Is the answer in the head of someone you work with?

When I was a tax grad, our firm ran a quarterly cross‑practice “Tax Ideas” session. It started with energy: a rotating roster of partners and managers from different business lines would present their latest insights from private group and corporate tax work. By quarter three, the wheels got wobbly. Preparation time became an issue, diaries filled, and the rotation quietly stalled. Everyone retreated to their natural knowledge habitat: the partner’s brain and the direct reporting line beneath it. The knowledge still existed—high quality and battle‑tested —but it was trapped in silos. “Tax Idea” emails and the corresponding folder on H-Drive became a museum of noble intentions.

Knowledge silos exist persist even in well‑run firms for a few reasons, including (but not limited to):

• Billable pressure: Sharing knowledge competes with utilisation targets. If it isn’t embedded in workflow, knowledge sharing loses to chargeable work.

• “Tool sprawl”: Advice sits in emails, Word, Teams, the document management system, and the “final_v7.docx”. Searching becomes a sport, not a system.

• Risk and reputation: Partners want control (for good reasons). Without structured review and sign‑off, informal sharing feels unsafe.

How Elfworks helps break the silos

Elfworks is being actively designed with an intention of turning firm knowledge from a collection of files into a living system. Three current platform features/pillars underpin this design goal:

1. The most accurate tax research and advice drafting tool on the market. It synthesises legislation, rulings and guidance into first‑draft advice tailored to your facts, complete with citations and assumptions for verification.

2. Built‑in review workflow. Reviewers can be brought into the drafting process with structured sign‑off and commentary—so refinement happens where the work lives.

3. One‑click learning module creation. When advice is final, Elfworks turns it into a hyper‑personalised learning module reflecting the client’s scenario, so teams can upskill with the exact context that just mattered.

A day in the life with Elfworks

Ø  You receive a private‑company restructure query.

Ø  You generate a new first‑draft advice with Elfworks.

Ø  You add a reviewer. The platform notifies the reviewer who leaves comments.

Ø  Advice is finalised.

Ø  Finalised advice is pushed to the DMS, a client‑safe version is generated, and the same content becomes a learning module for the team that will see this fact pattern again next quarter.

Next Steps

If you would like to trial a safe, secure and effective AI platform design to turn firm knowledge into a living system, please contact us at info@elfworks.ai.

Elfworks is the most accurate AI Tax platform in Australia, designed to transform the way accounting firms work. By harnessing multiple enterprise-grade AI models and over 70,000 Australian tax documents, including legislation, case law, ATO rulings, and private guidance, Elfworks delivers fast, reliable, and bias-free advice. The platform streamlines research, automates routine tasks, and builds firm-wide knowledge through hyper-personalised CPD, freeing accountants to focus on high-value client work while ensuring compliance and quality at every step.

Trusted by over 200 Australian accounting firms, Elfworks turns complex workflows into efficient, accurate, and profitable processes. 

Please click here for Elfworks pricing information.