Is the AI Pass Saving Reviewer Time? A Firm's Two-Column Time Log

A Firm can compare the minutes recorded on its AI-pass and by-hand files during the season. The comparison describes those files; it does not establish what caused any difference.

The Firm can use its own minutes to describe the time recorded in each column. A two-column time log puts AI-pass files and by-hand files of the same type side by side: Preparer minutes, Reviewer minutes and send-backs per file. On a date set in advance, the manager reads the log and decides whether to keep, change or stop the AI pass for that file type. In this workflow, the Firm assigns entry-list drafting to the tool. People check them, log their time and make the call.

This post doesn't say the pass saves time, or that it costs time. It shows how a Firm can keep a reviewer time log for AI drafting on its own files and decide what to do next.

Set the question before the first file

The Firm can write the comparison down before anyone logs a minute. Four choices do the work.

The file type. One type at a time, defined tightly enough that the files are alike. A log that mixes simple folders with messy ones compares the mix, not the pass.

The two columns. AI-pass files in one, by-hand files in the other. Both hold files of that one type from the current season.

The read date. A mid-season date when the manager reads the log, plus a minimum number of closed files per column. Under the minimum, the Firm keeps logging and doesn't read yet.

The decision rule. What result keeps the pass, what changes it and what stops it, written before any numbers exist. A rule written after the read can be bent to fit whatever the numbers say.

Which files go through the pass is a separate call. The triage rubric picks files before the season; this log measures the result during it.

What goes on each log line

The Firm can keep one line per file:

• the file and its type
• the column: AI pass or by hand
• Preparer minutes
• Reviewer minutes
• send-backs, meaning how many times the Reviewer returned the file with a note

Each line records who logged each figure and the date the file closed.

Minutes come from the person doing the work, written at the end of each sitting rather than guessed at the end of the week. The Firm decides whether minutes get rounded and to what. Setup that both columns share, like opening the folder, can sit in both or in neither, as long as the rule is the same in each column.

A line counts toward the read only after the Reviewer signs off the file. An open file's minutes are still growing, so the Firm can leave it out until it closes.

Every line on the log points to the file it measures. When a figure looks odd, the manager can open the file and look, instead of arguing about the number.

Keep the columns comparable

The Firm can record differences between the columns that may affect how it interprets the minutes. Three habits help here.

Where staffing allows, the Firm can spread files across the same Preparers and Reviewers in both columns. If one Reviewer reads every AI-pass file and another reads every by-hand file, the log compares two Reviewers.

The Firm can mark the line when a file changes lanes partway through. The Firm can keep a moved file out of both columns, or log it in the column it finished in with a note. The Firm can choose either convention, apply it consistently and record how moved files affect the comparison.

The Firm can note anything that made a file unusual: a document that arrived late, a slow answer from the client, a Preparer's first file of this type. The Firm decides whether a noted file stays in the read.

Read the log at mid-season

On the read date, the manager totals each column separately for Preparer minutes, Reviewer minutes and send-backs. Then the manager divides by the number of closed files in that column, so columns of different sizes can sit side by side.

The Firm can read the three figures separately. The question in the title is about Reviewer time, and Reviewer minutes can move one way while Preparer minutes move the other. A pass that cuts Preparer minutes and adds Reviewer minutes has shifted work toward sign-off, and a combined total would hide that. Send-backs come third. The count records how many times the Reviewer returned the file with a note; the minutes record the work that followed.

Small counts call for care. A handful of files per column shows what happened on those files and nothing wider. The Firm can treat a close result as no result and keep logging to a second read date.

Keep, change or stop

The manager reads the result against the rule written before the season and records one of three calls for the file type.

Keep. The pass stays as it is for this file type, with the next read date on the record.

Change. The pass stays with one named change, such as a Preparer check added before hand-in or a narrower task given to the tool. The change gets its own read date, so the log tests it.

Stop. The file type goes back to by hand for the rest of the season.

The decision record gives the reason for each change, names who decided and carries the date. If the call moves a task to or from the tool, the Firm's line between drafting and deciding is where that move gets written down. Whatever the call, a Reviewer still signs off every file, in either column.

The log stays in the Firm's own files, next to the decision it supported.

A Doe example

The minutes and counts below are made up for illustration. They describe no real firm and say nothing about AI tools in general.

Morgan Doe, a manager at Doe & Co. CPA, set up a log for one file type: small-business folders holding two to four account statements. The written rule said to read at mid-season with at least 4 closed files per column. It said stop the pass if AI-pass files took more total minutes per file, change it if total minutes were lower but Reviewer minutes were higher, and keep it if both were lower. Jane Doe was the Preparer and Pat Doe the Reviewer on all eight synthetic files.

The AI-pass column logged 170 Preparer minutes and 120 Reviewer minutes, 290 in all, or 72.5 per file. The by-hand column logged 280 and 100, 380 in all, or 95 per file. Reviewer minutes per file were 30 against 25, and send-backs were 4 against 2.

Total minutes were lower and Reviewer minutes were higher, so the written rule said change. Morgan read the two send-back notes on A3. Both named a drafted row with no page reference. The change: before hand-in, Jane checks that every row carries its page reference. Morgan recorded the call, the reason and a second read date after 4 more closed files per column. Pat signed off all eight files.

Where TracePrep fits

TracePrep's one shipped workflow today is the Reasonable Compensation Study for an S-corporation shareholder-employee. It's a different job from this time log, and it keeps the same kinds of records:

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This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Your licensed professional and your Firm's Reviewer are responsible for every return and every conclusion. Keep client data inside the systems your Firm has approved. As general guidance only, not advice: if you use an AI tool with client data, firms generally look for a business or commercial plan whose terms cover how that data is handled; read the vendor's current terms before you do.