Can an accounting firm use AI without sending client tax data to an outside company?
Yes. A private AI system runs the model on a workstation in the firm’s office, so client tax and financial records are read on that machine and are not sent to an outside AI company. Your team asks it questions and gets draft letters and emails from the firm’s own files, and a preparer reviews what it produces.
Does this make us compliant with section 7216 and the Safeguards Rule?
No single tool does. Keeping client data on hardware you control means no outside AI company receives it. Your written security plan and your other obligations still apply. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Does it prepare returns?
No. It works from your firm’s own files: finding documents, answering questions about a client’s history and drafting letters and emails for a preparer to review.
Is it as good as ChatGPT?
For answering questions from your own documents, drafting, summarising and pulling information out of files, it does the job well. For long, complicated multi-step reasoning, the largest cloud models are still ahead, and we will tell you plainly on the exposure check if your work needs one.
Don’t the business plans from OpenAI, Microsoft and Anthropic already keep my data private?
They say they do not train on business customers’ data, and for many companies that is enough. A private system is for firms that don’t want client data on any outside company’s servers at all, that want one system connected to everything, or whose staff are quietly using personal accounts anyway.
How much does private AI cost for a small business?
Three packages. Private Assistant: $5,000 setup and $500 a month. Company Brain: $12,000 setup and $1,250 a month. Brain + Operations: from $25,000 setup and $2,500 a month. Hardware is extra and bought once: $9,999 to $23,499 depending on the size of the team. For example, a 20-person firm on Company Brain pays from $36,999 in the first year ($12,000 setup, hardware from $9,999 and $15,000 for the care plan) and $15,000 a year after that. You get a fixed quote after the exposure check.
Who owns it?
You do. The hardware is yours and your data stays on it. The software framework is ours and you get a permanent licence to the version we install, so the system keeps working if you ever cancel the care plan. Only updates and support stop.
Do you have to be on site?
Within about two hours of Nashville, Tennessee we install on site. Anywhere else in the United States the machine arrives configured and we finish the setup remotely.
What can it connect to?
Shared files and email in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, your CRM, your accounting system and your phones. We confirm exactly which of your systems can be connected on the exposure check, before you pay anything.
What is the founding client offer?
The first three clients get 30% off the setup fee. In return we ask to publish a case study with your firm’s name once the system is running.
What if it doesn’t work for us?
If it isn’t answering questions from your own documents within 30 days of install, we refund the setup fee. The hardware is yours either way.