The control board
The full operating sequence ran on the scratch workbook: preflight, roll forward, import, reconcile, refresh and review, followed by standalone FX and return imports.
Open before capture Open after captureA virtual tour
The Factory Floor
A working model of a transformed tax department. Scroll to walk the line. Step up to any machine and run it yourself. Every number here is synthetic. Everything it does is real.
Best experienced on a laptop. Works everywhere.
Walk the line ↓01 · Intake bay
Work arrives messy.
Files from the auditors, extracts from systems, numbers someone typed into a spreadsheet. The first machine sorts what can be automated from what needs a person. Nothing falls on the floor.
Synthetic data
Three inputs arrive. Two route to machines. A scanned letter routes to a person, who reviews its flagged field before sending the approved record to the line.
02 · The extractor
Every number is traceable.
The extractor reads source documents into structured data, and it keeps the receipts. Pick any number and it points back to the exact spot on the page it came from.
Synthetic data
A synthetic source page and its extracted table. Every row points back to where it came from, and one is flagged for review.
03 · The workbook machine
Excel, but on rails.
Your team's workbook, driven by code. Change one input and the whole chain recomputes. No pasted values, nothing hardcoded, nowhere for a stale number to hide.
Synthetic data
A small live grid: move one input and the dependent cells recompute in order. Turn on the wiring to see what feeds what.
04 · Gate one
Try to sneak an error past it.
Before anything moves on, the gate re-checks the work against the sources. In our published SR&ED engagement, gates like this caught real errors before they ever reached review. Go ahead, break something.
Synthetic data
Twelve tie-out checks, all green. Sabotage a figure and watch the specific checks that catch it turn red, then restore the file to clear the barrier.
05 · The decision desk
The machine prepares. A person decides.
Some calls belong to your team: sizing a claim, accepting a position, signing off. The line stops here until a person says go, and the file records who decided and why.
Synthetic data
A one-screen decision brief with two prepared options. Choose one to release the line. Either answer is fine, the point is that nothing moves without you.
06 · The handoff crane
The handoff is the product.
At the end of an engagement you do not get a report and an invoice for next year. You get the floor: the code, the runbooks, the tests, and a team that knows how to run it. We build it with you, then we hand it over.
Synthetic data
The manifest of a handoff: code, runbooks, test suite, training, and a support taper. Flip through each item and the far-side line lights up.
07 · The gallery
07 · The gallery
Proof on the wall.
The line ends where the results hang. Each of these is a real engagement or a piece written from one, not a rendering.
- 97% less hands-on effort than the manual baseline
- 3× faster end to end
- $23 total AI cost to run the workflow
Case study
Why pure agents are not enough
Read → Case studyAutomating Complex Tax Provision Roll-Forward
Read → Case studyAutomating away 80 clicks
Read → ArticleThe New Way of Working with Excel
Read →There is more on the walls than one wall can hold. Follow the painted path into the annex, or head for the door and book the call.
Enter the annex →08 · End of the line
Bring the floor to your department.
This tour is the short version of an engagement: we build your floor together, and your team learns by running it. If something clicked while you were breaking that gate, we should talk.
09 · Writing wings
09 · The writing wings
Ideas with shop marks still on them.
Two working walls hold the field notes: one about building the machinery, one about deciding where it belongs.
Excel wing
Excel and automation practice
Wall 1
Case studyWhy pure agents are not enough Case studyAutomating Complex Tax Provision Roll-Forward Case studyAutomating away 80 clicks ArticleThe New Way of Working with Excel ArticleThe Cash Cost of AI Automation ArticleVolume Is the Enemy: Automating for Attention ArticleArchitects, Agents, and Excel Machines: Preparing the Next Generation of Tax Operations
All case studies → General wing
Strategy and AI
Wall 1
ArticleDISRUPTION ≠ DESTRUCTION ArticleWhy a Superpower Isn't Enough ArticleEnglish as Code; LLMs as Operating Systems ArticleThe most potent application of AI ArticleYour Digital Foundations Matter More Than Ever ArticleNo Time to Learn, No Room to Fix: The Catch-22 of Modern Tax Teams ArticleYou Can Just Do Things ArticleFrom Manual to AI-Augmented: A Practical Exercise in Tax Research ArticleAI Literacy: Communicating with the Machines ArticleA Profession at an Inflection Point ArticleFour Problems Facing our Departments ArticleThe Most Advanced o1 Model Still Needs a Professional Behind It. ArticleIs genAI part of your 2025 planning? ArticleTesting GPT o1 preview (a Tax POV) Article(Re)starting your genAI journey ArticleTopical Research with ChatGPT ArticleChatGPT takes on the "Volume" Problem ArticleThe Rise of Rogue Prompters: When your Employees Outpace Your Organization's AI Maturity
All articles → 10 · The workshop
10 · The workshop
Four shapes for the work.
Four real build patterns are running on the workshop benches.
- The chain
- Each finished step becomes the starting point for the next.
- By hand and on rails
- People decide; reliable repetition moves through the machine path.
- The hub
- Approved inputs feed every dependent output from a controlled centre.
- The machinist
- The strongest system pairs capable machinery with accountable professionals.
11 · The inspection room
See what the workbook did.
Seven stations expose a real run of the synthetic provision demo. Open any bench to compare the workbook immediately before and after its automation ran.
- 8 synthetic entities
- 3 jurisdictions
- 65 live checks
captured from a real run of the demo workbook.
The roll-forward
The gated roll-forward captured the completed period first, then proved each new opening against the closing balance it carried.
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Jurisdiction package intake
The Import lifecycle resolved the current-year Canadian, US and UK packages and landed their normalized tax rows in one machine table.
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FX translation
The highlighted 2026 rows show the standalone FX import replacing carried USD and GBP rates with the actual-rate file.
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Return to provision
Filed-return extracts landed after the roll and named the capital, vacation and donation deltas that post into deferred tax.
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The check board
Review re-ran all sixty-five checks after the current-year inputs and return extracts landed. This single, unspliced view keeps the register readable.
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Eight-entity consolidation
Refresh repopulated eight entity columns, applied eliminations and rebuilt the consolidated current-year statement.
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