Client email answers, cited to their own ledger.

For owner-led bookkeeping and accounting firms on QuickBooks Online or Xero who answer the same client questions every week from plain Gmail or Outlook. GroundedReply drafts the reply to repeat questions (deductions, deadlines, new-hire paperwork), citing the exact line in the client's QuickBooks or Xero file and the sentence in your own procedures it came from. You approve every word, and you send it from your own inbox: GroundedReply never sends email.

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Live for signed-in firms. The preview below runs on made-up data and needs no account. In the product you upload the client's question, your written procedures and a ledger export from QuickBooks or Xero; there are no mailbox or ledger connections.

The same five questions, every week

Your team answers the same client questions over and over: can I deduct this, when is the deadline, what do I need for a new hire. Replies get typed from memory, or found by searching old email threads and procedure notes, at five to fifteen minutes each. When an answer comes out slightly different from last time, that is not just wasted time; it is the client's trust and, occasionally, your liability.

It usually becomes worth fixing during a busy-season staffing gap, or the day you notice the same five questions got answered from scratch again this week.

Try a preview draft

Pick a client question, edit the ledger numbers, and watch the drafted reply recompute with its citations.

This is a preview, not the product. The firm (Riverbend Bookkeeping, LLC), all three clients, questions and ledger lines below are invented; nothing you type here is uploaded anywhere — the arithmetic runs in your browser, and no AI runs on this page. Sign in and the product drafts from the files you upload (the client's question, your procedures, a ledger export), using Claude on Amazon Bedrock in the EU (the request is sent from Frankfurt and processed within EU regions); your own reviewer approves every reply before you send it from your own inbox.

Choose a client question to preview

Sample 1: mileage deduction

Subject: Mileage this quarter

Hi, can you tell me how much of my driving I can deduct this quarter? I put a lot of miles on the car doing client site visits, but I'm not sure what actually counts.

  • L1 QuickBooks Online mileage log, Q3 (made up)
  • P1 Riverbend written procedures, section 4, Mileage logs (made up)

    Only trips in the client's mileage log with a date, purpose and miles are included in the quarterly total we send to the client's tax preparer.

  • P2 Riverbend written procedures, section 1, Scope (made up)

    We do not give an opinion on whether or how much of an expense is deductible; refer the client to their tax preparer.

Hi, thanks for checking in.

Your QuickBooks mileage log shows 1,412 business miles across 34 trips this quarter [L1]. We include only trips in the log with a date, purpose and miles [P1], leaving 1,412 miles across 34 trips in the total we send to your tax preparer, who decides how much of it you can deduct [P2].

If you drove for business and a trip is not in the log, send us its date, purpose and miles and we will add it before the quarter's total goes to your tax preparer.

Not tax advice. Your firm reviews and approves every reply.

Number check that ran before the draft was shown
In the draftTraced toResult
1,412 business miles, 34 tripsL1, ledgerFound
1,412 miles, 34 trips includedL1 totals less its incomplete trips, under P1Found
The tax preparer decides the deductionP2, procedureFound

What a held-back draft looks like. Suppose the draft had added “that works out to about $950 for the quarter.” No $950 appears in L1, P1 or P2, so the check stops the draft and you see “Needs a manual answer: a dollar figure in the draft is not in any cited source” instead. That is also why no mileage rate appears here: the deduction is the tax preparer's call.

Every figure is traced before you see it. Each dollar amount, date and policy statement in a draft is checked against the source line it came from; that is why editing a date or amount above changes which lines are cited, not just the total. When a figure cannot be traced — the uncategorized transaction in Sample 2, or a missing payment date in Sample 3 — the draft says “needs the bookkeeper” instead of guessing. Questions on your escalation list (an amended return, an IRS or state notice, an audit, a penalty, or anything wholly outside your procedures) get no drafted answer at all: GroundedReply drafts only a short holding reply for you to review and send, and flags the email for your EA or CPA. That rule list is checked before any drafting starts, and no model can bypass it.

A real drafted reply uses 3 credits ($3.00 at the starter rate, $2.10 at the 2,000-credit rate). This preview: 0 credits, and no account is needed.

