Know who owns the client, who owns the work, and where responsibility changes hands
Hearth separates the client relationship, professional accounting and tax work, advisory systems, and supporting technology so a firm can see exactly where each role begins and ends.
Four parties. Different responsibilities
The point of the structure is not complexity. It is to keep professional responsibility, technology, advisory design, and the firm's client relationship from being blurred together.
Your accounting firm
The client's primary advisor and relationship owner.
Hearth Agency LLC
The productized advisory and firm-systems layer.
McGee's Consulting LLC
The professional tax and accounting delivery layer where the applicable engagement documents assign that role.
NineOneSix Systems
The software and automation layer.
The handoff is visible before the engagement begins
The exact workflow varies by capability, but the governing idea stays the same: the firm owns the client relationship, the appropriate delivery layer performs the work, professional judgment sits with the qualified reviewer, and the result returns to the firm.
The firm identifies the need.
A HearthRC report, Bookkeeping capacity, Practice Management implementation, Legacy candidate, or broader practice need starts with the accounting firm.
The right delivery layer takes the work.
Hearth coordinates the capability; professional accounting/tax work and technology remain with the entity responsible for that layer.
Professional-weight output gets reviewed.
When the work carries accounting or tax professional weight, the appropriate professional review occurs before the output is relied on.
The firm remains in the client-facing seat.
Work product and next-step information return to the partner firm so it can advise the client within the broader relationship it already owns.
Data movement, §7216 consent, system access, and document separation are governed separately from this responsibility model.
Review Security & Data Use →Technology can support the work. It does not become the accountable professional
Hearth's published model separates automation from the professional judgment required before a client-facing or filing-related output is relied on.
See Where Human Review Sits →Professional standards stay with the professional layer.
Accounting and tax work is delivered through the entity responsible for professional practice—not reclassified as software because technology helped produce it.
Automation is disclosed, not hidden.
AI and workflow tools can accelerate categorization, calculation, routing, or documentation. The AI Disclosure explains what they may see and where human review occurs.
The firm can inspect the responsibility path.
Before relying on a capability, the partner firm can identify which entity performed the work and which professional standard or review applies.
Your firm stays the client's advisor
The purpose of the delivery stack is to add capability behind the accounting firm—not to replace the firm in front of the client.
The relationship belongs in writing
- Which firm is client-of-record for the relationship being protected.
- How no-poach or non-solicitation protections apply.
- Who communicates directly with the client and for what purpose.
- Which party owns each professional, operational, and technology responsibility.
- How exceptions or capability-specific arrangements are documented.
Governance answers responsibility. These pages answer the adjacent diligence questions
What data moves where?
Review consent, access, workflow-vs-tax-document separation, and the security posture.
Security & Data Use →What tools see what?
Review AI/tool categories, data visibility, and where human review occurs before reliance.
AI Disclosure →What can the firm inspect?
Review sample work, methodology, historical outcomes, and how Hearth interprets evidence.
Evidence & Proof →Evaluate the capability your firm is actually considering
Each Hearth capability keeps this governance model, then adds the diligence specific to the work itself.