Knowledge base for tax advisory firms for when the question about a client’s collective agreement comes up yet again.
Client files, collective agreements, decrees and your own legal opinions in one place, every answer with its source. Your own instance for your firm on servers in Germany, the language model in an EU data centre, no training on your data. The demo uses sample documents; you find out whether the answers hold up for your files in the first weeks after go-live.
Everyday question
“Which collective agreement covers a trading business, and what does it say about overtime?”
The answer is in
Collective agreement · Internal memo
1 Source in one clickDay to day
Sound familiar?
Which collective agreement applies to this client, and what does it say about overtime?
We worked this one out two years ago. Only nobody remembers which file it’s in.
The trainee’s asking the same thing for the third time, because the answer isn’t written down anywhere you’d find it.
Early March: one of your clients is notified of a tax audit. The auditor wants to know how a provision in the 2021 financial statements came about. The colleague who looked after the file at the time left for another firm a year ago. The working papers contain a short memo, the reasoning is in an email to the client, and the professional opinion it relied on is in a printout someone filed – in which binder, nobody remembers. Three days before the audit, two people sit down together and piece together from emails, folders and memory what the firm had already worked out properly four years earlier. On the day of the audit the reasoning is on the table, printed out, with a handwritten note in the margin – and afterwards it goes back into the same binder, where once again nobody will find it next time.
Things people in this industry say every day.
Example questions
Questions from your day-to-day work
Three questions that come up day to day, and the document where you would expect to find the answer. In the demo you see this with sample documents; you test it with your own documents in the first weeks after go-live.
“Which collective agreement covers a trading business, and what does it say about overtime?”
1 Collective agreement · Internal memo
“How did we assess this matter last time?”
2 Internal memo
“Which deadlines fall due for this client next quarter?”
3 Deadlines from the documents
Documents
The documents that matter to you
- Client files and annual financial statements
- Collective agreements and decrees
- Internal memos and legal opinions
- Correspondence with authorities
- Specialist literature and information sheets
- External sources such as Findok (the Austrian Ministry of Finance’s tax database) in the Premium package
Integrations
Connecting your systems
Your system stays as it is. One-click systems connect via your account; for the others we check before we start whether and how a connection is possible – until then, you simply upload documents.
- BMDClient files and accounting documents from BMD – we check feasibility and the best route first.subject to a feasibility check
Microsoft 365SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Outlook – connected in one click through your Microsoft account.One click, included- File serverThe folders on your own server that have grown over the years.subject to a feasibility check
Pricing
What it costs
Premium package
Set-up fee €4,900 · excl. VAT
A flat fee per company, for firms with research needs. Everyone in your firm can use it – from reception to the partners – with no per-user licence. One-click connections are included in the set-up. Before we start, we check whether your industry-specific software can be connected; that connection is charged on a time-and-materials basis, agreed in advance.
At the kick-off we agree on twenty questions together – along with the documents each answer should come from. At sign-off we go through them together and look at what the system does with them. What follows from that is set out in the quotation.
Getting started
Where to start
Start with your internal memos and legal opinions. Only your firm has this material; it’s manageable and needs no export. In the first weeks after go-live, ask questions you know the answers to – how a matter was last assessed, which memo exists on it – and check whether the source is right and where something is missing. Client files and the BMD export follow in the second step. Before we start, we check whether and in what form BMD (the Austrian accounting and tax software) can be connected at your firm; access is read-only – nothing is changed or written back in BMD.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
A client is asking about documents from 2016. How far back is it worth going?
The retention period under § 132 BAO (the Austrian Federal Fiscal Code) is seven years from the end of the calendar year for which the entries were made – longer while the documents are relevant to pending proceedings, and up to 22 years for real estate under § 18(10) UStG (the Austrian VAT Act). What you actually still have is a separate question: if the year is in your collection, the answer quotes the passage with its source; if the system finds nothing, it tells you so. Nothing is cleared out automatically – the collection holds only what you put in, and the system doesn’t delete anything on its own.
Which version of a collective agreement does the system use?
The one you have – and the answer states which one, with date and source. Because most collective agreements are renegotiated every year, the collection often holds several versions side by side; which one applies to the payroll period is your decision. Whether the right one is cited as the source when there are several is an obvious thing to check in the first weeks after go-live. Updates come from you: the system doesn’t fetch a new version by itself unless web search has been enabled. When your documents don’t contain the answer, it tells you so.
Can the system also search Findok?
Research beyond your firm’s own documents is part of the Premium package; the price is on the pricing page. As for content, Findok contains the ministry’s guidelines, decrees and EAS (Express Answer Service) rulings, plus decisions of the Federal Finance Court from 2014 and, before that, of the UFS (Independent Finance Senate); case law of the Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) is in RIS, the Austrian legal information system. You decide how far the system may look outside: not at all, only after you agree in the chat, or without asking. The source shows whether a statement comes from your own collection or from outside.
Can we use it to answer a query from the tax office (Vorhalt)?
The system can put together a draft – as a Word file or as an email draft in your mailbox – based on the working papers, memos and correspondence for the client, with a source for every statement. You check it, sign it and send it; the system doesn’t log in to FinanzOnline, the tax authority’s online portal, and nothing goes from it to a tax office. You’ll see in the first weeks after go-live whether such a draft saves you work – try it on a closed query whose answer you know.
Guides
Further reading
- GuideAI knowledge base in your company: guides for trades, construction, law firms & moreWhat an AI knowledge base can do for your company depends on your industry. This guide covers document types, typical questions and pitfalls for each industry.
- Professional secrecy and AI: the technical questions behind the duty of confidentialityDuty of confidentiality and AI: why professional secrecy is stricter than the GDPR, where AI tools are sensitive and how law firms and practices can use AI permissibly.
- Can ChatGPT search my company documents?Can ChatGPT search company documents? This article explains why it cannot do so directly, what uploads can achieve and how RAG search solves the problem.
- AI knowledge base for tax advisory firms: a practical guideAI for tax advisers: how an AI knowledge base makes your firm’s standards, checklists and internal know-how easy to find – with data held in the EU.
Industries
Other industries
- Metalwork & fabrication
- Electrical contractors
- Plumbing & heating
- Law firms
- Property management
- Mechanical engineering & automation
- Security systems
- Garages & vehicle repair
- Insurance brokers
- Building contractors
- Timber construction & joinery
- Roofers & sheet-metal workers
- Landscape gardening
- Refrigeration & air conditioning
- Lifts & escalators
- Freight forwarding, transport & logistics
- Facility management & building services
- Architects & engineering consultancies
- Notaries
- Solar PV & energy systems
- Fire protection
- Plastics & injection moulding
- Food production
- Cable cars & ski lifts
- Commercial cleaning
- Property developers
- Estate agents
- Local authorities
- Building services engineers
Request a demo – with examples from Tax advisers
In a 30-minute video call, we use sample documents from your industry to show you how questions are answered and what the source for each answer looks like. You don’t need any of your own documents for this.