Accountants
Voicemail, mobile, human service or AI: what suits an Australian accounting practice
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Picture a small practice in the last fortnight of October. It's 7.40 on a Thursday night. You've got a trust return open on one screen and the lodgment list on the other, and the front desk phone has been ringing on and off since six. You let it ring. Stop now and you'll lose the thread on this return, and there's a stack behind it.
Next morning the voicemail light is on. One message is a client asking if you got her documents. One is a hang-up after the beep. The last is a new business owner who says he's ringing round a few accountants and would like a call back. You ring him at nine. He's already booked with someone else.
That's a made-up scene. But if you run a small practice, you've probably lived some version of it. Here are the four ways practices usually handle the phone, and which might suit you.
A quick disclosure first. We make an AI receptionist called Mia, so we're not neutral. To keep it fair, we haven't named or priced any other provider, we've listed the downsides of every option (ours too), and every fact about Mia comes from our own live pages. Spot something wrong? Email hello@ripperreceptionist.com and we'll fix it.
So what's the best answering service for accountants? It depends mostly on how busy your phone gets at tax time and whether clients ring after hours. If calls are light and clients happily leave messages, voicemail or your own mobile will do. If your callers expect a person and you can carry a bigger bill in October, a human answering service makes sense, and if you want every call picked up day and night without paying per person, an AI receptionist is worth a look.
Voicemail
It's where most practices start. It costs nothing extra and it never says the wrong thing to a client.
Day to day, it works until it doesn't. In a quiet month you clear the messages over a coffee. In October the light just stays on. Plenty of callers won't leave a message, and a new client ringing round has no reason to wait for you.
It suits a sole practitioner with a small, loyal book who mostly deals by email. The downside is the callers you never hear about. If you stick with it, ask your phone provider how long messages are kept and whether they can go to email so someone else can sort them.
The principal's or partner's mobile
The next step up is forwarding the office line to your own mobile. Clients like it. They get you.
What it costs is your attention. You'll take calls in client meetings and at the school gate. Each one pulls you out of a return. There's a confidentiality side too: a client's affairs on speaker in the car isn't ideal.
It suits a new practice building its book, where every call matters and volumes are low. It tends to break the first busy season you have. The questions here are for you. Who answers when you're on leave or sick? And can you honestly pick up in the last two weeks of October?
A human answering service
A human answering service puts a trained receptionist on your line. They answer in your practice's name, take a message or book an appointment, and pass it on.
The big plus is the human voice. Someone upset about a tax debt often wants a person, and a good receptionist can calm them down and work out what's urgent.
The cost is usually a monthly fee plus a charge per call or per minute, with extras for things like after-hours cover. Fine in a quiet month. In October it can climb fast, because you pay for every "did you get my documents?" call. And the receptionist answers for lots of businesses, so they only know your practice as well as your script.
It suits practices whose clients expect a person and whose budget can take a busy month. Ask a provider: Who answers, and where are they based? Are they bound by a confidentiality agreement? What do they do if a caller starts reading out a TFN? Which calendars can they book into? What does a call over our plan cost?
An AI receptionist
An AI receptionist is software that answers your phone in a natural voice. It can usually take several calls at once, at any hour, and send you a summary of each. Some can book appointments or put urgent callers through.
The change is that nothing goes to voicemail. You read a short note on each call and decide who to ring first. A run of calls in late October doesn't fluster it. The cost is usually a monthly subscription plus a charge per minute or per call, or a set number of calls included. Ask how a busy month is billed.
The downsides are real. Some callers hang up on AI. It must never give tax advice, so it can only take the question and pass it on. It can mishear a bad line. And it's a newer kind of service, so many providers, us included, don't have a long track record yet.
It suits practices with after-hours calls or big tax-time spikes. Ask a provider: Where are recordings and transcripts stored, and for how long? What happens when a caller starts reading out a TFN? Does it ever answer tax questions? Can it book into the calendar we already use?
