During tax season, your posted return status gives Penny’s answering service for accountants the answer callers need.

Outlook or Google Calendar, because that is where the partners’ meetings live and where Penny writes the intake meeting during the call. QuickBooks, so a new client’s record exists before the first meeting. HubSpot or Calendly if the firm runs prospects through either. Zapier and signed webhooks cover the practice management system the firm already uses, so the status board and the appointment can land there too. Text confirmations to the caller sit on Pro.

Penny starts at $29 a month on Starter with annual billing, and Pro at $99 adds the status board, text confirmations, and the on-call transfer rules for deadline week. The answering service cost guide compares plans, included minutes, and usage charges. Usage above your included minutes is billed at your plan’s per-minute rate.

You set a status per return from the dashboard or by text: received, in preparation, with the reviewer, ready to sign, e-filed, or accepted, plus a line about anything waiting on the client. Penny completes your client-verification check before reading the status for the named return and tax year. A failed check becomes a message without confirming a return exists. If a return has no status posted, she says the office will call with an update, takes the message, and flags it for the preparer. She does not fill the gap with a guess.

No. Penny reads the status line and nothing from the file: no income figure, no refund amount, no balance due, no Social Security number read back for confirmation. If a caller asks for a number, she says the preparer will go over the return with them at signing and offers to book that call. Figures stay with the CPA, which is what your engagement letter and your confidentiality obligations require.

She can tell them whether the return has been e-filed and accepted, if you have posted that status. For the refund itself she says the firm cannot see IRS processing and points the caller to the IRS Where’s My Refund tool with the three things it asks for: Social Security number, filing status, and the refund amount shown on their own copy of the return. She does not read that amount to them.

She takes the intake the partner wants: what they need, how the business is set up, who prepared last year, whether the books are in QuickBooks, and whether anything with a date on it has arrived. Then she books the meeting in the first intake week you have opened, which for most firms is early May, and she says so plainly rather than promising a return by the 15th. A caller with a notice or a lender deadline gets flagged for the partner the same day. A prospect holding a date on the calendar stays a prospect longer than one sent to voicemail.

Yes. A K-1 comes from a partnership, an S corporation, an estate, or a trust and often arrives after the client has dropped off everything else. A 1099 reports income from a payer; delivery deadlines depend on the form. When a caller says a form showed up late, she names it on the message, notes that a late K-1 may affect the filing plan, and leaves the extension decision and any estimate of what is owed to the preparer.

Neither. The 8879 has to be signed by the taxpayer, so she tells the caller where to sign, in the portal or at the office, and flags the caller’s signature question in a message for the preparer. She never takes card numbers or bank details. A caller who wants to pay an invoice is sent the portal link by text or booked for a call with the office.

Only a figure you have given her. Some firms post a starting price for a basic individual return and let her state it. Most do not, and she says the fee depends on the return and comes from the partner at the intake meeting. She never estimates a fee from what the caller describes and never discounts one.

She captures the notice number if the caller has it, the tax year, and any response date the caller reports. She sends those details to the preparer or partner under your deadline-contact rules. Penny does not interpret the notice, decide whether the date applies, or tell the caller whether to pay. The preparer has the information needed to follow up.