Clients find you. More referrals. Records in on time.

Asked to recommend a local business in two Blue Mountains towns, an AI assistant named none at all.2 Type “accountants near me” and Google suggests “for small business” and “for tax return” next.3

More than 5,500 tax and BAS agent registrations carry an address across the thirteen councils.4 BAS agents are 41% of registrations in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury, against 13% in Parramatta and The Hills.4

A new client must be on your list by 31 October: “you can’t notify us on the next business day.”6 Client information in an AI tool can be a disclosure, and the Board says permission “may be by way of a signed letter of engagement.”7

Your practice software may already nudge for a missing document: Karbon says so, read 22 September 2026.8 Xero Practice Manager drafts no AI permission clause, and no bot we set up gives tax advice.

1. Verified. Google’s AI features documentation, 10 December 2025: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” The four things that get a page quoted are a controlled study of 252,000 trials, arXiv:2605.25517; our Get Found page carries it in full.
2. Measured by us. Two questions put to an AI assistant on 25 August 2026 for a Blue Mountains business: asked for the best agents in the Lower Blue Mountains it named two franchise brands and no local firm; asked who to use to sell a house in Glenbrook or Blaxland it named no local business at all. One day and two questions is a shape, not a benchmark, and the reason we re-run the questions monthly for every client.
3. Measured, and localised to one machine. Google’s public autocomplete endpoint with the Australian parameter, 13 September 2026, raw responses saved. “accountants near me” returns “accountants near me for small business” and “accountants near me for tax return”; “ai for accountants” and “ai for bookkeepers” each return an “australia” completion. The machine is in the Blue Mountains, so this is evidence of phrasing, not of volume.
4. Measured. Tax Practitioners Board, TPB Public Register, data.gov.au, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, the export of 13 September 2026, downloaded and counted 15 September 2026. Registered rows with a business address, placed in a council by suburb using ABS mesh-block files: 4,658 tax agent and 909 BAS agent registrations across the thirteen councils, 5,567 in all, closer to firms about 1,742 organisation registrations. A row is a registration, not a practice, and 3,701 registered rows nationally carry no address, so the count is a floor. BAS agents are 41% of registrations in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury together and 13% in Parramatta and The Hills.
5. Verified. Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024, F2024L00849, Compilation No. 3, read 15 September 2026. Section 100(1)(a): for a registered tax or BAS agent with 100 employees or fewer as at 31 July 2024, the obligations apply from 1 July 2025, including a documented system of quality management (s 40) and client disclosures given “in writing ... in a prominent, clear and unambiguous way” (s 45), with the Determination’s own example being publishing it on the website used to promote the services.
6. Verified. ATO, Ensure clients are covered by your lodgment program, last updated 1 July 2026, read 15 September 2026: “To ensure new clients are covered by your lodgment program for 2026-27, you must notify us of your authority to act by: 31 October 2026 for income tax … You can’t notify us on the next business day.”
7. Verified. Tax Practitioners Board, TPB(GS) 55/2026 The use of Artificial Intelligence and the Code of Professional Conduct, issued 22 July 2026, read 15 September 2026: it treats client information entered into an AI tool as a possible disclosure under Code item 6, and says “the client permission may be by way of a signed letter of engagement, signed consent, or other communication.” It names “chatbot functionality, including ability to provide tailored advice in response to specific input” as AI inside the Code, which is why no bot we set up gives tax advice. Tax Agent Services Act 2009, Compilation No. 26, s 50-10: advertising a BAS service while not a registered tax or BAS agent carries a civil penalty of 50 penalty units for an individual and 250 for a body corporate.
8. Verified. Karbon (karbonhq.com/feature/client-portal/ and /solution/workflow-automation/), read 22 September 2026: “Let Karbon do the chasing for you by automating client requests and reminders” and “Stop chasing clients for missing information. Karbon sends task reminders for you.” Its Engagements feature (karbonhq.com/feature/engagements/) is “a custom proposal builder” the practice fills in, not a letter drafted from a client’s own notes. Xero Practice Manager (xero.com/au/xero-practice-manager/), read the same day: job tracking, time-to-invoice and document e-signing; no automated client-chasing feature and no engagement-letter drafting found on its own page. Neither vendor’s own pages ship a missed-call auto-reply.