Side by side
| Voicemail | Your mobile | Human answering service | AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Usually part of your phone plan | Your phone plan, plus your time | Usually a monthly fee plus a charge per call or per minute | Usually a monthly subscription plus a charge per minute or per call, or a set number of calls included |
| After-hours coverage | Takes messages, nobody answers | Only if you pick up | Often available, sometimes as an extra | Often around the clock; check |
| Handles tax-time spikes | Messages pile up | One call at a time, and you're the bottleneck | Yes, but the bill grows with each call | Usually takes several calls at once; usage charges grow with volume |
| Confidentiality and TFN questions to ask | Who can get into the mailbox? | Where are you when you take the call? | Is there a confidentiality agreement? What's the TFN script? Who hears recordings? | Where are recordings and transcripts kept? What happens if a caller reads out a TFN? |
| Booking into your diary | No | Yes, by you | Often, into your calendar; ask which ones | Some can; ask if it's your calendar or theirs |
| Setup effort | None | Call forwarding | Call forwarding, a briefing and a script | Call forwarding and your practice details |
How to choose
Start with confidentiality, because that's what can get you in trouble. Code item 3 of the Tax Practitioners Board's Code of Professional Conduct says that unless you have a legal duty to, you must not disclose information about a client's affairs to a third party without the client's permission. Whoever answers your phone hears those affairs for you, so get confidentiality terms in writing and ask who can listen to recordings.
Then think about TFNs. The OAIC's guidance on the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015 says TFN recipients must take reasonable steps to safeguard TFN information from loss and unauthorised access, and limit access to the staff who need it. The simplest safeguard is not collecting the number on a call at all. A vague answer to the TFN question tells you plenty.
Next, look at your own October. The ATO's registered agent lodgment program lists 31 October 2026 as the final date to add new clients to your client list so their 2026 tax return is covered by the program. That's when the phone runs hot. Count your calls that month if you can, because per-call pricing that looks cheap in March can look very different then.
My take? Don't sign anything that charges more for being busy until you've seen what a busy month costs. And whatever you pick, ring it yourself at 9pm and hear what your clients hear.
Where Mia fits (and where it doesn't)
Mia is our AI receptionist, with a version built for accounting practices. She answers your phone 24/7 in your practice's name, opens each call with a recording disclosure, and every call lands with a transcript and an AI summary. If a caller starts reading out a TFN, she stops them before it lands in any note. She won't answer "is it deductible?" on the phone. She can transfer urgent callers to your mobile. You keep your number and forward it to our line; setup takes about five minutes.
Starter is $19.99/mo + GST. It answers calls, finds out what the caller wants and takes their details, up to 100 conversations a month. Pro is $49.99/mo + GST, with no monthly conversation limit, and adds bookings: on Pro, Mia checks your RipperReceptionist calendar and confirms the booking, so a deduction question becomes a booked consultation. Voice is pay as you go at $0.50/min, and like every price on our pricing page it's plus GST. No setup fee. No lock-in.
Now the limits. Every plan has a 14-day refund, and you only pay for the minutes you use. Bookings are Pro only and go into our built-in calendar, not one you already use. For Xero, invoices and contacts export in Xero's import format today; native sync is coming soon, not live. And we're a new service with no public reviews yet. If a track record matters most, that's a fair reason to wait.
The quickest test is to hear her. Ring Mia on the demo line on +61 2 4072 7246. Then see how Mia works for accountants, or sign up for your practice. Worried mainly about nights? Read after-hours answering for tax agents.
Questions accountants ask
Is an AI receptionist better than a human answering service for accountants?
Neither wins for everyone. A human service suits callers who want a person. An AI receptionist suits after-hours calls and tax-time spikes, where per-call costs add up.
How is an answering service for accountants usually priced?
Usually a monthly fee plus a charge per call or per minute. AI receptionists tend to charge a subscription plus usage, or include a set number of calls. Always ask what a busy month costs.
What is a virtual receptionist for accountants?
Someone, or something, that answers your practice's calls remotely in your name: a person at an answering service, or AI software.
Should an answering service take TFNs over the phone?
Better if it doesn't. TFN recipients must take reasonable steps to safeguard TFN information, and not collecting it on a call is the simple option.
Can an answering service book appointments into my diary?
Many can. Ask whether it's the calendar you already use or their own. Mia books into its built-in RipperReceptionist calendar, on Pro only.