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Prototype a new client onboarding and tax organizer with Claude and Claude Code in a few hours, with no tech background

who Susan Wozena, CPA, head of tax at High Rock Accounting in Scottsdale, Arizona (eight people; client advisory, CFO and tax advisory services), in the Journal of Accountancy

The problem

High Rock holds an 'AI Happy Hour': the team spends the first 10 minutes on problems it would like to solve with automation and AI, such as time spent on repetitive tasks, roadblocks in workflow, or money spent on a program the team could build itself.

What happened

A working prototype in a few hours. The article doesn't say whether clients use it yet, so this is a prototype, not a measured result. CEO Liz Mason says anyone who has what it takes to be an accountant can create their own tech tools. Press report.

Quoted in the source: Liz Mason, CEO and founder, High Rock Accounting. Source: Journal of Accountancy: Real-life ways small firms use AI (2026-08-01) · Added 2026-10-19.

How to set it up yourself

1. What High Rock does: the team meets for an 'AI Happy Hour' to pick problems worth solving, and its head of tax used Claude and Claude Code to prototype a new onboarding and tax organizer in a few hours.
2. Write down what your current organizer asks and which answers lead to which documents, then paste it into Claude with the prompt below to get a plan for the new version.
3. Build the prototype with Claude Code, or ask Claude for step-by-step instructions if you've never used it, using made-up test clients only.
4. Have a second person on the team try to break it, then decide what security and review steps it needs before any real client sees it.

Copy-paste prompt

I'm the head of tax at {FIRM NAME}. Our current client onboarding and tax organizer asks: {CURRENT QUESTIONS}. Clients usually need to send: {DOCUMENT LIST}. Help me design a better version: group the questions into short steps, skip questions that don't apply based on earlier answers, list the documents each answer requires, and write a step-by-step build plan I can follow in Claude Code. Use fake test data only. Mark anything that touches client data security as [SECURITY CHECK].

Tools used

Some tool links may be affiliate links. Disclosure

Checked prices: Claude: from $17/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) (verified 2026-10-18)

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