TAP is OPTY's dedicated back-office practice for Canadian CPA firms—built around T2 corporate tax compilation and year-end work. Confidential by default, contractually protected against client solicitation, and staffed by people who take the work as seriously as you do.
Start a conversation →Every CPA firm eventually hits the same ceiling: tax season demand outstrips internal capacity, hiring is slow and expensive, and offshore alternatives raise quality and perception concerns most partners aren't willing to accept. The usual back-office model doesn't help much either—competitors sell you headcount: a person, their hours, and the burden of managing them yourself. TAP works differently. We take files—handed to us, returned complete, with a committed turnaround. You don't manage a resource; you receive finished work.
TAP's focus is corporate tax preparation—T2 returns and the year-end working papers behind them. It's a deliberate specialization. We don't try to be a generalist back-office; we do a specific job well, on your firm's schedule, in your firm's software, delivered to your firm's standards. Your reviewer signs the return. We make sure what lands on their desk is ready to sign.
The concerns partners have about outsourcing are legitimate—client relationships, quality control, professional exposure, workflow disruption, and the cost of managing yet another team member. TAP addresses them directly, in writing, from day one.
Competitors sell headcount—a person, their hours, and the responsibility of managing them yourself. TAP takes files. You hand over the work, we return it complete on a committed turnaround. No onboarding, no supervision, no wondering what to give them next.
Every engagement starts with a signed non-solicitation agreement. Your clients are yours—that's not a handshake commitment, it's a contractual term of doing business together.
TAP carries its own E&O insurance. Your firm's coverage isn't stretched to protect our work—we carry the exposure ourselves.
Caseware, TaxCycle, Profile, DTMax, or something else—TAP adapts to the software and workflow your firm already runs on. No forced migrations, no new tools for your team to learn.
Some of our staff are CPA-designated; others are qualified through years of hands-on tax preparation. Every file goes through internal review before it reaches your desk.
The reason most CPA firms hesitate to bring in a back-office partner isn't the cost or the quality—it's the fear that their client relationships become vulnerable. It's a rational concern, and the offshore back-office model doesn't really address it. TAP does, formally.
Before any work begins, we sign an agreement that explicitly commits TAP (and OPTY) not to approach the CPA firm's clients directly, not to solicit them for any OPTY service, and not to retain client-identifying information beyond the engagement itself. It's a term of the relationship, not an afterthought. If you want to see the language before we start, we'll send it over.
The right back-office relationship is one you barely notice. Here's the shape of a typical TAP engagement.
We talk through your practice, your typical workload, the software you use, and the kind of engagement model that fits. Confidential by default.
We sign the non-solicitation agreement and agree on scope, format, turnaround, and pricing model up front.
Most firms start with a small pilot—one or two returns—to build confidence in the workflow before scaling up.
Once the workflow is settled, TAP becomes reliable capacity your firm can count on, in season and out.
"The best back-office relationship is one that's invisible to your clients and reliable to your team. That's the bar."— How TAP thinks about the work
No. Every engagement starts with a signed non-solicitation agreement. The commitment isn't just implied or handshake—it's contractual. Your client relationships are yours, and protecting them is a term of doing business together.
Whatever your firm uses. Caseware, TaxCycle, Profile, DTMax, and others—we adapt to your workflow, not the other way around. If you have a preferred file structure, review process, or naming convention, we work within it.
Your firm. Everything TAP produces on your behalf is your work product, delivered to your file structure in the format you specify. TAP retains no client-identifying records after the engagement.
Some staff are CPA-designated. Others are qualified through experience—senior tax preparers who've been compiling corporate returns for years. Every file goes through internal review before it reaches your desk.
Yes. Professional liability (E&O) insurance is in place. Details available on request during the engagement discussion.
Because file scope and complexity vary widely, pricing is discussed per engagement based on the shape of the work and what fits your practice. We'll walk through it during the initial conversation.
Offshore models typically sell headcount—a person or team, and the responsibility of managing them yourself. That means onboarding, task assignment, and review overhead your firm has to absorb. TAP takes files, not people. You hand over specific work, we return it complete on a committed turnaround, and you don't manage a resource in between. Combined with a Canadian team, CPA-fluent staff, signed non-solicitation, and E&O insurance, the value proposition is fundamentally different.
Depends on complexity and season. We commit to specific turnaround windows as part of each engagement, and we hit them. Reliability during tax season is table stakes for us—we won't take on work we can't deliver on time.
Absolutely. Most firms start with a small pilot—one or two returns—before scaling up. It's the right way to build confidence in a back-office relationship. Reach out and we'll set one up.
Because the whole point of a discreet back-office relationship is that it's discreet. Firms trust us in part because we don't turn their name into marketing. References available privately during the engagement discussion.
If TAP might be a fit for your firm, the best way to know is a brief, confidential conversation. No prepared pitch—just a discussion about your practice and whether the fit is real.
Start a conversation →