A Relationship-First Firm That Refused to Feel Corporate
Sargent CPAs is a boutique accounting and advisory practice that serves clients across the United States and internationally. They offer bookkeeping, tax preparation, and on-demand consulting. Growth has come entirely through referrals, which means every client relationship carries outsized weight.
“We specialize in individual and freelancing clients. We really love helping our clients and building a relationship with them.”
That relationship-first model shaped how the firm evaluated software. The team spent a long time assessing the accounting-specific platforms like TaxDome and Canopy. None of them fit.
“TaxDome and Canopy may do everything you want in one box, but on the client side it feels very corporate. It didn’t look friendly or seem inviting.”
Assembly offered a more flexible, customized experience that allowed Sargent CPAs to offer a warm, client-first experience.
“When we looked at other software, it felt too corporate and hard around the edges. Assembly came the closest to letting us give our clients the experience we wanted.”
One Branded Portal for Communications, Tasks, and Documents
Sargent CPAs rolled out Assembly as the single front door for client interaction during their last renewal season. Communications, task lists, document intake, e-signatures, and billing all live in the same branded environment, replacing a stack of disconnected tools.
The firm’s core client workflow now runs through the Tasks app. Recurring obligations that used to require an email nudge, like paying estimated quarterly taxes, signing forms, and returning requested documents, now appear as tasks in the client’s portal with a clear next action.
“Our clients really liked that we had an integrated system where all of their communications and the tasks they needed to do were in one central location.”
Branding was non-negotiable for a firm whose differentiation is warmth. Assembly’s customization lets Sargent CPAs deliver a portal that reads as an extension of the firm rather than a vendor’s software.
“When clients log into the portal, they see our branded colors and our logos. They feel like it’s a safe, trusted place, with custom features in the side menu that are exactly what we need for our clients.”
Behind that client-facing simplicity, Anthony has built a heavily automated back office. Using Assembly’s API and Automations, he has taken the repetitive mechanics of a tax practice off his team’s plate.
“Assembly has allowed our team to work better by streamlining client communications, document intake, and form signing. With automations and integrations, we’ve automated a lot of the tedious work: downloading documents, uploading files for clients to sign on a regular basis, that doesn’t need the expertise of a CPA.”
Building Custom Experiences Inside Assembly Studio
Using Assembly’s new AI-powered app builder, Sargent CPAs were able to even further customize their client experience, starting with helping clients with their meeting management.
The concept was simple: a client-facing area in their portal that securely syncs with the team’s Google Calendar, finds upcoming meetings, and displays the date, time, and which Sargent CPAs team member they’re meeting, with a reschedule request built directly into the app. Most importantly, the internal team could control if and when the client’s rescheduling requests are approved.
“It’s a really awesome feature for our clients. A centralized location where they can log in and see any upcoming meetings they might have.”
Anthony was able to describe the app in plain language, connect to Google Calendar, and have a working app ready to be used by clients.
With a client-facing application under his belt, Anthony next plans to replace more complicated email-based tax document collection with a request list built into the portal.
“This is a common feature we see with other third-party software, but we wanted it integrated directly into our portal, and no third-party software does that. The client experience is really important to us. Being able to build something directly into the client portal was really important.”
Every custom app the firm builds is a third-party tool it doesn’t have to license, integrate, or explain to clients, while keeping the portal experience unbroken.
“You can build it any way you want and make it perfect for your clients and your business. With the ability to customize and build new apps, you save a lot of money instead of integrating third-party software.”
Lower Costs and an Experience that Clients Love
By integrating Assembly into their client process, Sargent CPAs have consolidated multiple software tools into one central location: billing, form signing, document requests, all while offering a client experience unique to their firm.
“Paying for multiple third-party tools gets expensive. Now it’s all under one hood for all our clients.”
The client-side payoff is the one that matters most to a referral-driven firm. Meeting questions that used to arrive by email now resolve in the portal. Quarterly tax obligations show up as tasks rather than accountants chasing clients via email. And every interaction happens inside an interface that looks and feels like Sargent CPAs.
“I love being able to think of any idea we come up with and implement it directly into the portal. We’ve created custom things that are really unique for our clients, and they’ve found them very helpful.”
With Assembly’s client experience platform and AI building features helping streamline custom experiences, Sargent CPAs is building toward a practice where the technology disappears and the advisory relationship is all the client sees.
Get started