AI systems for accounting firms
Disconnected data, connected.
Trackers, dashboards and workflow automation, built for your firm by someone who has worked inside one.
| Client | Service | Owner | Due | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harlow Dental Group | Month-end close | AM | Oct 10 | Complete |
| Prairie Ridge Orthodontics | Bank reconciliation | BT | Oct 12 | In review |
| Cedar & Vine Hospitality | Payroll | CR | Oct 15 | Waiting on client |
| Northgate Physical Therapy | Sales tax filing | AM | Oct 20 | In progress |
| Oakmont Family Practice | Month-end close | DS | Oct 22 | Not started |
| Redbud Veterinary | 1099 review | BT | Oct 24 | Not started |
Why DataBates
Finished tools, not hours
One place for the work
The spreadsheets, task lists and status emails your team juggles are replaced by one tracker everyone can read at a glance.
A fixed product fee
Every tool has a product fee agreed before work starts, with hours billed at one flat rate.
Built to expand
New AI workflows can be added to the same tool as they are developed, so it does more for your firm over time without a rebuild.
Kept in good order
A membership covers fixes, health checks and the year-end rollover, so the tool stays current.
Who it's for
For the teams inside an accounting firm
Every team runs on a list: clients, engagements, returns, deadlines. DataBates puts that list in one place everyone can read.
Client accounting services
Every client has books, payroll and deadlines each month, and the status sits in a spreadsheet or a task tool that only one person can read. You get one tracker with a line for every client service: who owns it, when it is due and where it stands, with a calendar and a dashboard.
Start with Tracker, Standard. Move it to the web when you are ready.
Audit
Every engagement has requests out, work in review and dates that move, and the status lives in email. You get a tracker for the work around each engagement: open requests, owners, reviewers and due dates. It organizes the work. It does not perform or review it.
Start with Tracker, Standard.
Tax
Hundreds of returns move through the same stages at once, and the question is always who has it and what is missing. You get one line for every return: its stage, who has it, what is still needed from the client and the deadline. It tracks the returns. It does not prepare them.
Start with Tracker, Standard.
Partners and firm administration
The firm's picture gets pulled together by hand from email, calendars and each team's files. You get a daily brief drawn from your email, calendar and tasks, one view across every team's tracker, and a working model when a decision needs numbers.
Start with AI workflow assessment, or Automated daily briefs.
Not on this list? If your team runs on a list, a tracker fits. Request a quote and say what you track.
Products
What DataBates builds
Four kinds of work and one way of pricing. Every project gets a fixed product fee and an hours estimate before work starts.
Trackers and dashboards
Where a team's work lives. Start in Excel and move to the web when you are ready.
- Tracker, Starter
One Excel tracker with a summary view and filters.
- Tracker, Standard
A multi-tab Excel tracker with a dashboard and a calendar.
- Tracker, Enterprise
Trackers for several departments, working from connected data.
- Live web dashboard
A hosted, secure web view of your Excel tracker. Your team keeps working in Excel.
- Full web app
Your tracker as a web app, with logins, editing in the browser and rollover from one period to the next.
Workflow automation
The routine work your team repeats, handled by AI and checked by your people.
- Automated daily briefsper user
A daily brief for each person, drawn from their email, calendar and tasks.
- Firm-wide AI workflow rollout
Briefs, a task system and dashboards, set up for up to 10 people.
- Close or reconciliation automation
One recurring process, automated from start to finish.
- AI skill and prompt library
Your written procedures turned into AI skills your team can reuse.
Advisory
Analysis to support a decision you are facing. It is not legal, tax or audit advice.
- AI workflow assessment
A two-week review of where AI fits in your firm, ending in a roadmap and three priority builds.
- Financial model
A working Excel model for a buyout, a budget or a forecast.
- Process and controls documentation
Your processes written up as narratives, flowcharts and a risk and control matrix.
- Deal and negotiation strategy
A strategy memo, a counter-proposal and a live model for a buyout or a deal.
Training
Your team learns to build AI workflows and dashboards themselves.
- Half-day workshop
Four hours of hands-on training for up to 15 people.
- Full-day workshop
Eight hours of training, with a build-along on your own data.
How you want it delivered
Three ways to buy
Done for you
DataBates builds it and hands it over.
Done with you
DataBates builds it and coaches your team along the way, so they can run it and change it themselves.
Taught to you
A workshop where your team learns to build AI workflows and dashboards.
The 2026 Price Sheet comes with every quote. To see it first, write to hello@databates.us.
How it works
From first request to working tool
Six steps. The price is agreed before work starts, and you check the tool before it is final.
Tell us what you need
Send a request and say what is slow, manual or scattered today. It takes about two minutes.
Get a quote in writing
You get a fixed product fee and an hours estimate, shown with and without a membership. The quote is good for 30 days.
Sign and start
One standing agreement covers how we work together. A scope of work covers the project: what you get, what is not included, the price and the dates. A deposit starts the work.
The build
You name one contact and send the files the scope lists. If the hours look likely to pass the estimate, you hear first and choose what happens next.
