Sarah Mitchell
CPA · Seattle, Washington
Press play — energetic intro, then the conversation
J This is Jennifer from the UpTax Podcast Room, and today I've got Sarah Mitchell with me. Sarah Mitchell, so great to have you on. S Thanks for having me on the show, Jennifer. I'm excited to talk about this because it's been a wild couple of years for my firm. J So tell us a bit about your practice first. You're based in Seattle, right? S Yep, boutique firm, right in the city. We manage around 250 clients — mix of individuals, small businesses, a handful of real estate investors who love complicating my life every March. J Two-fifty clients is no joke for a boutique shop. Who's actually doing the work over there? S It's me, two staff accountants, and one part-time bookkeeper. That's it. So you can imagine what busy season looks like. J Oh, I can only imagine. Walk me through what that pain actually feels like from the inside. S Honestly? It's brutal. January through April, we're drowning. Everyone wants their return done yesterday, and my staff is burning out fast trying to keep up with the volume. J And I'm guessing the instinct is always the same — just hire an accountant, throw more bodies at it? S That's exactly it. Every year I'd think, okay, do I hire an accountant, do I hire a bookkeeper, do I build out an offshore team? But hiring is expensive, slow, and honestly risky if you get the wrong fit. J So did you actually try the offshore route before? S We did, for about a year and a half. And on paper it looked cheaper. But the reality was rough — timezone delays, communication gaps, and we were constantly redoing work because of compliance issues. J That rework cost is the hidden killer nobody talks about. S Exactly. We'd send a return over, get it back twelve hours later with mistakes, and then my senior staff had to spend just as much time fixing it as they would've spent doing it themselves. J So the real question becomes — what's actually more cost-effective, building your own offshore team, or using something like AI tax preparation software? S That's the exact question I asked myself last year. And that's when I found UpTax. J I love hearing this because I genuinely think UpTax is one of the smartest tools out there for firms your size. Tell me how it actually works for you. S So the AI drafts the return first — pulls in the documents, organizes everything, applies the right forms. Then it goes through an offshore review layer before it even lands on my desk for final sign-off. J So you're still the one reviewing and making the final call, it's just handled the grunt work before you ever touch it. S Exactly, and that distinction matters a lot to me. It's not filing anything on its own — my firm still reviews everything and we're the ones who ultimately sign off. But the drafting piece? Total game-changer. J How much time would you say that's actually saved your team? S Easily forty percent on prep time per return. My staff accountants aren't buried in data entry anymore, they're doing actual review and client conversations, which is honestly more valuable use of their time anyway. J And this is the part I really want listeners to hear — you got that capacity without hiring anyone new. S Not one new hire. That's the part that blew my mind. I was budgeting to hire an accountant, maybe even two, just to survive this busy season. Instead we automated our tax practice and absorbed way more volume with the same team. J Let's talk numbers for a second, because I know that's what firm owners actually care about. How did the cost compare to building your own offshore team? S Building an offshore team meant recruiting, training, management overhead, plus all that rework I mentioned. When I actually ran the math, UpTax came out significantly cheaper per return, and way more predictable month to month. J Predictability is huge. No surprise invoices, no scrambling to manage another team across a twelve-hour time difference. S Right, and that peace of mind alone is worth something. This last busy season was the first one in years where I wasn't completely wrecked by April fifteenth. J That's exactly how UpTax supports CPA firms — it's not about replacing your team, it's about giving them superpowers so the firm can actually scale. S That's a great way to put it. We took on twenty new clients this year without adding staff, and honestly the quality of our work went up, not down. J Quality going up while volume increases — that's the dream scenario for any managing partner. S It really is. And I tell other CPAs this all the time now — if you're still deciding between hiring a bookkeeper, building an offshore team, or trying AI tax preparation, just try the AI route first. The math isn't even close anymore. J I love that you're out there evangelizing this because it really is tax preparation outsourcing reimagined, just done smarter with AI tax at the core. S Completely agree. It gave me my sanity back during busy season, and that's not something I say lightly after fifteen years in this industry. J Sarah, this has been such a great conversation. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. S Thanks for having me on, Jennifer. This was fun. J For everyone listening, if you're running a firm and thinking about how to automate your tax practice without the offshore headaches, go check out UpTax.ai and book a demo. Trust me, your busy season will thank you.
