Prepared for: Luis Lomba & Edwin · Codamere LLC · Confidential
Three signals from the discovery call shape every feature in this proposal.
| Signal | Detail |
|---|---|
| Scale | 1,300+ clients, minimum 5 filings per client — ~6,500+ annual filings |
| Jurisdictions | Puerto Rico tax code + US federal — both required for every client, every year |
| Core software | UltraTax (federal), local PR vendor (PR returns + document management), Microsoft 365, QuickBooks Online |
| Biggest bottleneck (Luis) | Return review time; status call interruptions; carryover detection across years |
| Critical requirement (Edwin) | Show the reasoning chain — every flag must cite the actual IRC section, PR code, or case. Not a summary. The source. |
| Gray area requirement (Luis) | System must carry HBL's interpretation of contested tax positions and update automatically when case law changes |
| Business continuity (Luis) | Full documentation, direct access, no black box — in case of team or company changes |
| Onboarding (Edgardo) | Automated client onboarding across all practice areas — intake, document collection, profile initialization |
| Partnership model | HBL wants a long-term intelligence partner — not a SaaS vendor, not a consultant |
HBL PR operates at a scale that manual processes can't absorb cleanly: 1,300+ clients, a minimum of five filings per client, Puerto Rico compliance requirements layered on top of federal obligations. The volume is there. The bottlenecks are in the assembly — the review time, the status interruptions, the repeated research, the knowledge that walks out the door when a partner steps back.
MERIDIAN is the intelligence infrastructure layer that removes the assembly burden without removing the CPA. Every filing, every research memo, every tax position HBL has ever taken deepens the knowledge graph. The next return is faster because the last one already happened. The firm's 30 years of judgment becomes the final gate — not the first pass.
Three tiers. Each is a complete deployment. HBL picks where to start and expands from there. Rate steps are fixed at contract signing — no renegotiation at each phase.
The problem this solves: Accountants at peak season lose hours per day to status calls — clients asking where their return is, what documents are needed, whether an extension was filed. This is recoverable time. Tier 1 automates the entire client-facing status layer and intake process on day one.
| Capability | What MERIDIAN Delivers |
|---|---|
| Automated status receptionist | AI handles inbound status calls with real-time accurate responses drawn from the client file. Accountants are not interrupted. Maria Santos's call gets answered without Luis's staff touching it. |
| Document intake automation | API integration with the local PR vendor document management system. Documents received, confirmed, cataloged, missing items flagged automatically. |
| Extension batch filing | Batch extension preparation for all applicable clients. Luis calls it: "file extension for all these clients" — system prepares the full batch for review and submission. |
| Deadline monitoring | All filing deadlines tracked per client — Puerto Rico + federal. Alerts generated before due dates. Nothing falls through. |
| Client correspondence drafting | Automated drafts for standard communications: receipt confirmations, extension notices, missing document requests, follow-up sequences. |
| Daily / weekly briefing | 10-minute audio or text summary of all open items, completions, exceptions. Every morning or weekly — your choice. |
Deployment: 7 days from deposit. Puerto Rico coverage active from day one.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Engagement deposit | $7,500 |
| Monthly retainer | $5,500 / month |
| Term | 12 months initial, renewable |
| Deployment | 7 days from deposit |
ROI anchor: At 5 staff members losing 60–90 minutes/day to status calls and intake tasks, Tier 1 recovers more in billable capacity than it costs — within the first 60 days.
The problem this solves: Senior partner review of a tax return currently takes 4–6 hours because the reviewer is building the analysis from scratch. Tier 2 delivers a pre-reviewed return with flagged items only — and every flag shows the reasoning chain. Edwin's specific requirement: "show how the machine reached the conclusion."
Tier 2 includes everything in Tier 1, plus the capabilities below.