Delivery and walkthrough
We walk the people who will run the tool through it. You have ten business days to flag anything that does not match the scope, and we fix it.
Keep it in good order
Defects reported in the first 30 days are fixed at no charge. After that, a membership keeps the tool current, or you run it yourself.
The steps are the same whether we build it and hand it over, build it and coach your team, or train your team.
After the build
Kept in good order
A membership is optional. It keeps your tools running, updated and supported every month.
Care
2 hours a month and up to 2 tools. Fixes, health checks and the year-end rollover.
Growth
6 hours a month and up to 5 tools. Everything in Care, plus one new small build each quarter.
AI Partner
12 hours a month and up to 15 tools. Everything in Growth, plus a monthly strategy session and a firm-wide AI roadmap.
A web dashboard or web app needs hosting. It is included with any membership, or billed monthly on its own.
Sign a 12-month membership and the product fee on a build is lower.
Extra hours are billed at our hourly rate, the same rate as every other hour.
If you stop
You can always leave
- Once a tool is paid for, your license to use it does not expire.
- Your data is yours. A full export is yours on request, member or not.
- With a web tool on a membership, a person you name holds a sealed admin login from the first day, so your firm is never locked out.
- When a membership ends, we move the hosting, the database and the code to accounts you control, and hand over the admin login, the Owner's Guide and a one-hour walkthrough. The handoff time is billed at our hourly rate.
A plain-English summary. Your signed agreements control.
Your data and AI
Your data stays yours.
It sits in systems set up for your firm alone, and it is never used to train an AI model. There is no AI inside a tracker or a dashboard. Risk flags and due dates come from fixed rules, not from a model.
Mission
DataBates helps small businesses put AI to work. It starts with accounting firms, building the tools their teams use every day.
What DataBates works toward
Create relationships
Earn a firm's trust with one finished tool that solves a real problem.
Protect relationships
Keep client data private, keep every tool in good order, and say plainly what DataBates does and does not do.
Grow relationships
Add new AI workflows as a firm is ready for them, so the tool and the relationship grow together.
Founder
Jackson Bates
Jackson Bates is the founder of DataBates. He has worked inside the kind of firm DataBates serves.
At The CJ Group, a North Texas accounting firm, he worked on employee benefit plan audits, assisted on a quality of earnings analysis and an M&A transaction, and closed out monthly accounts for the client accounting services team in QuickBooks Online. He also led the rollout of ClickUp to manage that team's monthly work, and later built the status tracker that replaced it. That tracker is now a DataBates product.
At a Big Four firm, he worked in the business consulting practice on process and controls engagements, evaluating internal controls and supporting SOX compliance and SOC reporting.
Jackson studied accounting and finance at the University of Oklahoma's Price College of Business and is certified in Microsoft Excel and QuickBooks.
Questions
Asked before the first call
Short answers. The quote and the agreements carry the detail.
How is the price set?
Every price has two parts: a fixed product fee for the finished tool, and hours at our hourly rate. Both are in a written quote before work starts. The product fee does not change. Hours are billed as worked, and if they look likely to pass the estimate you hear first and choose what happens next.
Can I see prices before I ask for a quote?
Yes. Write to hello@databates.us and we send the 2026 Price Sheet. It lists the product fee and the hours for every product.
Do I have to buy a membership?
No. A membership is optional. It covers fixes, health checks, the year-end rollover, hosting for web tools and hours each month. Without one, upkeep is billed at our hourly rate when you ask for it, and hosting for a web tool is billed monthly.
How long does it take?
It depends on the tool. Your quote gives the hours, and your scope of work gives a kickoff date, a delivery date and a walkthrough date. If something we need from you runs late, the dates move by the same amount.
What if the tool is not what we asked for?
You have ten business days after delivery to tell us about anything that does not match the scope, and we fix it. Defects reported in the first 30 days are fixed at no charge.
Who owns what we pay for?
Your data is yours. So are the reports, memos and models we write for you, once they are paid for. A tool, such as a tracker or a web app, stays ours, and your firm gets a license to use and change it that does not expire. The License summary has the details.
What happens if we stop working with DataBates?
You keep using the tool. If we host it for you, we move the hosting, the database and the code into accounts you control, and hand over the admin login and the Owner's Guide. The handoff time is billed at our hourly rate.
Could our own team build this?
Yes. You can have it done for you, have DataBates build it and coach your team along the way, or have your team taught in a workshop. What your team builds after a workshop is yours.
Where does our data live, and does AI see it?
A web tool gets a database set up for your firm alone, and only your firm's email addresses can sign up. We use AI to build your tool, so it reads the files you send us, with model training turned off. There is no AI inside a tracker or a dashboard. The AI and data page has the rest.
Is DataBates a CPA firm?
No. DataBates LLC is not a CPA firm and does not provide audit, tax or attest services. A tool organizes your work. Your firm stays responsible for the work itself.
Something else? Write to hello@databates.us.
Contact
Talk to DataBates
The fastest way to a quote is the request form. For anything else, write or call.
- hello@databates.us
- Phone
- 214-843-7417
- Location
- Norman, Oklahoma
- Jackson Bates on LinkedIn