Truss

Four stages describe the whole product: intake, workpaper, prep, delivery. Clients get a link with no account to create and a checklist the system builds for them, documents land and are combined into a single bookmarked PDF in return order that reviewers tick and tie in the browser, and the finished return goes out assembled, signed and invoiced. Around that sit the pieces most firms otherwise buy separately, including engagement letters with merge fields, K-1 distribution with delivery tracking, secure file share, a native desktop app that works offline, and a phone scanner that files documents straight to the right project.

Two answers here are unusually specific. E-signature is built in rather than resold, it places signature fields automatically on 1040, 1120-S, 1065, 1041 and 990 forms, and it covers Form 8879 with knowledge-based authentication, defined on the page as identity questions drawn from personal data, with an optional one-time passcode by email or SMS layered on top. A firm sets a default verification level and can override it per document, and every verification event is logged. The other is AI Prep, which does not pretend to be a black box: qualifying 1040s at complexity levels L-0 to L-2 are routed to a named outside provider, Filed, Byron or Magnetic, and the finished return is imported back into the firm's tax program automatically, with returns flagged Action Required or Review Needed when a human is called for. Nine tax programs are supported, from Drake and ProSeries at one end to GoSystem and CCH Axcess at the other, which matters for a firm running two engines.

The gap is price. Nothing is published anywhere on the site: no per-return figure, no per-seat figure, no starting number, no self-serve trial. Everything routes to a Wednesday demo day or a booked call. Marketplace prep is priced separately and described only as pre-set. For a firm weighing 200 returns against 1,500, that is exactly the number needed to decide, and it cannot be obtained without a sales conversation. AI Prep is also narrow by design, individual returns only and only the simpler ones, so entity work stays manual.

Against StanfordTax the trade is scope for transparency: StanfordTax posts $18 per return and stops at the binder, Truss carries signing, delivery and payment but will not quote. Against SafeSend, Truss covers intake as well as delivery, where SafeSend is strongest at the delivery end. Against TaxCaddy the difference is that Truss is tax-software-agnostic instead of anchored to one vendor's engine.

Top-pick holds on evidence a firm can check. SOC 2 Type II since 2024 with annual audits, AES-256 at rest, SSO and SAML, a published subprocessor list and data residency options, a blog posting through August 2026, public API documentation, and listings on G2 and Capterra. The reservation is real and worth naming: a top pick that will not publish a price forces every buyer through a sales cycle before they know whether it fits.