DArnTech / Bookings / for tax preparers
Booking for the indie tax preparer who doesn't need TaxDome's full practice-management suite.
$39/month for solo preparers, $69 for preparer + assistant. Document-collection workflow, e-signature engagement letter, tax-deadline reminders, year-round-vs-season-only client tagging. Booking layer only — keep Drake or your existing tax-prep engine, this isn't that.
Who this is for
- Solo Enrolled Agents (EAs) doing 50–200 returns/season + quarterly-estimated check-ins
- Indie CPAs running solo or with one assistant, currently on TaxDome ($60-110/mo)
- Year-round bookkeepers who also do tax-season returns for a subset of clients (overlap with Bookkeepers vertical)
Honest scope: this is the BOOKING + intake + engagement-letter layer only. You keep Drake or ProSeries or whatever you actually prepare returns in. We're not building tax-prep software.
Features built for tax-prep work
Document-collection workflow
Intake form requests W-2, 1099, prior-year return, K-1s, etc. Secure-link upload. Customer sees checklist of what's missing.
E-signature engagement letter
Engagement letter signed at intake before work begins. Per-service-tier templates (personal · business · multi-state · etc.).
Tier menus
Personal return $250-450, business return $500-1200, hourly consult $150. Tier picklist at intake, deposit/retainer scales.
Tax-deadline reminders
Apr 15 individual · quarterly estimated · 6-month extension · S-corp Mar 15 · partnership Mar 15. Auto-fired client reminders.
Year-round vs season-only tagging
Full-service clients (year-round bookkeeping + tax) vs return-only clients (annual touchpoint). Different cadences, surfaced in the dashboard.
Seasonal billing pause
May-Sep is your slow window — pause monthly billing for those months if you want, OR keep flat. Configurable.
Honest comparison
| Tool | Monthly | Honest take |
|---|---|---|
| DArnTech Bookings | $39 (solo) · $69 (with assistant) | Booking + intake + engagement layer only. Keep your tax-prep engine. |
| TaxDome | $60–110 | Dominant practice-management tool. Workflow + portal + e-sign + invoicing. More feature-loaded than us. |
| Drake Software | ~$1,800–2,400/yr | Tax-prep engine, not a booking tool. Different category. |
| Karbon / Jetpack Workflow | $30–89/user | Accounting-practice-management. Heavier than indie-CPA needs. |
| Calendly + Google Forms + DocuSign | ~$15-40 combined | DIY stack. Works for very small practice. No integration between pieces. |
This vertical is queued · seasonal launch window matters
Tax preparers are Vertical 11 in the DArnTech Bookings roadmap. Off-season seeding (May-Sep) is the right launch window — tax season (Jan-Apr) is too intense for preparers to switch tools mid-stream. Estimated launch ~Q3 2026. Email d.arney@darrenarney.com if interested.