Case Study

See What One
Build-Out Can Do

We built a complete AI automation system for a 5-person tax firm — 31 systems, 6 cron jobs, 301 tests. Here's what that actually looks like.

Featured Case Study

Silicon Valley Tax LLC

How a 5-person tax firm replaced manual chaos across 6 platforms with 31 automated systems — built and deployed by Agent Setup.

The Client

Silicon Valley Tax LLC is a full-service tax and accounting firm based in San Jose, California. Managing Partner Cooper Hathaway leads a team of 5 handling more than 700 clients across individual, business, and payroll tax services.

Industry Tax & Accounting
Team Size 5 people
Clients 700+
Location San Jose, CA

The Challenge

A tiny team drowning in manual processes across disconnected systems. Excel spreadsheets, ClickUp, ShareFile, QuickBooks, CCH Axcess, Microsoft 365 — nothing talked to anything else. Every client interaction required 4–5 manual steps across different tools. A single onboarding took 45 minutes of clicking between platforms. Weekly reporting was a full-day project. Tax season meant 14-hour days just keeping up with admin work.

What Agent Setup Built
⚙️

Workflow Automation

3 systems built

SVT Workflow Lite

Custom Electron desktop app replacing 5 interconnected Excel spreadsheets — including a 786-row Task Assignments sheet and a 15-tab Production Log. Built with React, TypeScript, and SQLite. Manages clients, staff, engagements, intake pipeline, tax deadlines, and ClickUp sync. Ships with 301 automated tests.

ClickUp Weekly Report Generator

Automated pipeline pulling all tasks across 3 ClickUp spaces, deduplicating results, and generating formatted HTML + Excel reports. Emailed to the team every Friday via SendGrid. Tracks 369+ active tax returns in real time.

Production Log to ClickUp Sync

Reads the firm's operations spreadsheet from SharePoint every 30 minutes, auto-creates corresponding ClickUp tasks, and writes back sync IDs to prevent duplicates. Zero manual data entry between systems.

📁

Client Operations

4 systems built

Client Onboarding Automation

A single CLI command creates a ClickUp task, ShareFile folder hierarchy, QuickBooks customer record, Microsoft 365 contact, sends a welcome email, and notifies assigned staff. Replaces 5 manual steps across 5 different systems. Onboarding dropped from 45 minutes to under 2.

Document Completeness Engine

Uses the Claude API to analyze prior-year tax returns and generate client-specific document checklists. Monitors ShareFile for incoming uploads and triggers automated follow-up emails when documents are missing or incomplete.

Tax Return Worksheet Auto-Population

Reads completed tax return PDFs via the Claude API and outputs pre-populated Excel review worksheets. Supports 1040 (individual), 1120 (C-Corp), 1120-S (S-Corp), and 1065 (Partnership) return types.

Auto-Upload Returns to Client Portal

When a ClickUp task moves to “Client Review” status, the system automatically uploads the PDF to the correct ShareFile folder and sends the client a notification with a secure download link.

📊

Financial Reporting

3 systems built

Trial Balance Desktop App

Cross-platform Electron application with portal-based tax grouping, auto-suggest for account mapping, and adjusting journal entry management. Ships to Windows via GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline.

QBO Bonus Report Generator

Parses QuickBooks Online exports, splits shared client assignments across staff, and outputs ranked Excel reports for quarterly bonus calculations. Eliminated 4 hours of manual spreadsheet work per quarter.

Daily Cash Flow Pipeline

Automated morning cash flow analysis from bank CSV statements. Categorizes transactions, flags anomalies, and delivers a summary report before the first meeting of the day.

📣

Marketing & Lead Generation

5 systems built

Apollo Lead Gen Pipeline

Daily automated prospecting across 30+ Bay Area cities. Enriches contacts, verifies emails, and deduplicates against a SQLite database. Runs on a daily cron job with zero manual intervention.

Email Outreach Pipeline

SendGrid-powered outreach system with unsubscribe webhook processing, CAN-SPAM compliance, and full SQLite tracking for opens, clicks, and replies. Every email is logged and auditable.

