# How to plan your firm's automation, then buy for it

Source: https://accountingworkflowautomation.pages.dev/buyers-guide/

> Firmary publishes this site and makes Firmary, one of the products below. It's labeled "Ours" wherever it appears.

This guide starts from the steps your firm repeats and ends with the plan you'd need to automate them. Prices are list prices as of 10 Nov 2026. Example firms and numbers are invented and labeled as examples.

## Count your repeat steps for two weeks

Ask everyone to keep a tally, for two ordinary weeks, of the steps they do by hand that follow a fixed pattern: reminder emails to clients, "this is ready for you" messages to a colleague, new jobs set up from last month's, invoices sent, payments chased.

Say a 4-person bookkeeping firm closes 80 clients a month and sends an average of 2 reminders per close (made-up figures). That's 160 reminder emails a month from one step alone, before any handoffs. The tally gives you the list to automate and the yardstick for whether the tool helped.

## Decide which steps to automate first

Score each step on three things:

1. **How often it runs.** Weekly steps repay setup time; a once-a-year step rarely does.
2. **What a mistake costs.** A reminder sent a day early is harmless. A wrong invoice or a missed extension isn't.
3. **Whether you can see each run.** Prefer tools that show what every rule did. Firmary, for example, records each run for review.[^1]

Our order for most small firms, reasoned from those three: client chasing, then handoffs between staff, then recurring job creation, then intake, then billing. AI assistants fit wherever staff already use them, with a person confirming changes.

## What to check in a tool's automation

- **Triggers.** Which events can start a rule: a date, a status change, a client upload, a form, a signed engagement, an unpaid invoice. Canopy, for example, can trigger on a client marking a request complete.[^2]
- **Actions.** What a rule can do: remind, assign, move, create, invoice. TaxDome's pipelines move jobs, send reminders and assign tasks.[^3]
- **Client channel.** Email, text or a portal notification. TaxDome and Financial Cents both send texts as well as email.[^4][^5]
- **Whose permissions an AI uses.** Firmary's Claude connection acts as the staff member, within their permissions.[^6] TaxDome's MCP uses per-area read or read-write permissions.[^7]
- **Approval.** Whether AI changes wait for a person. Karbon says every action by Kai, its AI coworker in limited early access, waits for approval;[^8] Financial Cents lets each AI agent act automatically or wait.[^9]
- **The plan.** Which tier the rule is on. This is where list prices mislead, as the next section shows.

## What the automation costs a 5-person firm with 400 active clients

Say a 5-person firm with 400 active clients wants three things: automatic client reminders, rules that create or assign tasks, and a way to connect the staff's own AI assistant (made-up firm). At list price, as of 10 Nov 2026, on the plan that covers the most of that:

| Tool and plan | What it covers of the three | Annual cost at list price |
|---|---|---|
| Canopy Standard, $74 per user per month annually[^10] | Task rules; reminders listed without a plan named; no MCP listed[^11][^12][^13] | 5 users for 12 months: $4,440 |
| Financial Cents Scale, $69 per user per month annually[^14] | All three[^15][^16][^17] | 5 users for 12 months: $4,140 |
| Firmary (ours) | Task rules and Claude; reminders not among published features[^1][^6][^18] | Not published[^19] |
| Jetpack Workflow Starter, $40 per user per month annually[^20] | Recurring task automation only[^21] | 5 users for 12 months: $2,400 |
| Karbon Business, $89 per user per month annually[^22] | Reminders and task automation; MCP announced, not confirmed[^23][^24] | 5 users for 12 months: $5,340 |
| TaxDome plan plus AI add-on[^25] | All three, with the MCP server rolling out[^4][^26][^27][^7] | $4,125 (TaxDome's example for 400 active clients)[^28] + $2,400 = $6,525 |
| Uku Elite, $48 per member per month annually[^29] | Reminders, automations and MCP[^30][^31][^32] | 5 members for 12 months: $2,880 |

Two patterns follow from the published prices. With per-user tools, the automation tier multiplies by headcount: Karbon's step from Team to Business adds $30 per user per month, or $1,800 a year for this firm.[^22] TaxDome's AI add-on is a flat $200 a month for the whole team, so it weighs less as the team grows, while its plan price follows active clients.[^33][^34]

Card and ACH processing fees, AI credits and setup services are extra, and none of them are in the table.

