If your firm runs cloud based professional tax software such as CCH Axcess, UltraTax, Lacerte, ProConnect, or Drake on the cloud, you already own the system that calculates and files the return. What most firms do not have is automation for everything that happens before the return is ready to prepare. SignalsHQ is the AI prep layer that runs on top of that software. It is not a filing system. It reads the client's source documents, extracts and maps the data, and hands a clean, reviewed prep package into the software you already use.

What cloud based professional tax software does, and where it stops

Cloud based professional tax software moves the return engine to the browser. It handles the forms, the calculations, e-file, and the version of record. That is the filing layer, and firms rarely want to change it. The gap is upstream. Before a preparer can start a return, someone has to collect the client's documents, read a stack of W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, brokerage statements, and prior-year returns, and key that data into the software. At most firms that work is still manual, and it is where the prep hours go.

The prep gap: the work before data reaches your tax software

The filing system assumes the data is already in front of it. Getting there is the slow part. A single 1040 with a brokerage account and a couple of K-1s can mean dozens of pages to read, classify, and enter by hand. Multiply that across a busy-season book and the bottleneck is clear. It is not the calculation. It is the document handling and data entry that sit in front of it.

This is the layer SignalsHQ automates. It takes the client's raw documents, identifies each form, pulls the figures, and maps them to the right fields, with a preparer reviewing the result rather than typing it from scratch. Firms using it report cutting prep time by about 70 percent, with extraction accuracy above 98 percent on the documents it handles.

How the AI prep layer works on top of your stack

SignalsHQ sits between the client and your filing system, so you keep the software you already run. In practice it shows up at three points in the workflow:

Intake. Clients upload a document set. The system sorts and labels it instead of an admin doing it by hand.

Extraction and mapping. Data is read off each form and lined up against the prior-year return and the fields your tax software expects, so the preparer starts from a populated draft, not a blank screen.

Review and QC. Every extracted figure is traceable back to the source page, so the reviewer checks the work quickly and signs off with the evidence attached. The return itself is still prepared and filed in your existing software.

Common questions

Does SignalsHQ replace my cloud tax software?

No. SignalsHQ is the prep-automation layer on top of your filing software. You keep CCH Axcess, UltraTax, Lacerte, ProConnect, or whatever you run today. SignalsHQ feeds clean, reviewed data into it.

Where does it save the most time?

In document handling and data entry, the manual work before the return is calculated. That is where firms see roughly 70 percent of prep time removed.

Is the extracted data checked by a person?

Yes. Every figure links back to the source document, and a preparer reviews it. The automation does the reading and keying; the firm keeps the judgment and the sign-off.

If you are mapping where automation fits in your firm's stack, our guide on scaling tax prep capacity without adding headcount walks through how the prep layer sits alongside the systems you already run.