Part 1 The problemWhy teams need this
01 · THE PROBLEM
In January your best people spend their days opening, renaming and filing PDFs before any real accounting starts. Sorting on arrival turns that into a short review of exceptions, and gives the season's hours back to billable work.
Part 2 How it worksWhat it does, step by step
02 · WHAT IT DOES
Built for CPA firms handling thousands of client documents in tax season. It watches your shared client folder, recognises each document (W-2, 1099, K-1, receipts and more), pulls out the key figures, files it in the right client folder and updates your practice software. Anything it isn't sure about goes to an accountant.
03 · HOW IT RUNS
Step by step, as built.
Watch the client folder
Every new upload is downloaded and its text extracted.
Classify
A classifier sorts the document: W-2 / 1099, K-1, receipts and expenses, or other.
Extract by type
Each type has its own extraction schema for the figures that matter.
Check confidence
Only extractions above the confidence threshold are filed automatically.
File and update
Documents move to the client folder, the Karbon work item is updated and the tracking sheet logged. Low-confidence and unclassified files go to an accountant's queue.
04 · WHERE A PERSON STAYS IN
The machine drafts. A person decides.
Documents below the confidence threshold, and anything the classifier can't place, go to an accountant's review queue instead of being filed.
05 · TOOLS AND APPS
Built around the systems already in the process.
06 · WHEN SOMETHING BREAKS
Failure is designed in.
- 7nodes retry automatically when an external API fails.
- 1decision point (IF or Switch) checks the data before it moves on.
- ✓Anything unhandled triggers our central error workflow, so a crash gets reported instead of failing silently.
Standard on every build
- Schema validation before downstream writes
- Retry and error routes for external API failures
- Duplicate-safe processing and idempotent updates
- Human approval where the action carries business risk
- Execution logging for support and audit review
Part 3 The impactWhat it's worth, and how we'd build yours
07 · PROJECTED IMPACT
What it should change in the business.
Projections for a typical deployment. The calculation below shows the math, and you can put in your own numbers.
08 · ROI CALCULATION
How it pays back in your business.
The starting numbers are a hypothetical deployment sized to the projections above. Change any of them to your own volumes and costs, and the math updates underneath.
- Full-time equivalent freed
- 0.4 people
- Gross value
- $30,400
- Running cost
- −$480
- Return per $1 of running cost
- $63.3
The math: 2,000 client documents × 2 min × 12 months × 95% ÷ 60 = 760 hours a year × $40/hour = $30,400. Net value = gross value − $480 running cost a year.
09 · HOW WE'D BUILD YOURS
How we'd build yours.
- Discover: map the current process, systems, volumes, owners and exceptions.
- Design: define the canonical data model, approvals, retries and system boundaries.
- Build: implement credentials, nodes, validation and observable error routes.
- Prove: run controlled data through success, duplicate and failure scenarios.
- Operate: publish runbooks, ownership and measurable service levels.
