AI phone assistants for accountants and law firms

What a firm needs from its phone

Calls to an accounting or law practice fall into a few groups: new enquiries, existing clients chasing their matter, other parties (banks, other firms, the ATO or a court), and sales calls. A phone assistant should:

• Screen: work out who is calling and why.
• Take a full message and send it to the right person.
• Route urgent calls to a person who can act.
• Book first meetings, if you want it to.
• Stay out of advice. It should never tell a caller what their legal or tax position is.

Three options that fit firms

Smith.ai AI Receptionist

Smith.ai answers 24/7, qualifies and routes leads, records calls and writes summaries. Its scheduling works with "Calendly & more", and it connects to Clio and Zapier. Its stand-out feature for firms is transfer to "a live North America-based receptionist", so a caller who needs a human gets one. It bills per call: the Free plan includes 25 calls, then US$3 a call, and Pro starts at US$150 a month for 75 calls (US$2.00 a call after that). It asks for 30 days' notice to cancel. It's US-focused and doesn't say it serves Australia.

Upfirst

Upfirst books straight into Clio, as well as Google, Outlook, Acuity, Calendly and Square. It offers warm and waterfall transfers, two-way SMS, call summaries and more than 35 languages. It can answer every call, only overflow or only after hours, which suits a firm that wants its own receptionist to stay first. Billing is per call: Starter is US$24.95 a month for 30 calls, and calls under 15 seconds and spam aren't billed. Prices are in USD and support runs on US Eastern time.

Johnni

Johnni is Brisbane-based and lists accountants and law firms among the businesses it serves. It gives you a local Australian number, warm-transfers calls, and syncs its scheduler with Google Calendar or Outlook. HubSpot is among its job-software integrations, which are a paid add-on quoted per business. Solo is A$134 a month ex GST on annual billing for 200 minutes. Johnni doesn't name Clio or any practice management software, so ask.

Screening and message-taking

Most firms get the most value from good messages, not bookings. Write a message template for each call type and have the assistant fill it in. For a new enquiry, that might be:

• Full name, business name and best contact number
• Type of matter or service (tax return, BAS, family law, lease review)
• Any deadline the caller mentions
• How they heard about the firm

For existing clients, the assistant needs the client name and matter, and who usually handles it. Check how messages arrive: by email, SMS or in your practice software. Upfirst offers two-way SMS. Smith.ai's SMS branding is on Pro and above.

Urgent and conflict-sensitive calls

Decide in advance what gets put through straight away. Typical rules:

• Put through: a client with a deadline today, a court or tribunal, a client in custody or facing an urgent hearing, a regulator's call the partner is waiting on.
• Message only: new enquiries, general updates, sales calls.

Use transfer rules the product actually supports. Smith.ai, Upfirst and Johnni all offer some form of transfer. Waterfall transfers (trying one person, then the next) are listed by Upfirst and Rosie.

Conflicts: an assistant can collect the names of the parties involved, but it must not decide whether there's a conflict or say whether the firm can act. Have it say a staff member will confirm, and ask the caller not to share confidential details until then.

Per-call or per-minute for a firm?

Firm calls tend to be long. A per-call plan (Smith.ai, Upfirst) means a ten-minute new enquiry costs the same as a one-minute wrong number. A per-minute plan (Johnni) is easier to predict if most calls are short messages. Pull a month of your call log, count calls and total minutes, and price both. Then read the how to choose checklist on overages and notice periods.

Questions people ask