For accounting firmsFixed price · 2 weeks · Your GitHub

AI agents for accounting firms, built around your workpapers.

Client intake, workpaper prep, engagement automation, tax QC. Shipped in 2 weeks, priced at a fixed fee, delivered to your GitHub. No generic SaaS template — just your firm's actual process, in code you own.

Built by Roy McFarland — one firm, one module, one pull request at a time.
Pick your Sprint

Four starting points. Pick the one that hurts the most.

Four proven Sprints for small-to-midsize accounting firms (2–20 CPAs and bookkeeping shops). Each is a $3k–$6k, 2-week engagement with one working module at the end — survive tax season, start scaling.

Sprint · 2 weeks$4k – $6k
Client doc intake → categorized workpapers

1099s, K-1s, bank statements, brokerage PDFs, and closing docs land in a single intake, get classified, and populate your workpaper structure. Preparers review; they don't rekey.

Preparers start with drafts, not stacks of PDFs.
Book a Bottleneck Audit
Sprint · 2 weeks$3k – $5k
Engagement letter + scoped proposal generator

A new prospect describes their situation. An agent drafts a scoped engagement letter and a fee proposal using your firm's rate card, scope templates, and past-similar engagements.

Proposals ship same-day, not same-week.
Book a Bottleneck Audit
Sprint · 2 weeks$4k – $6k
Tax-return QC / review checklist agent

An agent runs your firm's review checklist across a finished return, flags the exact lines that need partner eyes, and drafts the notes for the preparer's memo.

Senior review time drops 40–60%.
Book a Bottleneck Audit
Sprint · 2 weeks$3k – $5k
Client portal Q&A with human review queue

Client questions get auto-drafted replies grounded in their file and your firm's prior correspondence. Every reply routes through a partner queue — nothing sends without approval.

Inbox triage collapses; partners only see the drafts that matter.
Book a Bottleneck Audit
Proof

What a 2-week Sprint looks like here.

A 12-person CPA firm was rekeying client bank statements and 1099s into their workpaper structure. We shipped a firm-specific intake agent in 11 days. It now handles 80% of incoming docs before a human touches them.

11 days
From scope to production
80%
Client docs auto-prepped
Why firms pick Brightline

Four commitments, in every engagement.

01 — Promise

Fixed price — you see the number before we start, never after.

02 — Promise

You own the code. Your firm's IP stays your firm's IP, in your GitHub.

03 — Promise

Conservative posture for client data: firm-local deployment options, no training on your data, audit logs by default.

04 — Promise

Designed for partner-signoff workflows — humans stay in the loop on anything that touches a return or a client.

How it works

From discovery call to your GitHub repo.

01.
Discovery call

30 focused minutes. You describe the bottleneck, we determine together if custom AI is actually the right tool — or if an off-the-shelf product would serve you better.

02.
Scope & proposal

A precise written scope: what we'll build, how it integrates, what it will and won't do, and a fixed cost. No surprises after this document is signed.

03.
Build & iterate

We build in the open. You see every iteration, you test it on your real work, and we tune until it earns its keep.

04.
GitHub handoff

The full codebase lands in your repository. Architecture designed so any competent developer — including your existing one — can maintain it. You own it.

Roy McFarland, Esq., founder of Brightline Labs
Built by one person, on purpose
Roy McFarland, Esq.

I'm a lawyer and startup founder turned operator-builder. I ran a boutique law firm for three years before it was acquired by a larger firm for its clientele. Since then, I've been working for 15 years shoulder-to-shoulder with lawyers, CFOs and accounting teams towards exits via: IPO and sale/acquisition to private equity firms.

I know partner-level workflows from the inside: where the billable hours actually go, which tools promise leverage and deliver paperwork, and what 'good' feels like when a piece of software finally earns its place in a firm.

Brightline Labs is designed to be exactly the firm I needed all along. A laser-focused team who scopes the work, ships the module, hands over the source, and leaves.

FAQ

Good questions, asked often.

Four steps. (1) A 30-minute discovery call to understand your bottleneck and make sure custom software is the right answer. (2) A written scope and fixed price. (3) We build, you test it on real work. (4) Source code lands in your GitHub repo. You own it completely.

Every accounting Sprint ends the same way: a scoped problem, a working agent, and a repo your firm owns.

A 30-minute audit, not a sales pitch. If custom AI isn't the right answer for your firm, I'll tell you.

Book a 30-Min Bottleneck Audit