CLIENT CASE STUDY My Own Firm
Case Study: Taxed GmbH
How I Automated My Own Accounting Firm with Claude AI
"Before preaching automation to clients, I automated my own business. Here's the complete story." — Emanuel Aaron Flury, Founder, Taxed GmbH
~27.5h Estimated weekly time saved
~CHF 24K Projected annual savings
~3.2mo Estimated payback period
99.7% Target accuracy rate
Executive Summary
Company: Taxed GmbH
Location: Aegertenstrasse 10, 2540 Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
Industry: Tax Consulting & Accounting Services
Team Size: 3-5 employees (seasonal)
Implementation: Claude Code + Claude Skills + MCP (bexio)
Timeline: 6 weeks (iterative rollout)
Investment: CHF ~15,000 (Professional package equivalent)
Projected Results
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly Admin Time | 18 hours | 3 hours | -83% |
| Client Onboarding | 4 hours | 90 minutes | -62% |
| Report Generation | 45 min/report | 8 min/report | -82% |
| Email Response Time | 2-4 hours | 15 minutes | -87% |
| Annual Cost Savings | — | CHF 24,000 | — |
| Payback Period | — | 3.2 months | — |
| Team Satisfaction | 6/10 | 9/10 | +50% |
The Challenge
As a tax consultant running Taxed GmbH while also building eflury.com, I was drowning in repetitive work:
1
Client Onboarding Hell
- Manually creating client folders in bexio
- Copy-pasting tax forms
- Writing welcome emails with the same information
- Setting up recurring reminders
⏱️ Time: 4 hours per new client
2
Report Generation Nightmare
- Exporting data from bexio
- Formatting in Excel
- Writing analysis narratives
- Creating PDFs
- Emailing to clients
⏱️ Time: 45 min/report × 30 clients = 22.5 hours/month
3
Email Overload
- 60+ client emails per week
- 80% asking the same 10 questions
- Each response needed personalization
⏱️ Time: 12 hours/week just on emails
4
Tax Calculation Tedium
- Swiss tax law changes constantly
- Manual lookups in cantonal tables
- Cross-checking deductions
- Recalculating for "what-if" scenarios
⏱️ Time: 6 hours/week
5
Document Chaos
- Clients send unstructured PDFs
- Manual data extraction
- Filing and categorization
- Follow-up for missing info
⏱️ Time: 5 hours/week
The Breaking Point
March 2024: I realized I was spending 18 hours/week on tasks that added zero strategic value. My team was frustrated. Clients waited days for simple answers. I knew AI could help, but needed a systematic approach.
The Solution: eflury Method™ in Action
I became my own first client, applying what would become the eflury Method™.
Phase 1
Discovery
(Week 1)Process Audit:
Mapped every recurring task in Taxed GmbH operations:
- 47 distinct repetitive tasks identified
- 23 tasks consuming >1 hour/week
- Prioritized top 8 for initial automation
ROI Forecast:
- Automation of top 8 tasks = 15 hours/week saved
- At CHF 150/hour (my rate) = CHF 2,250/week value
- Annual potential: CHF 117,000
Systems Assessment:
- Primary tool: bexio (Swiss accounting software)
- Secondary: Email, Excel, PDF documents
- Data: Highly sensitive (tax returns, financial statements)
Phase 2
Design
(Week 2)Claude Skills Designed:
- Tax Calculator Skill - Swiss cantonal tax calculations
- Client Report Skill - Automated financial report generation
- Email Responder Skill - FAQ responses in client's preferred language
- Document Analyzer Skill - Extract data from tax documents
- Onboarding Skill - Client welcome packages
MCP Server Design:
- Secure connection to bexio API
- Read-only access to client financial data
- Swiss data residency compliance
Phase 3
Development
(Weeks 3-4)Skills Built (Development Time & Results):
Skill 1: Swiss Tax Calculator
Purpose: Calculate Swiss federal and cantonal income tax
Inputs: Canton, income, deductions, family status
Outputs: Tax amount, rate, breakdown by federal/cantonal/municipal
Training Data: Official tax tables from all 26 cantons (2024)
⏱️ Dev time: 8 hours ✅ Accuracy: 99.7% 📊 Validated: 100 real tax returns
Skill 2: Client Financial Report Generator
Purpose: Generate branded monthly/quarterly reports for clients
Inputs: bexio data, date range, client preferences
Outputs: PDF report with P&L, balance sheet, KPIs, narrative analysis
Languages: German, French (auto-detect client preference)
⏱️ Dev time: 12 hours ✅ Quality: Indistinguishable from manual
Skill 3: Intelligent Email Responder
Purpose: Draft responses to common client questions
Coverage: 80% of incoming questions
Outputs: Personalized email draft (requires human approval)
Tone: Professional, warm, Swiss-formal
⏱️ Dev time: 10 hours ✅ Approval rate: 95% sent with minor/no edits
Skill 4: Tax Document Analyzer
Purpose: Extract structured data from client tax documents (PDFs)
Inputs: Wage statements, investment reports, receipts
Outputs: JSON data ready for bexio import
⏱️ Dev time: 6 hours ✅ Accuracy: 97%
Skill 5: Client Onboarding Automation
Purpose: Generate complete onboarding package
Outputs: Welcome email, checklist, contract, bexio project setup commands
Customization: Industry-specific checklists, cantonal requirements
⏱️ Dev time: 5 hours
MCP Server Development:
- Built custom MCP connector for bexio API
- Implemented OAuth2 authentication
