Processing Content
The agents pull client data directly from a firm’s accounting software, tax systems, email and document management systems, generates the PBC request list, and organizes incoming documents into a categorized binder. From there, it learns how the firm treated each client last year — across items such as book-to-tax adjustments (M-1 and M-3), depreciation and state apportionment — and carries that treatment forward, applying current-year tax logic and surfacing anything that looks like an exception. It then builds the workpapers, comparing prior-year workpapers against current-year source data to flag exactly what’s changed, and produces new custom Excel workbooks. The last step is review and export: The preparer evaluates the flagged exceptions, and the approved output moves into the firm’s tax software with a full audit trail.
“Accountants don’t have a demand problem, they have a capacity problem,” said Blaze O’Byrne, co-founder of Byron. “That’s been true for years, but what’s changed is the technology. Until recently, most automation for CPAs focused on 1040 returns because business tax workflows were too complex to automate reliably. Firms are dealing with unstructured documents, inconsistent client data, changing tax rules and review-heavy processes that legacy software couldn’t manage effectively. Advances in large language models over the last six months have changed that, and it’s now possible to automate most of the business tax process while still allowing accountants to work directly in Excel.”
The mechanical work is automated; the judgment stays with the CPA. Humans still need to prompt the software to start any process, such as a tax return. The goal is to give accountants tools that supercharge their work, not to have agents completing tasks the CPA hasn’t asked for or agreed to. The CPA kicks off every engagement, and the agents only take action on the tasks the CPA defines. The goal, to Byron, is to keep CPAs in the loop for every important decision.
“Our goal is to keep CPAs in the loop for every important decision,” said O’Byrne in a later email. “We believe human judgment is required to complete a tax return, and that our agents are most valuable when they take on the repetitive, highly manual work that consumes the vast majority of a preparer’s time. The agents are designed to surface critical decision points for CPA input and to leave the final judgment — and accountability for the return — with the licensed professional.”
As engagements evolve, teams can continue working in Excel while Byron keeps outputs synchronized and moves approved data into existing tax software workflows.
Byron supports the 1065, 1120 and 1120-S business tax returns. The system can also process complex documents such as K-1s, delivering more than 97% accuracy across federal, state, K-3 and footnote extractions. It is also SOC 2 Type II compliant (audit provided by Insight Assurance), with encryption in transit and at rest, U.S.-based data hosting and role-based access controls. Customer data is not used to train underlying models, every output links back to its source, and every workflow is logged for auditability and review.
Byron both partners with and natively integrates with Canopy and Truss today. It also integrates with many other accounting-specific platforms — including QuickBooks, NetSuite, Bizora (tax research), Stripe, Ramp and Anchor — as well as many of the leading tax engines. Beyond accounting, it connects to the general business tools firms already use, such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel, OneDrive/SharePoint, Box and Google Drive.
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