AI for Solo CPAs: The Post-Tax-Season Advisory System
Turn your 1040 clients into monthly advisory retainers in the May window — eight lessons with AI prompts, pricing packages, and a capstone funnel you ship by Friday.
The tax deadline is behind you. Your inbox is quieter than it has been in ten weeks. And somewhere in your 1040 client list is a double-your-practice opportunity you will not see again until May of next year.
Most solo CPAs know the post-tax-season advisory pivot exists. Very few actually run it — not because the idea is wrong, but because scoping, pricing, packaging, writing engagement letters, and building a monthly close review process is a full-time project on top of the client work you already have. That project used to take a partner-track hire and six months. It doesn’t anymore.
This course gives you the eight lessons, AI prompts, and ready-to-ship templates that compress the whole build into one working week. You will leave with a three-tier package menu you can send to a client by Friday, a triaged list of which of your existing tax clients are the right conversions to start with, an engagement letter that survives a scope-creep disagreement, and a 30-minute monthly close review workflow that actually leaves you room to think. The capstone has you ship your May funnel — not plan it, ship it — in a single sitting.
What You'll Learn
- Explain why the May-through-June window is the highest-leverage advisory conversion window of the year
- Identify which existing tax clients are genuinely advisory-ready using a five-signal triage framework
- Design a three-tier monthly advisory package with fixed fees, clear deliverables, and defensible scope
- Write an engagement letter and scope-creep protocol using AI drafts plus your own professional judgment
- Execute a 30-minute AI-assisted monthly close review that produces client-ready variance commentary
- Create a quarterly advisory meeting agenda and client recap that sets up the next retainer renewal
After This Course, You Can
What You'll Build
Course Syllabus
Prerequisites
- Active CPA, EA, or bookkeeping practice with at least 15 existing 1040 or small-business clients
- You have used ChatGPT or Claude at least a few times — you know what a prompt is
Who Is This For?
- Solo CPAs, EAs, and licensed bookkeepers with 15–150 active clients
- Tax preparers who have been thinking about adding advisory but can't find time to build the offering
- Small-firm partners (1–3 people) ready to shift margin mix away from compliance toward advisory
- Fractional CFOs who want an AI-leveraged way to scope and deliver recurring engagements
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be a CPA? What about EAs and bookkeepers?
The workflows apply to any solo practitioner with client books — CPA, EA, licensed bookkeeper, or fractional CFO. The pricing benchmarks lean toward CPA/EA fee bands because those roles typically charge the advisory rates we cite.
Is this the same as a CAS (Client Advisory Services) course?
Overlapping but narrower. CAS courses tend to cover the full practice transformation. This course is tightly focused on the May-through-June conversion window and the AI workflows that make a solo practitioner capable of running an advisory book without hiring.
Which AI tools do I need?
A paid Claude or ChatGPT account is the main requirement. The course uses Claude as the primary example because its 200k context window handles long client documents well. Optional: Digits, Keeper, or your existing practice management software.
Can I share client data with AI?
Not without controls. Lesson 5 covers de-identification and the AICPA-aligned policies your engagement letter should reference. When in doubt, redact and paraphrase before pasting.
When should I start this course?
Ideally between April 15 and May 31. The capstone funnel assumes a May send window. You can take it later, but the conversion-rate math weakens as the year goes on.
