INTUIT
Client report builder - Helping accountants deliver clear, client-ready insights
MY ROLE
- Research
- Conceptualization
- Design
- A/B testing
- Dev handoff
TEAM
- Product manager
- UX researcher
- 1 Engineer
- 1 Tax specialist
DURATION
- 1 month
INTRODUCTION
What is the Client Report Builder?
Accountants were looking to expand beyond tax preparation into advisory services, where they could guide clients on strategies to save on taxes and reach long-term financial goals. Clients weren’t just asking for accurate returns, they wanted proactive advice that showed how to make smarter decisions year-round.
Early versions of Intuit Tax Advisor focused heavily on calculations, but fell short when it came to client communication. Tax professionals still had to export data into third-party tools like Excel or Canva to create reports, adding extra work and inconsistency.
The Client Report Builder was designed as a 0 to 1 solution, helping accountants turn complex strategies into clear, client-ready reports directly within Intuit Tax Advisor.
Early versions of Intuit Tax Advisor focused heavily on calculations, but fell short when it came to client communication. Tax professionals still had to export data into third-party tools like Excel or Canva to create reports, adding extra work and inconsistency.
The Client Report Builder was designed as a 0 to 1 solution, helping accountants turn complex strategies into clear, client-ready reports directly within Intuit Tax Advisor.
Client Report Builder interface
Single page example of a client report
USER FRICTION
Problem breakdown
At the time, Intuit Tax Advisor already had a first iteration that combined tax preparation with a strategy feature, but it wasn’t received well. Accountants told us the calculations and strategies were helpful, but they still had to export everything out into Canva or Excel and customize reports one by one for each client.
This created three main pain points:
⏳ Extremely time consuming
Creating and formatting reports often took hours per client and accountants could have 60 to 100+ clients.
🚫️ Lost consistency
Every exported report looked different, which weakened the professionalism of their deliverables and made firms appear less polished.
😞 Weak client experience
Clients were often handed dense spreadsheets that were hard to understand, which made it difficult for them to see the value of the tax strategies.
As a result, many were hesitant to adopt Tax Advisor fully because it didn’t solve their last-mile problem: communicating value to clients.
The initial experience received an NPS score of -29
UNCOVERING USER NEEDS
User research
We conducted interviews with 15+ tax professionals across firms of different sizes. Key themes that we identified were:
⏰ Inefficient workflows
Building reports required jumping between multiple tools, which slowed accountants down and added unnecessary complexity.
🎨 Customization needs
Accountants wanted control over which insights to highlight, along with space to add their own commentary.
🤝 Client trust
Presentation mattered. Clean, branded reports made clients more confident in both the advice and the accountant’s expertise.
TRANSLATING INSIGHTS
Iteration & Testing
I facilitated design sprints and rapid prototypes, testing with tax pros weekly. Insights that shaped our design:
Accountants, not designers
Tax pros weren’t looking for full creative control, they just needed a tool that saved time while still allowing some customization.
Built-in advantage
Exporting to external tools was a major pain point, so having reporting capabilities directly inside ITA would give the product an edge.
Flexible editing
While they didn’t want to design from scratch, they needed the ability to add or remove sections and tailor the report to each client.
Low-fidelity wireframes of the Client Report Builder
FINAL OUTPUT
What we shipped & why
✨ Pre-generated template
Tax pros aren't designers. A pre-generated template gave them a polished starting point that looked professional out of the box while still leaving room for edits.
🎨 Brand customization
Accountants wanted their reports to feel like their own. We added options to include logos and brand colors so accountants could present strategies with credibility and professionalism.
🧩 Modular editing
Every section was made modular so accountants could add, remove, or reorder content. This gave flexibility without slowing down their workflow.
📊 Client-ready reports
An example of a reported created in Intuit Tax Advisor, designed to be client-friendly with visuals and clear explanations that make tax strategies easy to understand.
BUSINESS & USER IMPACT
Post-launch results
We tested the new version of Intuit Tax Advisor with the built-in Client Report Builder, and it was received very positively. Beta users reported creating reports much faster and with greater satisfaction thanks to the added customization tools.
Tested with a panel of 7 accountants
Usability rating: 89%
Added value rating: 91%