Sign in to buy credits Questions? Email us

Your work

Sign in to upload a client's question, your written procedures and a ledger export from QuickBooks or Xero, buy credits, and follow each reply from draft to approval. Drafts are written by Claude (Anthropic), running on Amazon Bedrock in the EU (the request is sent from Frankfurt and processed within EU regions); your documents are never used to train a model. Every figure in a draft is checked against the sources it cites, and your own reviewer approves every reply. GroundedReply never sends email and gives no tax or legal advice: every draft carries the notice “Not tax advice. Your firm reviews and approves every reply.”

What we're good at

This is not a general AI assistant. It does one narrow job, in a way you can check quickly instead of trusting blindly.

  • Built for one gap. Firms answering clients from Gmail or Outlook that do not have Karbon's or Canopy's built-in AI drafting. If you already have one of those, try it first.

  • Two named sources in every draft. The client's own ledger line and the sentence from your own written procedures, so review means checking citations, not rewriting from scratch. How long that check takes for your firm is something to measure on your own questions, not a promise.

  • Untraceable numbers are held back. Every figure in a draft is checked against your sources. A draft with a dollar figure, date or policy statement that is not in a cited source is stopped and flagged, not shown.

  • A person approves every reply. Your own reviewer approves each one, and GroundedReply never sends email: you send the approved reply from your own inbox. Questions on your escalation list are caught before any drafting and get only a holding reply.

  • No integration project to start. Sign in and upload the client's question, your written procedures and a ledger export. No mailbox or ledger connection is needed.

  • Pay only for the drafts you use. 3 credits a draft — $3.00 at the starter rate, $2.10 at the 2,000-credit rate. No seats, no subscription, credits never expire. Details and how it compares under pricing.

How we compare

If your firm already runs on Karbon or Canopy, try what is built in first: it costs nothing extra, and we would like to know what it misses. GroundedReply is for firms answering clients from plain Gmail or Outlook.

The GroundedReply column describes the product as it runs for signed-in firms; the other columns come from each vendor's public pages. On a phone, the table scrolls sideways.

GroundedReply, three AI drafting tools and doing it by hand
What matters GroundedReply Karbon AI Canopy Coworker CPA Pilot By hand today
Drafts client email replies Yes, the whole point Yes: “Compose & Refine Emails” and “Quick Replies”1 Yes, in your inbox, with a review queue before anything goes out2 Yes, “Client email drafting” from the $29 plan3 No; write from scratch or copy an old thread
Cites the client's own ledger line inline Yes, in every draft Not stated; its page lists jobs, time, budgets, billing and payments as the data it uses1 Works with your bookkeeping data and flags transaction-level anomalies; the page does not say drafts cite transactions inline2 Not stated; you can upload returns and documents3 Only if you open the ledger yourself
Cites your firm's own written procedures Yes, in every draft Grounded in “your clients, your work history, your team, your communication”; procedures and citations not mentioned1 Not stated on its page2 Not stated on its page3 Only if you remember it or search for it
Holds back a draft with an untraceable number Yes; flags it for a manual answer instead Not stated on its page1 Not stated on its page2 Not stated on its page3 Depends on whoever reviews it
Published price Credits: 3 per draft, no seats. $3.00/draft at the starter rate (25 credits, $25), $2.10/draft at the 2,000-credit rate ($1,400)9 “No additional cost” for Karbon customers1 “No cost to customers during its open beta period” for Canopy customers; later price not published2 Billed monthly: $29 (20 AI messages a month), $49 (60), $119 (150) or $199 (unlimited) a month. Billed annually: $299, $499 or $1,199 a year for the 20, 60 and 150 plans3 No software cost; staff time8
Cost at 20 drafts/mo4 (low) $54/mo — 60 credits at the 100-credit pack rate ($2.70/draft) Included in Karbon's Team plan, from $59/user/mo billed annually — bundled, not a direct competitor5 $0 extra during the open beta, inside a Canopy plan from $74/user/mo billed annually — free/beta and bundled, not a direct competitor6 $24.92/mo billed annually ($1.25/message), or $29/mo billed monthly ($1.45/message) — the CPA Pilot 20 plan; not a direct competitor7 No software cost; about 1.7–5 hours of staff time a month8
Cost at 60 drafts/mo4 (high) $144/mo — 180 credits at the 500-credit pack rate ($2.40/draft) Included in Karbon's Team plan, from $59/user/mo billed annually — bundled, not a direct competitor5 $0 extra during the open beta, inside a Canopy plan from $74/user/mo billed annually — free/beta and bundled, not a direct competitor6 $41.58/mo billed annually ($0.69/message), or $49/mo billed monthly ($0.82/message) — the CPA Pilot 60 plan; not a direct competitor7 No software cost; about 5–15 hours of staff time a month8
Getting started Sign in and upload files; nothing to connect. No setup fee On by default for Karbon firms; admins can switch it off1 Part of Canopy, for Canopy customers, in open beta2 Separate subscription; free trial, card required3 Nothing to set up