## Switching tools means rebuilding your rules

In a trial or demo account, set yourself up as a test client and run each rule end to end:

1. Create a request to the test client and let the reminder fire.
2. Read the reminder as the client would, on a phone.
3. Answer it and check that the next task appeared with the right person and due date.
4. Open the record of what the rule did. Ask where that record lives if you can't find it.
5. Switch the rule off and confirm nothing else fires.

Then turn it on for 5 friendly clients for a month before everyone.

## Switching tools: rules don't travel

Automation rules are written in each vendor's own terms, so expect to rebuild them by hand when you move. Budget for it. TaxDome sells custom automation setup for $399 and workflow optimization at $749 for three sessions.[^35] Uku's paid onboarding packages are $700 for teams up to 4 and $2,000 for up to 15 members.[^36] Jetpack Workflow's one-time setup and training package is $1,500.[^37]

Before you leave a tool, export what the rules did, not only the data they touched. In Firmary, staff with permission export the audit log as CSV, and an owner can export the whole firm.[^38] Karbon's pricing page marks export as Standard on Team and Business.[^39] Uku's client export goes to Excel with every field.[^40] For the other tools, ask in the demo whether rule definitions and run history can be exported at all.

## Questions to ask in a demo

1. Show a client reminder firing on a test request. Which plan is that on?
2. Which events can start a rule, and which actions can a rule take?
3. When a client marks a request done, can the next task create itself and go to the right person?
4. Where do I see every time a rule ran, and what it did?
5. Can reminders go by text as well as email, and can a client stop them?
6. Can an invoice be created automatically when an engagement is signed, and who checks the amount?
7. Which AI assistants can connect today, and is that on the plan you're quoting or an add-on?
8. When an assistant changes a record, whose permissions does it use, and does a person confirm the change?
9. Can an administrator turn AI access off for the whole firm?
10. If we leave, can we export our rules and their run history?

## A checklist to print

- [ ] Tally hand-done repeat steps for two weeks
- [ ] Score each step: how often, cost of a mistake, can you see the run
- [ ] Pick the first 3 steps to automate
- [ ] Find the plan each of those steps needs
- [ ] Price that plan at your headcount or active-client count
- [ ] Add any AI add-on or credits
- [ ] Test each rule on a test client first
- [ ] Read every reminder as the client would
- [ ] Confirm where run history is kept
- [ ] Decide who approves AI changes
- [ ] Roll out to 5 clients for a month
- [ ] Ask whether rules and run history export

