How an Australian accounting firm handles calls 24/7: an implementation walkthrough

MGI South Queensland uses Valory AI to answer all its calls, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The workflow combines staff-directory routing, Outlook booking workflows and structured staff notifications, with human follow-up when a request needs the team's attention.

The difficult accounting call is often an ordinary one. An existing client asks for a particular person. A new caller needs help with bookkeeping but is unsure who to speak to. Someone wants to move an appointment while the team is in meetings.

Answering is only the first step. The useful result is a clear next action: the right person receives the message, a booking is confirmed where configured, or the caller understands what will happen next.

This walkthrough draws on Valory AI's MGI South Queensland rollout and real client use cases. It covers how calls reach the right person, what happens when a booking cannot be confirmed, and what needs attention after launch.

What the real rollout involved

MGI's published implementation covers several connected pieces of work:

• Staff-directory lookup and routing across business units.
• Outlook calendar integration and booking-related workflows.
• Structured notifications for staff after calls.
• Refinements to staff-name recognition, requested-person routing and fallback rules.
• Ongoing work on caller experience, including waiting, phone readback and how calls finish.

The directory, calendar access, notification destination and fallback all have to agree. That is where much of the implementation work sits.

The case study covers the rollout and published results. Here, we work through the decisions behind it: coverage, staff routing, bookings and what the team needs after a call.

Should an accounting firm use 24/7 answering or overflow coverage?

MGI uses full 24/7 answering. For another practice, the right coverage depends on how staff work and which calls they want to handle directly.

24/7 answering does not mean an accountant is available 24/7. The assistant can handle the agreed intake and booking steps; advice, exceptions and callbacks still need a staff owner. Phone-routing options depend on the firm's phone service.

Before configuring anything, agree:

1. When to answer: all calls 24/7, overflow, after hours, or an agreed combination.
2. What the assistant may do: capture a message, explain approved process information, offer a booking, or use a configured transfer route.
3. Who owns follow-up: a named staff member, a service team or a monitored shared inbox.
4. What happens when the preferred action fails: an unavailable staff member, an ambiguous name or a calendar that cannot confirm a booking.

A callback is only a useful fallback when someone owns it. Agree the response expectation with the firm; do not have the assistant invent a deadline.

The call-forwarding guide covers routing mechanics. The decisions here come before choosing carrier settings.

Four calls to work through before launch

These example scenarios show the decisions to work through with the firm before launch.

The named-person request

“I was hoping to speak with the person who handled our accounts last year” is a different problem from “Can I book a consultation?”

A useful assistant asks a short clarifying question, uses the approved directory and carries the caller's context into the handoff. If the name remains unclear, it should say so and use the firm's fallback route. It should not choose a staff member because a name sounds close.

MGI's public rollout specifically describes improvements to staff-name handling and requested-person routing. For another firm, those are good reasons to include similar names, unfamiliar pronunciations and former staff in the acceptance checks.

The new-client enquiry

The aim is to give the next person enough context to respond. Usually that means establishing the service needed, whether the caller is already a client, and how to get back to them.

It does not mean collecting an entire financial history over the phone. Keep the questions proportionate, and use the firm's approved secure process for documents or sensitive details.

Direct booking may be useful where the firm has agreed appointment types and calendar access. Where that is not ready, a well-routed enquiry can be the better first step. The assistant should explain which of those outcomes actually happened.

The booking that cannot be confirmed

A caller agreeing to a time is not the same as the calendar accepting it. A slot may no longer be available, the caller may need a different staff member, or the connected system may return an error.

The fallback should preserve the request and make the next step clear. For example: “I couldn't confirm that change. I'll pass the request to the team.” This is illustrative wording; each firm's message and follow-up process need approval.

The after-hours advice request

A caller might ask whether an expense can be claimed or what they should do about a deadline. The assistant's role is to capture and route the question, not answer it as an accountant.

It can explain approved office hours and the callback process. Urgent escalation only belongs in the workflow when a real recipient, coverage arrangement and escalation rule have been agreed. Otherwise, be honest that the request is awaiting staff review.

Make the staff handoff useful

A notification should help someone take the next action without reconstructing the conversation. An illustrative handoff might contain:

• Reason: existing client requesting a callback about a bookkeeping query.
• Requested recipient: the named person, or “not confirmed” if the lookup was uncertain.
• Contact: the details needed for the agreed callback.
• Timing: the caller's requested window, clearly distinguished from a promised response time.
• Outcome: message captured; no appointment booked or advice provided.
• Next owner: the agreed staff member or monitored team inbox.

Keep caller-stated urgency separate from a verified deadline. Keep “notification sent” separate from “staff have responded”. That distinction makes review much more useful than simply counting answered calls.

MGI's published setup includes structured post-call notifications. The exact fields, recipients and channels for another practice should follow its approved workflow.

What needed improving after launch

The useful lesson from MGI is that launch was followed by refinement. Its public case study describes work on staff names, routing, fallback rules, notification quality, booking changes and caller experience.

Those are concrete review questions for a managed service:

• Did the assistant ask for information the caller had already supplied?
• Did it find the requested person or use the correct fallback?
• Did the caller wait without knowing what was happening?
• Did the spoken booking outcome match the system result?
• Could staff understand and act on the notification?
• Did the conversation finish clearly?

The first week should produce a tuning list

Look for the small things that create extra work: a staff name misunderstood, a message sent to the wrong person or a caller unsure whether an appointment was confirmed. Turn each into a specific change and test the same scenario again. That is how we approach ongoing improvement: use the call evidence and staff feedback to make the next call work better.

A small acceptance checklist

Before sending routine traffic through the workflow, test a normal enquiry and the points where the workflow could become uncertain.

Use synthetic details for test calls. Review the resulting notifications as well as listening to the conversation. A fluent call with the wrong handoff is still an unsuccessful test.

After launch, review an agreed sample of real calls and staff feedback. Make focused changes, then recheck the relevant scenarios before widening the scope.

Is this the right starting point for your firm?

This approach is most useful when the problem is identifiable: consistent answering throughout the day and night, meeting-time interruptions, unclear ownership or calls reaching the wrong team. If your firm receives very few calls and follows up reliably, improving the existing callback process may be enough.

Bring three common call reasons, your phone setup and the intended follow-up owner to a walkthrough. From there, we can agree a small initial scope and decide whether booking or more complex routing is justified.

See the accounting answering service for service fit, the accounting intake guide for broader configuration guidance, and the cost guide for setup and ongoing usage examples.

Book a walkthrough to work through your firm's calls.