Where another option is the better choice:

  • You already pay for Karbon or Canopy: their drafting is included, so try it first.
  • You just want generic client email drafting, not citations to a specific ledger line and procedure sentence: CPA Pilot starts at $299 a year or $29 a month for 20 messages, less than GroundedReply's credit cost at the same volume ($54 a month for 20 drafts).
  • You get only a few client questions a week: answering by hand costs nothing and may be enough.

Sources, checked 27 September 2026, from each vendor's public pages. “Not stated” means the page does not say; it does not mean the tool cannot do it. Competitor prices change — check each vendor's current page before you decide, not just this table.

  1. Karbon, AI feature page: karbonhq.com/feature/ai (“Karbon AI is currently available to all Karbon customers at no additional cost”), checked 27 September 2026.
  2. Canopy, Coworker product page: getcanopy.com/coworker (“Coworker will be available at no cost to customers during its open beta period”), checked 27 September 2026.
  3. CPA Pilot, pricing page: cpapilot.com/pricing-plans, checked 27 September 2026. The page has a Monthly/Annual switch (“Save 16%”); the Annual view shows “$299/year · billed annually” (CPA Pilot 20), “$499/year” (CPA Pilot 60) and “$1,199/year” (CPA Pilot 150). Plans are priced “for messages, not seats”.
  4. Reference customer and volume, for the two “monthly cost” rows above. This topic's buyer runs a 50–150-client QuickBooks Online/Xero bookkeeping firm. Its own buying trigger is noticing the same five questions answered from scratch every week — five drafted replies a week, ×4.33 weeks, rounded down to 20 drafts/month (low). No source states a per-firm weekly volume for the top of the 50–150-client range, so the high point scales the same five-a-week rate by the firm-size range itself (150 clients is 3× the 50-client low end): 3×5=15/week ×4.33, rounded down to 60 drafts/month (high) — an estimate, not a measured figure. “Draft” here means one drafted client-email reply, GroundedReply's natural unit and the unit CPA Pilot's own “AI message” plans are compared against below (the monthly-cost rows assume one draft costs one CPA Pilot message, which may understate CPA Pilot's true per-draft cost if a reply needs more than one message). GroundedReply has no seats: any number of people at the firm can use the credits, unlike Karbon and Canopy, which charge per user.
  5. Karbon's AI drafting has no separate price, but a customer must already hold a paid Karbon subscription to get it; its cheapest tier is the Team plan at $59/user/month billed annually or $79/user/month billed monthly, monthly billing only for teams of 4 or more (karbonhq.com/pricing, checked 27 September 2026). Not a direct competitor: it is a feature bundled into a practice-management platform the buyer must already own, not a separately priced product, and its page does not say drafts cite a specific ledger line or firm-procedure sentence.
  6. Canopy Coworker is free to Canopy customers during its open beta, with no published price for after the beta ends; Canopy's own plans start at the Standard plan, $74/user/month billed annually (getcanopy.com/pricing, checked 27 September 2026). Not a direct competitor: it is a free/beta tool bundled into a platform the buyer must already own, and its page does not say drafts inline-cite a specific ledger line together with a firm-procedure sentence.
  7. CPA Pilot working. CPA Pilot 20: billed annually, $299 ÷ 12 = $24.92 a month, ÷ 20 = $1.25 a message; billed monthly, $29 ÷ 20 = $1.45 a message. CPA Pilot 60: billed annually, $499 ÷ 12 = $41.58 a month, ÷ 60 = $0.69 a message; billed monthly, $49 ÷ 60 = $0.82 a message (cpapilot.com/pricing-plans, checked 27 September 2026). Not a direct competitor: it is a general, message-metered AI assistant for CPA firms in which client email drafting is one bundled capability, and its page does not confirm grounding in the client's ledger or the firm's own written procedures.
  8. By-hand time cost: 5–15 minutes of staff time per question, ×20 questions = 1.7–5.0 hours a month at the low reference volume, ×60 questions = 5.0–15.0 hours a month at the high reference volume. Not counted in the minimum; there is no software price to compare against.
  9. How the price is set: on 28 September 2026 the founder replaced GroundedReply's monthly per-firm pricing with a pay-as-you-go credit model, the same across every product in this line: credits are bought in packs (25 credits for $25, up to 2,000 credits for $1,400, cheaper per credit in a larger pack), never expire, and carry no subscription, no seat charge and no setup fee — see pricing for the pack table. Each drafted reply costs 3 credits: $3.00 at the starter rate, down to $2.10 at the 2,000-credit rate. The competitor comparison above is unchanged by that decision: none of Karbon AI, Canopy Coworker or CPA Pilot meets this page's main feature on its own page (footnotes 5–7) — Karbon's and Canopy's drafting is bundled into a platform the buyer must already own (Canopy's is also free during its beta), and CPA Pilot is a general AI assistant for tax firms priced by the message — so the credit price was set as the founders' standard price for this product line rather than by undercutting a lookalike. CPA Pilot and, for existing customers, Karbon AI and Canopy Coworker can still cost less than GroundedReply's credits at the reference volumes above.

