Filing season, without the inbox

Between July and October your inbox stops being usable. Most of what arrives is a pricing question with a one-line answer; a few are disputes worth real fees. 247clerk separates them at the moment they land.

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Your practice

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Tuesday

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Evening. SARS has raised an additional assessment on my 2023 return, they want R840 000. Can you help?20:38

Yes, disputes are our area. I can't give an opinion on the assessment myself, but let me get the details to the right person. What's the date on the assessment notice?20:38

It's dated 29 July20:41

Thank you — that puts you inside the window to object, but not by much, so it's worth moving this week. Is this in your personal capacity or through a company or trust?20:41

Personal. It's about rental income they say I didn't declare20:43

Understood. Ms Reddy handles SARS disputes and has Wednesday 10:00 or Thursday 15:30. The consultation is R1 200, credited against the dispute fee if we take it on.20:43

Wednesday20:45

Booked: Wed 10:00 with Ms Reddy. Please upload the assessment, your 2023 return and the rental statements beforehand — I'll send the link with the confirmation.20:45

Screened · booked

What it costs you now

Ninety per cent of the traffic is one question

"How much for a personal return?" repeated several hundred times a season, each one interrupting work you are billing for.

The letter that matters looks like the rest

An additional assessment with R800 000 in dispute and a routine auto-assessment query arrive in the same inbox, in the same tone, at the same hour.

Objection deadlines run quietly

By the time a panicked client forwards the letter they have been sitting on it for a fortnight, and nobody asked for the date.

What your clerk establishes before you read a word

Assessment or letter date — so the objection window is known before anyone opens the file.
Amount in dispute — the number that decides whether this is a consultation or an email reply.
Taxpayer type — individual, company, trust or estate — each is a different engagement and a different fee.
Which tax and which year — income tax, VAT, PAYE, provisional — and whether more than one period is affected.
Whether SARS has already been engaged — a client who has replied to SARS themselves has usually made your job harder, and you want to know now.
Routine work, priced and filed — standard returns get the standard answer and a booking, without reaching you at all.

Questions

Can it quote for a standard return?

Yes. You set the price list — individual returns, provisional, company, trust — and the clerk quotes it, answers what documents are needed, and books the work. It is the highest-volume and least valuable part of your inbox, and it is the part that disappears first.

Will it give tax advice?

No. It answers process, fee, document and deadline questions and establishes the facts of a dispute. Anything requiring an opinion on the assessment or on a client's position goes to a registered practitioner, and the client is told so directly.

Does it handle filing season volume?

That is the case it is built for. Volume is where an automated clerk has the clearest advantage over a person: the four hundredth pricing question of the season is answered exactly as well as the first, at 22:00, without anyone's patience being spent.