Instagram Content Automation

Autonomous carousel generator producing 7-slide tax education content from 30 content pillars. Claude Haiku writes the copy, programmatic templates handle branding. Operating cost: $15–25/month.

Meta Ads Weekly Audit

Connects to the firm's Meta Ads account via Graph API, pulls campaign performance data, and generates detailed analysis reports every Monday morning. Tracks spend, reach, CTR, and cost per lead.

Win-Back Campaign System

3-touch email sequence targeting lapsed clients with SendGrid templates, automated scheduling, and response tracking. Re-engages former clients without any manual follow-up.

🔒

Infrastructure & Security

6 systems built

Docker Sandbox with Firewall

Isolated AI execution environment running in Docker with iptables firewall rules and a domain whitelist. AI agents can work without ever touching production data or leaking credentials.

Daily Security Scanner

Automated vulnerability scans running at 7:00 AM every day. Checks for exposed secrets, outdated dependencies, open ports, and configuration drift. Results logged for audit trail.

SOC 2 Type II Policy Documentation

8 complete policy drafts covering access control, change management, incident response, data classification, vendor management, and more. Built for audit readiness from day one.

Multi-Agent Orchestrator

CLI tool for dispatching parallel AI workers with audit logging, session management, and resource controls. Enables autonomous overnight work with full traceability.

Environment Variable Security Migration

All API keys and secrets moved out of .env files and into secure, isolated environment variable storage. No credentials in code, no secrets in version control, ever.

Claude AI Staff Training Program

4-week structured curriculum designed for all 5 staff members. Covers Claude Code basics, prompt engineering, workflow automation, and security best practices. Non-technical staff included.

The Results
0
Systems Built
0
Automated Cron Jobs Running 24/7
0
Automated Tests
0+
Clients Managed
0+
Hours Saved Per Day
$0
/Month Content Automation Cost
Tech Stack Used
TypeScript React Electron Python Node.js SQLite Docker Claude API ClickUp API ShareFile API Microsoft Graph API SendGrid Apollo API Meta Graph API QuickBooks

“Agent Setup didn't just install tools — they rebuilt how our entire firm operates. We went from drowning in spreadsheets to having automated pipelines that run while we sleep. Thirty-one systems, and every single one of them works.”

CH
Cooper Hathaway
Managing Partner, Silicon Valley Tax LLC
What's Next

Your Business. Your Agents.

The same Claude Code infrastructure, sandboxed environments, custom agents, and automated workflows we built for Silicon Valley Tax can be installed and customized for any business.

Whether you're in professional services, e-commerce, SaaS, healthcare, legal, or real estate — we configure everything around your specific tools, workflows, and pain points. No templates. No generic chatbots. Just production systems built for how your team actually works.

Every build-out starts the same way: we learn your workflow, identify the biggest time sinks, and map out exactly what we'd automate. Then we build it.

What This Looks Like For You

Professional Services

  • Automated client intake and document collection
  • Staff assignment and workload balancing
  • Billing reports generated from time tracking data

E-Commerce

  • Inventory sync across channels and warehouses
  • Order processing and fulfillment routing
  • Customer support agents handling common tickets

SaaS / Tech

  • Deployment pipelines with automated rollback
  • Bug triage agents that categorize and assign issues
  • Automated QA and test generation

Real Estate

  • Deal pipeline automation from lead to close
  • Document generation for listings and contracts
  • CRM sync across multiple listing platforms

Healthcare

  • Appointment scheduling and reminder automation
  • Insurance verification and eligibility checks
  • Compliance documentation and audit trails

Legal

  • Contract review and clause extraction
  • Deadline tracking with automated alerts
  • Case management and document filing automation

Ready to Get the Same Results?

Every build-out starts with a free discovery call. We learn your workflow, identify the biggest time sinks, and show you exactly what we'd automate.

Every system we build is fully documented, SOC 2 compliant, and owned by you on day one.