What else is planned

Everything below “Now” is planned, not built. Nothing here has a date, and the order is set by what the firms using it ask for.

Now: live for signed-in firms

Two-source cited drafting with the number check, as shown above: you upload the client's question, your procedures and a ledger export, your reviewer approves the cited draft, and you send it from your own inbox.

Next: drafting where you already work

  • A fuller public demo than the three-sample preview above: six sample client emails drafted by the working product, including the hard cases (an escalation, a two-topic email, an odd ledger balance), plus a box to type a question of your own.
  • Drafts inside your own Gmail or Outlook inbox, after the reviews each provider requires; for Gmail that means Google's verification and an independent security assessment.
  • A read-only connection to your QuickBooks Online or Xero books, after Intuit's app assessment and Xero's own requirements.

Later: a second product for the same firms

  • Drafting responses to IRS and state tax notices your clients forward. An idea for the same buyer, not yet built.

Pricing: pay-as-you-go credits

Credits, not a plan no subscription, no seats, no setup fee

Buy a pack of credits and any number of people at your firm can use them. Credits never expire, and there is no monthly minimum. The credit price is the same across every product we make and was set by the founders on 28 September 2026, not by undercutting a lookalike: none of the tools we compare states on its own page that it does this exact job — citing two named sources and holding back an untraceable figure. Several of those tools cost less. See how we compare for the working.

What one unit of work costs
UnitCreditsAt the starter rateAt the 2,000-credit rate
One drafted client reply3 credits$3.00$2.10
Credit packs
PackCreditsPricePer credit
Starter (minimum purchase)
Sign in to buy 25 credits		 25$25$1.00
100
Sign in to buy 100 credits		 100$90$0.90
500
Sign in to buy 500 credits		 500$400$0.80
2,000
Sign in to buy 2,000 credits		 2,000$1,400$0.70

Worked monthly examples

A firm buys the pack that matches its monthly need: under 100 credits a month, the 100-credit pack rate; 100–499, the 500-credit pack rate; 500 or more, the 2,000-credit pack rate. The 20- and 60-draft reference volumes are explained in how we compare, footnote 4. A pack is paid in full up front and whatever you don't use carries over, so these monthly figures are the cost of the credits used, at that pack's rate.

  • 20 drafts a month = 60 credits = $54 a month ($2.70 a draft), at the 100-credit pack rate.
  • 60 drafts a month = 180 credits = $144 a month ($2.40 a draft), at the 500-credit pack rate.

Previewing the three invented samples above costs 0 credits and needs no account. Once you sign in, each drafted reply uses 3 credits from your balance.

