the call summary. |
| Karbon | Email or webhook | The prospect's entity type and year end arrive ready to key in. |
| Salesforce | Through Zapier | Through Zapier, for firms running a CRM alongside the practice system. Our webhook starts the Zap, and that needs a paid Zapier plan. |
Priced against the January hours
Work out what an hour of your partners' time costs, and how many of those go on the phone in February.
| Plan | Monthly | Calls included | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFor a single location taking calls one line at a time. | $49 | 200 | $0.45 per call |
| ProfessionalBooking, routing and transfers included, not an add-on. | $149 | 750 | $0.35 per call |
| ScaleFor busy phones and longer opening hours. | $349 | 2,000 | $0.25 per call |
Starter is $49 a month for 200 answered calls, then 45 cents a call. Two partners forwarding overflow will usually stay there most of the year and slip into overage during the season, at a rate printed on your invoice rather than hidden.
If your season genuinely trebles the volume, sit on Professional at $149 for 750 calls with 35 cents after, all year. Annual billing takes two months off your bill, which is the category norm rather than a special offer.
Keep the phone to dates, fees and meetings
Nothing it says is advice on anyone's tax position. It states filing dates, your fee structure and what documents you need, all of them facts you gave it. A question about a specific liability, a deduction or a penalty comes to one of your people.
Utah requires a spoken AI disclosure at the start of the call for regulated occupations, and accountancy is one, so switch it on if you practise there. Maine requires clear notice in trade generally. Both are settings rather than obstacles for you.
Your clients' financial detail shouldn't be arriving down a phone line into a transcript. Keep the script to inquiry and scheduling, and let documents travel through your portal where they belong.
What partners ask
Will it answer a question about someone's tax bill?
No. Filing dates and your own fee structure are fixed facts it'll state. Anything about a specific position routes to you, and your transcript shows the question that was asked.
Can it tell an existing client where to send documents?
Yes, by reading the instruction you wrote, such as your portal's name and where to find it on your website. That one answer removes a large share of your seasonal call volume.
Does it connect to Xero Practice Manager?
The lead arrives for your team to enter, with the entity and year end already captured. Your Outlook or Google Calendar takes a direct write, and a CRM such as Salesforce can receive the lead through Zapier.
What happens in the last week of January?
Calls are answered in parallel rather than queued, so nobody sits on your hold music. You'll go into overage that month, and the per-call rate is printed so your invoice holds no surprise.
Do we have to announce it is an AI?
In Utah, yes, spoken at the start, because accountancy is a regulated occupation there. Maine requires clear notice in trade generally. Our disclosure page covers how you set it.
Other professional practices
Hear it book a new client
Your fee structure, your filing dates, two minutes.