A few weeks ago I wrote about giving each client a shared room where their agent and ours could work from the same context. I walked through it with a group of firm owners at @TCRTalks this week, and built this visual to show how I'm thinking about it. There are three spaces in the video, and each has a different purpose. The client's space is their own. Their business, their family, their plans, and a place to explore ideas with their agent. They should be able to think through something privately with their agent before deciding to bring us into it. The shared engagement space is where we come together, both client and accountant + their agents. Current financials, tax returns, documents we're waiting on, decisions we've made and why, and what we're working toward. Both agents can work from that shared context, with permissions around what each can see and do. Then there's our space as the accountant. Our workpapers, internal notes, research, and review process. A lot of that stays with us. We choose what moves into the shared space, just as the client chooses what comes across from theirs. That's why the connections between the rooms matter. We're deciding what gets shared, for what purpose, and who/which agents can act on it. I think of it as radical observability. The client and their agent can see where the engagement stands and understand what's happening, while we both still have room to do our own work. The goal is for clients to be able to self-inform. If they're lying in bed wondering about hiring someone or buying a truck, their agent has the context to help them start exploring it. When they're ready to bring us in, we can work through the decision with them. This is a concept walkthrough of the agent native accountant/client relationship I'm building towards.