[^1]: Firmary, "Choose a trigger, define the actions, and assign responsibility. Review each run to see what happened." https://firmary.app/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^2]: Canopy, "Use automations to trigger task creation or status changes once a client marks a request as complete." https://www.getcanopy.com/workflow (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^3]: TaxDome, "TaxDome lets you create custom pipelines for different services like bookkeeping or tax preparation, automatically moves jobs through stages, sends reminders, and assigns tasks without manual work." https://taxdome.com/workflow (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^4]: TaxDome, "Yes, with TaxDome you can send automated emails, texts, and portal notifications when documents are due, payments are late, or approvals are needed." https://taxdome.com/workflow (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^5]: Financial Cents, "Financial Cents will send automated text and email reminders until your client completes the request." https://financial-cents.com/client-tasks/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^6]: Firmary, "In Claude, open Customize → Connectors and choose Add custom connector (Firmary isn’t in Claude’s directory yet) ... Claude only ever acts as you. ... Claude asks you to confirm before it runs, unless you’ve set that tool to always allow. ... Every change made through Claude is recorded in your firm’s audit log." https://firmary.app/claude/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^7]: TaxDome, "The public API and MCP server are rolling out to all TaxDome firms over the coming weeks." https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2026/10/28/taxdome-releases-public-api-and-mcp-server-for-ai-agents-and-developers/192686/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^8]: Karbon, "Kai is available to Karbon customers now in limited early access with the list of capabilities growing each week. You can join the waitlist" https://karbonhq.com/kai/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^9]: Financial Cents, "The agents are available on every Financial Cents plan, and your firm decides whether each one acts automatically or waits for approval." https://financial-cents.com/artificial-intelligence/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^10]: Canopy, "Standard $74 user/month ... Plus $109 user/month" https://www.getcanopy.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^11]: Canopy, "Automate task dates, notifications, status and assignee changes, and automate questionnaires and document checklists" https://www.getcanopy.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^12]: Canopy, "Automatically nudge clients to complete requests or upload documents." https://www.getcanopy.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^13]: Canopy, "Access Canopy’s API to sync data and build custom integrations tailored to your firm." https://www.getcanopy.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^14]: Financial Cents, "Solo ($19/mo annual) – Best for single-user firms. Team ($49/mo annual, $69/mo monthly) ... Scale ($69/mo annual, $89/mo monthly)" https://financial-cents.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^15]: Financial Cents, "Everything in Team Plan, plus Auto-follow ups for client tasks Customize client task emails Task dependencies Auto-send email updates Auto-create work" https://financial-cents.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^16]: Financial Cents, "Available on the Financial Cents Scale plan." https://financial-cents.com/mcp/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^17]: Financial Cents, "Financial Cents pricing is per user. ... Month-End close, our tool for managing uncategorized transactions, is an add-on for $5/month per client, billed annually." https://financial-cents.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^18]: Firmary, "PocketFirm, the client portal that carries the firm's branding (pocketfirm.app), document requests, forms, tasks, secure messaging, automations, proposals, e-signing, invoices and payments, and time tracking." https://firmary.app/llms.txt (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^19]: Firmary, "Pricing isn't published." https://firmary.app/llms.txt (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^20]: Jetpack Workflow, "**Starter** – $49 per user per month billed monthly, or $40 per user per month billed annually." https://jetpackworkflow.com/llms.txt (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^21]: Jetpack Workflow, "Unlimited templates & customizable automation" https://jetpackworkflow.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^22]: Karbon, "Team$59/month, per user, paid annually Or $79/month per user, paid monthly ... Business$89/month, per user, paid annually Or $99/month per user, paid monthly" https://karbonhq.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^23]: Karbon, "Includes everything in Team, plus: Automatic Client Reminders Task Automation Industry Integrations" https://karbonhq.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^24]: Karbon, "Public MCP server: Connects Karbon to external AI tools via an open standard" https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2026/06/03/karbon-introduces-ai-coworker-kai/184484/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^25]: TaxDome, "AI is $200 a month, Managed Client Care is $100 a month, and Premium support is $249 a month. The white-labeled client app and Extended API are priced on request." https://taxdome.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^26]: TaxDome, "Move jobs on triggers or conditions. ... Trigger actions from answers or approvals." https://taxdome.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^27]: TaxDome, "Yes, with the TaxDome AI add-on. The open Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector lets your AI tool read and act on TaxDome data directly." https://taxdome.com/taxdome-ai (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^28]: TaxDome, "Clients beyond 150 are priced in volume bands, from $15 each on their own down to $5 each in the largest band. ... 400 active clients: $4,125 per year ($0.86 per client a month)" https://taxdome.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^29]: Uku, "$ 38 /mo per member, billed annually or $49/mo billed monthly ... $ 48 /mo per member, billed annually or $62/mo billed monthly ... $ 88 /mo per member, billed annually or $99/mo billed monthly" https://getuku.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^30]: Uku, "Automatic notifications before deadlines and for overdue tasks." https://getuku.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^31]: Uku, "Automate recurring workflows to save time and reduce manual work." https://getuku.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^32]: Uku, "88 tools let Claude or ChatGPT run tasks, time, clients, invoicing and BI reports inside Uku, under the permissions of the person who signed in." https://getuku.com/mcp (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^33]: TaxDome, "Available for $200 per month." https://taxdome.com/add-ons (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^34]: TaxDome, "An active client is a client with any activity in the past 12 months, such as logging in, uploading documents, sending messages, or receiving an invoice. Contacts without activity cost nothing." https://taxdome.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^35]: TaxDome, "Get for $749, or included with a 12-month Account management package." https://taxdome.com/add-ons (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^36]: Uku, "The first 90 min of onboarding help is free for every new account" https://getuku.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^37]: Jetpack Workflow, "Onboarding Setup & Training Package ... $1,500 One time add-on" https://jetpackworkflow.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^38]: Firmary, "Staff with the matching permission can export clients, client contacts, tasks, time entries, aged receivables, and the audit log as CSV files, and download documents as a ZIP file. A firm owner can export the whole firm as a ZIP file of CSV files and documents." https://firmary.app/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^39]: Karbon, "Data Import Self-Service Assisted Fully Managed Data Export Standard Standard Custom" https://karbonhq.com/pricing/ (checked 10 Nov 2026)
[^40]: Uku, "Export clients with all fields to Excel; edit and re-import." https://getuku.com/pricing (checked 10 Nov 2026)