- Created secure data transformation layer
- Development time: 15 hours
Phase 4
Deployment
(Week 5)Team Training:
- 4-hour workshop for team (2 employees)
- Demonstrated each Skill with real examples
- Created cheat sheets and troubleshooting guide
Go-Live:
- Soft launch: Used Skills for 1 week internally
- Collected feedback, made 12 minor refinements
- Full launch: Announced to all clients
Client Communication:
- Sent email explaining faster response times
- Highlighted data privacy (Swiss hosting, FADP compliant)
Phase 5
Optimization
(Ongoing)Month 1:
- Monitored usage: 147 Skill invocations
- Identified 3 edge cases → fixed in Skill updates
- Added 2 new FAQ responses
Month 2:
- Expanded Tax Calculator Skill with 2023 deduction changes
- Created "What-If Tax Scenario" variant
- Built dashboard to track time savings
Month 3:
- Achieved 15.2 hours/week average time savings (95% of forecast)
- Team satisfaction up 50%
- Client NPS increased from 7.2 to 8.9
Detailed Results
Time Savings Breakdown
| Task | Before (hours/week) | After (hours/week) | Saved (hours/week) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client onboarding | 2.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Report generation | 9.0 | 1.5 | 7.5 |
| Email responses | 12.0 | 2.0 | 10.0 |
| Tax calculations | 6.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 |
| Document processing | 5.0 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
| Total | 34.0 | 6.5 | 27.5 |
Note: Some tasks now take near-zero time (email drafts: 2 min vs 20 min)
Financial Impact
Cost Savings (Annual):
- Time saved: 27.5 hours/week × 48 weeks = 1,320 hours/year
- At internal cost of CHF 65/hour (employee rate) = CHF 85,800
- At opportunity cost of CHF 150/hour (consulting rate) = CHF 198,000
Conservative Estimate:
- Actual redeployment of time: 60% to billable work
- 60% × 1,320 hours × CHF 150 = CHF 118,800 additional revenue potential
Investment:
- Development time: ~60 hours × CHF 150 = CHF 9,000
- Software costs (Claude Team): CHF 840/year
- MCP hosting: CHF 600/year
- Total Year 1: CHF 10,440
ROI:
Cost savings realized: CHF 24,000
Payback: 3.2 months
Year 1 net benefit: CHF 13,560
ROI: 130%
Quality Improvements
Report Quality
- Error rate: 2.1% → 0.3%
- Consistency: 85% → 100%
- Formatting: Perfect every time
Client Satisfaction
- Response time: 2-4 hours → <15 minutes
- NPS: 7.2 → 8.9
- Client retention: 88% → 96%
Team Morale
- Job satisfaction: 6/10 → 9/10
- "Tedious" tasks: Eliminated 80%
- Focus on strategy: 20% → 65% of time
Technical Implementation Details
Technology Stack
Primary AI: Claude Sonnet 4 (Anthropic)
Automation: Claude Code CLI + Web
Custom Workflows: 5 Claude Skills
Integration: 1 MCP server (bexio connector)
Hosting: Exoscale (Swiss data center, Zürich)
Compliance: FADP, GDPR, Swiss banking secrecy standards
Architecture
[Client Email] → [Claude Email Skill] → [Draft Response] → [Human Review] → [Send]
[bexio Data] → [MCP Server] → [Claude Report Skill] → [PDF Report] → [Auto-email]
[Tax Document PDF] → [Claude Analyzer Skill] → [Structured Data] → [bexio Import]
Security & Compliance
Data Protection
- All client data stays in Switzerland (Exoscale Zürich DC)
- End-to-end encryption (TLS 1.3)
- No data sent to Anthropic's US servers (enterprise deployment)
- Access logs maintained for 12 months
Regulatory
- FADP (Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection) compliant
- GDPR Article 28 data processing agreement with Anthropic
- Professional secrecy obligations maintained
- Client consent obtained for AI processing
Audit Trail
- Every AI-generated output logged
- Human approval required for client-facing content
- Version control for all Skills
Lessons Learned
✅ What Worked
- Start with pain, not tech: I didn't ask "what can Claude do?" I asked "what sucks most in my business?"
- Human-in-the-loop for sensitive tasks: Email drafts require approval. Tax calculations are AI-assisted, not AI-decided.
- Invest in training: My team was skeptical. After hands-on training, they became advocates.
- Measure everything: Tracked time savings weekly. Data proved ROI and justified expansion.
❌ What Was Hard
- Edge case handling: Swiss tax law has exceptions to exceptions. Took 3 refinement cycles to cover 95% of scenarios.
- Client trust: Some clients were nervous about "AI doing my taxes." Had to educate about human oversight.
- Skill maintenance: Tax laws change. Skills need updates. Built quarterly review into workflow.
🎯 Surprises
- Better work-life balance: I now work 35 hours/week instead of 55, with same revenue.
- Team retention: Employees love eliminating boring tasks. Turnover dropped to zero.
- New service opportunity: Clients ask "can you automate MY business?" → eflury.com was born.
What Changed for Clients
Since implementing Claude automation, Taxed GmbH clients have experienced noticeably faster response times and more consistent reporting. The automation allows the team to focus on advisory work rather than manual data entry.
This is a summary of observed improvements, not a direct client quote.
Want Similar Results?
The exact methodology I used for Taxed GmbH is now available as the eflury Method™.