Card checkout is coming. Until then, packs are bought by email: email us the pack you want and we grant the credits to your account directly. Every reply credits pay for is written by Claude on Amazon Bedrock in the EU (the request is sent from Frankfurt and processed within EU regions), checked against your sources, and approved by your own reviewer.

Security and data handling

What you send us: GroundedReply reads only the files you upload: the client's question, your written procedures and a ledger export. Nothing connects to your inbox or your books, and GroundedReply never sends email. Leave out SSNs/EINs, bank account numbers and anything taken from a tax return; a reply does not need them. Access to your account is keyed on your verified email address, however you sign in. The preview on this page uses made-up data. Our privacy policy, terms and cookie policy are published; a data processing agreement is available on request at hello@groundedreply.com.

If we build a connection later: it will draft and never send, and it will never write to your books. Gmail access that can read mail or create drafts uses scopes Google classes as restricted, so we must pass Google's verification and an independent security assessment first, and QuickBooks Online access needs Intuit's app assessment. We will say on this page when each is done. Today your files and drafts are encrypted in transit and at rest. Retention, as set out in our privacy policy: uploads never used in a job are deleted after 72 hours, jobs that fail, are rejected or are never paid after 14 days, and paid work after 365 days; you can delete a job or your whole account at any time.

Language model: drafts are written by Claude (Anthropic), running on Amazon Bedrock in the EU (the request is sent from Frankfurt and processed within EU regions). Your documents are never used to train a model. The escalation rules and the check that every figure appears in a cited source are ordinary code, not the model's judgement, and a person at your firm approves every reply.

Certifications: no SOC 2 report; we do not have one, and we hold no other compliance certification. Firms that prepare tax returns are covered by the FTC Safeguards Rule and should expect to ask their service providers about security; we have a one-page written answer, available on request.

Questions firm owners ask

I cannot let an AI answer reach a client without reading it first, so how much time is really saved?

You will always read it first. Every draft shows its ledger citation and procedure citation inline, so review is a short check against two named sources, not a rewrite from scratch. How much time that saves your firm is something to measure on your own questions, not something promised here.

Karbon and Canopy already draft emails for us inside the tool we pay for.

Then use theirs first; it is free to you, and tell us what it misses. GroundedReply is for firms answering clients from plain Gmail or Outlook: each draft cites the client's ledger line and your own procedure sentence inline, and a draft with a number it cannot trace is held back. We do not claim Karbon or Canopy cannot see your data.

Our client questions are specific to each business. Will a generic draft actually be usable?

The draft pulls that client's own ledger lines and your firm's own procedure wording, not a template, so it reads like you wrote it for that client, because part of it is literally their numbers.

Giving a tool access to our Gmail feels like a security risk for client data.

GroundedReply does not ask for access to your Gmail, Outlook, QuickBooks or Xero. You upload the client's question, your procedures and a ledger export (leave out SSNs/EINs, account numbers and anything from a tax return), review the cited draft, and send it from your own inbox. A later inbox connection would need Gmail scopes that Google classes as restricted, which require Google's verification and an independent security assessment first, and QuickBooks access needs Intuit's app assessment; we will not ask for your login before both are done. More under security and data handling.

Does it send emails on its own?

No. GroundedReply never sends email and has no connection to your inbox. Every draft waits for a person at your firm to review and approve it, and you send the approved reply yourself, from your own inbox.

What does it cost?

Pay-as-you-go credits: 3 credits a drafted reply — $3.00 at the starter rate, $2.10 at the 2,000-credit rate. No subscription, no seats, credits never expire. Details, and how that compares to Karbon AI, Canopy Coworker and CPA Pilot, under pricing.

How long does setup take?

Sign in, buy a starter pack (by email until card checkout arrives) and upload your first files. There is nothing to install or connect. An inbox and ledger connection has no date yet; it waits on Google's and Intuit's reviews.

Who is building this?

Two founders: a technical founder based in Romania who builds the product, and a cofounder who talks to firms. We are a small team and would rather say so plainly.

Questions before you sign in?

Email us if you want to check that GroundedReply fits your firm, how your procedures should be written for it, or how credits work. We read every message. Please leave client names, SSNs/EINs, account numbers and anything taken from a tax return out of what you send by email.

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