Email hosting for accountants: handle tax season without per-seat scaling
Accounting firms deal with seasonal volume spikes, client document exchange, and multiple partners or staff needing access to shared practice inboxes. Per-user pricing makes busy season expensive because every temporary hire or seasonal preparer becomes another seat. Shipmail charges per mailbox and includes calendar and contacts for managing tax deadlines and client schedules.
Real pricing: accounting firm email setup
An accounting firm with 4 CPAs serving 30 small business clients. On Google Workspace: 4 × $7 = $28/month for email. To handle secure client communication and file sharing, the firm would typically add a secure client portal tool ($50+/month) or build one ($5,000+ initial cost). On Shipmail Team ($29/month), the firm creates 30 client mailboxes (client-name@firm.com), grants the assigned CPA and admin access, and uses Shipmail for secure client communication.
The firm also creates internal mailboxes (research@, tax-updates@, billing@) where all CPAs collaborate. All of this lives under one Shipmail Team account at $29/month.
Client file collection
Accounting firms receive documents, questions, and requests from dozens of clients during tax season. These arrive at shared addresses like tax@, payroll@, or the firm's general info@ address.
Without shared inbox, the typical setup is forwarding tax@ to all partners, which creates duplicate responses and confusion about who handled what. Or the firm shares a single login for the tax@ account, which has no audit trail and poor security.
Shipmail's shared inbox gives each partner their own login with access to the shared addresses. Client emails are visible to everyone with access, replies go out from the shared address, and the firm can see who responded.
Real workflow: client file collection
A small business owner emails tax@firm.com with their 2025 revenue report and bank statements. The assigned CPA and the firm's bookkeeper both have access to tax@firm.com. The CPA reviews the documents, asks clarifying questions, and the client responds in the same mailbox. Full thread history, no forwarding.
The bookkeeper takes the documents and imports them into QuickBooks. The CPA drafts the return and attaches it to the same thread for client review. The client sees the return, provides feedback, and the CPA makes edits within the shared mailbox. No email trail fragmentation.
When an accounting firm should choose something else
Firms heavily embedded in Microsoft 365 for Excel, financial modeling, and SharePoint-based document management should stay on Microsoft for email. The integration between Outlook and Excel is valuable for firms that live in spreadsheets.
Firms that need a client portal for document exchange (secure upload, e-signatures, organized per client) should evaluate practice management tools like Canopy or Karbon that bundle email, portal, and workflow. Shipmail handles email, not practice management.
Large firms with 20+ staff are better served by Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace where enterprise admin controls, compliance features, and per-user storage become more relevant.
Core pain points
- +Client file sharing and communication mixed in email. Tax returns, QuickBooks credentials, and year-end statements arrive via email. Without a secure shared mailbox, accountants forward sensitive documents between personal addresses or share passwords. Compliance and security suffer.
- +Multi-partner collaboration on client work. A client emails their accountant. Three partners need to review the tax situation. On Gmail, the first partner would forward it to the other two. On Shipmail, all three access the same mailbox and see the conversation in one place.
- +Per-client infrastructure costs. Accounting firms often consider building a secure client portal, but the cost of development and hosting for a small firm is prohibitive. Email-based shared inbox with clear access control is often good enough.
Getting started
- 1Add your firm's domain. Shipmail walks you through the registrar setup. Create individual mailboxes for partners and shared addresses like info@, tax@, and payroll@.
- 2Grant shared inbox access to partners and permanent staff. Everyone who handles client communication sees the same shared inboxes. Replies go out from the firm's address, not a personal mailbox.
- 3Before tax season, add seasonal staff to the relevant shared inboxes. A temporary preparer gets access to tax@ without needing their own personal mailbox. No new per-seat charge.
- 4After the season, remove temporary access. The shared inboxes stay intact with the permanent team. No cleanup of forwarding rules or shared credentials.
FAQ
Questions worth answering.
Common questions about using Shipmail for accounting firm email.
- Does Shipmail charge extra for seasonal staff?
- No. Shipmail charges per mailbox, not per user. Adding a seasonal preparer to a shared inbox during tax season does not increase the monthly cost as long as the plan's team member limit is not exceeded. The Team plan has unlimited team members.
- Which plan fits a small accounting firm?
- Pro at $9/month covers 10 mailboxes and 5 team members. That handles partner addresses plus shared inboxes for tax@, payroll@, and info@. Firms needing more mailboxes or unlimited team members during busy season should use Team ($29/month).
- Can different partners see different client inboxes?
- Yes. Shared inbox access is granted per mailbox. A partner handling tax clients can have access to tax@ without seeing the payroll@ inbox. Access is controlled at the mailbox level.
- Is Shipmail secure enough for client financial data?
- Shipmail encrypts email in transit and offers optional encryption at rest with user-held keys. It uses the same security standards as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. For firms with regulatory requirements mandating end-to-end encryption, a dedicated encrypted email provider is a better fit.
- How does Shipmail compare to Microsoft 365 for accountants?
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic costs $6/user/month. A seven-person firm (four permanent, three seasonal) pays $42/month during tax season. Shipmail Team at $29/month covers unlimited team members year-round. If the firm depends on Excel and SharePoint, Microsoft is the better bundle. If it only needs email, Shipmail costs less.
- How do I handle email for seasonal tax preparers?
- Add seasonal staff as team members with access to shared inboxes like tax@ and payroll@. They log in with their own credentials. When tax season ends, remove their access. The shared inbox history stays intact and you do not pay extra per person.
Internal links
Related
More on Shipmail pricing, comparisons, and how it handles shared inboxes.