Self-serve practice software gives you a toolbox; a managed setup gives you a running system. With self-serve, the subscription is only the beginning: your team spends weeks configuring workflows, templates, and reminders, usually during the months it has no spare hours. Managed means that build is done for you.
The hidden project inside self-serve
The demo looks finished because someone configured the demo. What you buy is the empty version: pipelines to design, reminder sequences to write, templates to build, a portal to brand, staff to train, and clients to migrate. In a firm with a dedicated ops person, that project has an owner. In a four-person firm, it has a victim, and the software joins the graveyard of tools that are 30 percent set up. The evaluation criteria are in how to choose tax practice management software.
What managed means here, concretely
Not a support inbox. The AI360 CPA platform is deployed into a dedicated environment, branded to your firm, and configured around how your returns actually move, through a managed 30-day installation that starts with a 30-minute discovery call. It embeds on your existing website with a single script tag, the mobile app carries your firm's name, and the team stays close for the first 14 days after launch. On Ignite, the relationship continues as weekly pipeline reviews and document exception handling, so someone is watching the machine, not just renting it to you.
Side by side
| Self-serve software | Managed setup | |
|---|---|---|
| Who builds the workflows | Your team, evenings and weekends | Done for you during installation |
| Time to a live system | Whenever your team finishes configuring | Managed 30-day installation |
| Branding | Your logo inside the vendor's app | Portal and mobile app under your firm's name |
| Who maintains it | You | Managed, with weekly pipeline reviews on Ignite |
| Sticker price | Lower monthly | $2,000 install plus $495 to $1,600 monthly |
When self-serve is the right call
Honestly: when the firm has a capable ops owner who wants control of every workflow and has the calendar to keep it. Configuration is not a defect if configuring is someone's actual job. The comparison fails only when a firm with no such person buys the toolbox expecting a system. If the sticker prices are the deciding factor, put the config hours on the scale too, priced at what your time bills for. Full managed pricing is on the pricing page.
Do we lose control with a managed setup?
No. The system is configured to your decisions during installation: your stages, your messaging, your process. Managed refers to who does the building and watching, not who owns the firm's workflow.
What if we already bought self-serve software?
Ask one question of it: is it fully configured and actually running your follow-up today? If yes, keep it. If it has been 30 percent set up since last year, count the license as sunk and evaluate on what gets you to a running system.
How fast is a managed setup live?
About 30 days from the discovery call to launch, with intake, document collection, sequences, and the pipeline running at the end, and close support for the first 14 days after.