I'm Charlie Barmore, a CPA, CFE, and CVA who builds software. Using AI is the easy part now. The hard part is putting it to work on the problems your firm has today, and figuring out how to implement it so it sticks. That is what I help firm owners do.
41% of accounting firms now use AI. Only 14% have a defined strategy for it.
Wolters Kluwer 2025 Future Ready Accountant Report; Thomson Reuters 2025.
AI is not magic, and it is not one tool. The real gains show up first in the work that is repetitive, document heavy, and bound by deadlines. These are four places it already helps today, not someday. They are also the ones I rebuilt for my own returns.
Every engagement starts with the same grind: requesting documents, following up, following up again. Portals with smart reminders and completeness checks cut the back and forth, so the work starts sooner and busy season compresses less. The judgment of what you actually need from a given client stays with you.
Hand keying source documents into your software is the most cited time sink in a firm, and the least valuable use of a preparer. Document extraction reads W-2s, 1099s, bank statements, and receipts and populates the software for you. It is the most mature use of AI in a practice today, and it still needs a human on the messy scans and the complex K-1s, which is exactly where your time should go.
Before any analysis happens, someone spends hours assembling, indexing, and cross referencing the file. Agents can sort, bookmark, and tie out the source documents into a first pass, review ready set, so the preparer opens a workpaper that is already organized instead of a folder of PDFs. This is the part I rebuilt for my own returns: intake, file structure, document parsing, and a drafted workpaper, before I touch it. See what I built →
Bookkeeping scales linearly with clients and eats margin. AI categorization and reconciliation suggestions handle the repetitive pass and flag the anomalies, so your team reviews exceptions instead of every line. The exceptions and the judgment calls still get human eyes.
Every firm is at a different point, so I do not sell a boilerplate build. Most firms start with an assessment, then decide whether to build. Everything is scoped and priced in writing before it begins, and there is no pressure to move down the ladder.
A structured look at your workflows, your data, and your software to find where AI helps, where it does not, and what has to be true for it to be safe.
I build and deploy the specific tools your firm needs, designed around the software you already run and the foundation already in place.
Continuing support as your firm's needs change, from new tools to refinements to a standing line to someone who gets the work.
Every engagement is priced to your firm: where you are in your AI journey, your size, and the scope we agree on. Fees are fixed in writing before any work begins, so there are no surprises.
I had the same problems you do, so I built for them: a return-prep pipeline that onboards a client, reads the documents, and drafts the workpaper before I open it, and a workflow that takes a prospect from the discovery call to a signed engagement. Both keep the judgment, and the sign-off, with me.
Whether or not we ever work together, the groundwork is free. I wrote the four documents every firm should have in place before it puts AI anywhere near client data, and I give them away.
What tools are approved, what is never allowed near client data, and who reviews the output. The piece almost no firm has yet.
Free template →Your written information security program, structured to the FTC Safeguards Rule you are already subject to as a preparer.
Free template →Consumer chatbots that train on your inputs are not the same as tools with no-training terms and a business agreement. The difference is your clients' SSNs.
What you tell clients, including where IRC §7216 requires their consent before tax data reaches a third-party tool, and what you confirm about a vendor before you trust it.
Free templates →Take them, adapt them, use them. If you want help applying them and solving the bottlenecks underneath, that is the engagement. Get the templates →
You can grab a time on my calendar directly, or use the form to tell me a little about your firm and what is slowing it down. I follow up within one business day. The first conversation is free and there is no pressure to move forward.