The Claude playbook for CPAs who lose 5 hours a week to engagement-letter follow-ups
You've heard the AI pitch a hundred times and you can't paste a 1040 into a chatbot. Fair. This is the setup — and 50 prompts — that fix both problems.
- →It's mid-February and you have 18 unsent engagement-letter follow-ups stacked up because writing them by hand at 9pm feels endless.
- →You tried ChatGPT on a K-1 follow-up once. It wrote 'Dear Valued Client, I hope this finds you well.' You closed the tab and wrote the email yourself.
- →Every spring you draft the same fee-increase notice, the same scope-change message, the same 'still waiting on your brokerage statement' email — and every spring it takes the same 45 minutes per round.
Early reader feedback
“I closed 14 engagement-letter follow-ups in one sitting last Saturday. The escalation-level prompts were the unlock — the 'still waiting' one at level 2 reads exactly like how I write when I'm mildly annoyed but still professional.”
— Marcy K., solo CPA, Connecticut“I'd written off AI for client work after ChatGPT wrote me a 'Dear Valued Client' email last March. The redaction setup in the playbook is the thing nobody else explains. 20 minutes and I was pasting redacted K-1 follow-ups same day.”
— Dan R., enrolled agent, 60-client practice
What's inside
- 10 sections written for CPAs and small-firm accountants, not generic operators. Client comms, engagement follow-up, fee discussions, return delivery, scope creep, review responses, SOPs, hiring.
- 50 copy-pasteable prompts: engagement-letter follow-ups (3 escalation levels), IRS-notice response drafts, fee-increase notices, missing-K-1 check-ins, scope-change messages, year-end recaps.
- A 20-minute setup that lets you actually paste redacted client comms without violating AICPA 1.700.001. Paid Claude, retention opt-out, the 5 categories you still don't paste, in plain English.
- 5 engagement-walkthroughs (Pro): stalled engagement letter, missing-document chase, scope-change mid-engagement, fee-increase notice, year-end delivery. Real screenshots, real prompts, real outputs.
- A framing every accountant needs once: Claude drafts, you verify. Circular 230 §10.34 still applies. The playbook is explicit about where the line is.
The full stack — included with Starter
Stacked value below. You pay the Starter price.
- The Tradecraft Playbook
50 Claude prompts written for CPAs and small-firm accountants. Engagement letter follow-ups at 4 escalation levels, document-chase emails (K-1, 1099-SA, W-2), fee-increase notices, IRS notice acknowledgments, onboarding sequences.
$197 value - AICPA-Compliant Redaction Checklist + Token-Mapping Template
The document-level redaction system that keeps you on the right side of 1.700.001.
$27 value - 5 Customizable Engagement Letter Templates
Solo, multi-member LLC, S-corp, partnership, trust. Drop in client name, send.
$47 value - 20-Minute Loom Walkthrough of the Redaction Setup
Me on screen, building it from scratch on a real (anonymized) client matter. Pro tier.
$47 value - Abridged Operator Stack Install Course
How to install Claude Code and run it on your machine without a developer. The prerequisite most AI-for-accountants pitches skip.
$147 value - Lifetime Updates
Every new prompt, every refinement, every IRS form change. (Normally $19/month.)
$228 value
Pro-tier bonuses are flagged in the list above. 30-day refund, no friction — if it doesn’t fit your practice, email me, money back.
What other accountants are saying
“I closed 14 engagement-letter follow-ups in one sitting last Saturday. The escalation-level prompts were the unlock — the 'still waiting' one at level 2 reads exactly like how I write when I'm mildly annoyed but still professional.”
— Marcy K., solo CPA, Connecticut“I'd written off AI for client work after ChatGPT wrote me a 'Dear Valued Client' email last March. The redaction setup in the playbook is the thing nobody else explains. 20 minutes and I was pasting redacted K-1 follow-ups same day.”
— Dan R., enrolled agent, 60-client practice“Our two staff accountants now draft fee-increase notices in Claude and I edit. Used to take me 45 minutes per client to write from scratch. Now it's 10 minutes of editing. We sent 38 of them in one afternoon.”
— Jennifer M., partner, 8-person firm“The Circular 230 framing is what made me actually buy it. Every other AI-for-accountants pitch acts like the signature line doesn't exist. This one says it out loud — Claude drafts, you verify, the position is still yours.”
— Paul S., CPA, Massachusetts
Pricing
FAQ
Not in the free tier — full stop. Paid Claude with the data-retention toggle off is the floor for client comms, and even there you redact names, SSNs, and account numbers. The setup section walks the toggle in 20 minutes and lists the 5 categories you still don't paste (full 1040s with the taxpayer's name on it, attorney-privileged material, real SSNs, named-client account numbers, HR matters). Treat the AI conversation as a draft surface, not a record. Your working papers stay where they always have.
Yes. The setup is six steps: sign up for Claude Pro, toggle off model training, confirm the toggle stuck, pin the tab, copy your first prompt, run it on a boring non-client email like a vendor renewal. No API keys, no integrations. If you can use QuickBooks Online, you can do this.
Claude drafts, you verify. The playbook is explicit about this. You use Claude for the writing around the return — engagement letters, follow-ups, fee discussions, the 'here's what your refund is and what to sign' email. You do not use it to take a tax position. IRS Circular 230 §10.34 and §10.37 still apply: once you sign the return, the position is yours. The playbook covers what Claude is good at and where you stop and switch tools.
Starter ($97) is the web playbook, 50 prompts, and the abridged Operator Stack install course. Run any prompt, paste your context, get a draft. Pro ($197) adds a Notion template fork you can clone as your weekly engagement workflow, 5 full walkthroughs with screenshots (stalled engagement letter, missing-document chase, scope-change, fee increase, year-end delivery), the 20-minute Loom walkthrough of the AICPA-compliant redaction setup, and 30 days of update access. Most solo practitioners are fine on Starter through their first busy season. Pro is for firms with 2+ people who want one system everyone runs.
Both. Solo practitioners get 5-10 hours back per week in busy season — almost all of it from client comms. Multi-person firms shift from writing first drafts to editing them — staff drafts in Claude, partner reviews. The Pro walkthroughs cover both setups.
30-day refund, no friction. Email me, money back. If the playbook doesn't fit your practice, I'd rather not have your $97.
Pro buyers get 30 days of update access included. After that there's an optional Updates membership ($19/mo, cancel anytime) for monthly revisions as Claude releases new features. If you don't subscribe, the prompts you bought today still work — they just get better when Claude ships a better model. Updates is for accountants who want the new prompt the day a new feature ships.
Built with your professional norms in mind
- AICPA Code of Professional Conduct — confidentiality (1.700.001). Covered in the playbook.
- IRS Circular 230 — practitioner standards. Covered in the playbook.
- Data residency for client records. Covered in the playbook.