| Capability | What MERIDIAN Delivers |
|---|---|
| Tax return pre-review | Automated review of return data before a senior partner touches it. Flags anomalies, inconsistencies, and optimization opportunities. Pre-review time: minutes. Partner sees flagged items only. |
| Citation layer (Edwin's requirement) | Every flagged item includes the reasoning chain: the IRC section, IRS notice, Puerto Rico tax code article, or court case that grounds the flag. Not a summary — the actual citation. "Section 199A pass-through deduction inconsistency — IRC §199A(b)(2), Rev. Proc. 2019-38." |
| Cross-year comparison | Prior-year return automatically cross-referenced. Missed carryover numbers flagged before the return leaves the desk. First-time clients: upload prior return, system does the comparison. |
| HBL interpretation layer (Luis's requirement) | HBL's firm positions on contested gray-area tax dispositions are encoded as policies. The system applies HBL's interpretation consistently. When a new court case or ruling changes the interpretation, the policy updates — and all future returns reflect it. |
| Regulatory change monitoring | IRS notices, Puerto Rico treasury updates, deadline changes. Weekly digest sorted by client impact. Nothing lands without you knowing. |
| Research memo generation | On-demand research on tax positions, advisory questions, client scenarios. Each memo cites its sources. |
| Advisory brief assembly | Comparable analysis, precedent research, narrative structure. Draft brief ready for principal edit. |
Deployment: 14 days from deposit.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Engagement deposit | $10,000 |
| Monthly retainer | $9,500 / month |
| Term | 12 months initial, renewable |
| Deployment | 14 days from deposit |
ROI anchor: At 1,300+ clients and 6,500+ filings, reducing senior partner review from 4–6 hours to 45–90 minutes on each return recaptures weeks of principal capacity per season. The 30 years of judgment becomes the final gate, not the first pass.
The problem this solves: At enterprise scale — and for a firm handling high-net-worth clients and regulated work — the quality gate, the security posture, and the long-term continuity of the system are all decision-level concerns. Tier 3 addresses all three. Luis raised all three on the call.
Tier 3 includes everything in Tiers 1 and 2, plus the capabilities below.
| Capability | What MERIDIAN Delivers |
|---|---|
| SOC2 Type II audit track | Codamere coordinates the full audit. HBL is the named beneficiary. Architecture is already built to SOC2 standard — the audit formalizes and certifies it. Opens doors with institutional clients and regulated counterparties who require vendor certification. |
| Client onboarding automation (Edgardo) | Automated onboarding workflow across all practice areas — tax, audit, advisory. Manual onboarding process replaced with structured intake, document collection, and client profile initialization. |
| Firm knowledge graph tenancy | HBL's accumulated knowledge — 30 years of tax positions, case history, client context, partner pattern recognition — lives in an HBL-owned knowledge graph. The intelligence belongs to the firm, not to a SaaS vendor. |
| Business continuity package (Luis's requirement) | Full documentation, SOP library, infrastructure access protocols, and self-service terminal. In a worst-case scenario — company changes, team changes, anything — HBL has direct access to every file, password, and manual needed to continue operations. No black box. |
| Self-teaching terminal | The system is teachable from within the terminal. Policy updates, new interpretation guidelines — HBL staff can make adjustments without requiring development support for every change. |
| Coherence monitoring | When the firm's documented positions drift from what staff are communicating, the system flags it. Consistency across returns, advisories, and communications — automatically monitored. |
Deployment: 14 days for Terminal; SOC2 readiness 60–90 days from kickoff.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Engagement deposit | $15,000 |
| Monthly retainer | $14,500 / month |
| SOC2 Type II — Year 1 | Billed at actuals — est. $35,000–$60,000 pass-through from auditor |
| SOC2 — Year 2+ | Billed at actuals — est. $15,000–$30,000/yr |
| Term | 24 months initial (SOC2 requires ongoing commitment) |
HBL can start at any tier and upgrade. Rate steps are fixed at contract signing — no renegotiation at each phase. Upgrade deposit = difference between prior deposit and new tier deposit (e.g., Tier 1 → Tier 2 = $2,500 additional).
| Phase | Tier | Monthly | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Tier 1 — Foundation | $5,500/mo | Month 1 |
| Upgrade | Tier 2 — Intelligence | $9,500/mo | Any time — typically month 3–4 |
| Upgrade | Tier 3 — Enterprise | $14,500/mo | Any time — SOC2 track starts at upgrade |
Codamere is not building a product to sell to a hundred accounting firms. The model is: identify the best partner in a vertical and build the deepest possible intelligence infrastructure for them. HBL is the accounting partner for Puerto Rico.
That means the knowledge graph, the citation layer, the firm interpretation policies, and the institutional memory are built specifically around how HBL works — not a generic tax product.
When you are 12–18 months into compounding knowledge, competitors who start later will not close the gap by hiring or cutting prices. The graph depth, the pattern recognition, the HBL interpretation layer — none of that is acquirable by spending more. It has to be built over time.
Luis raised this directly: "What happens if the team changes?" The answer is structural, not a promise.
The knowledge graph belongs to HBL. The intelligence belongs to the firm. Not a black box.
| Milestone | Target |
|---|---|
| Proposal delivery | 2026-04-28 |
| Scoping call — workflow mapping | 2026-04-29 to 2026-05-02 |
| SOW + MSA to HBL | Within 5 business days of scoping call |
| Legal review — HBL | 1–2 weeks |
| Deposit + signature | Target: 2026-05-15 |
| Terminal deployment | 7–14 days from deposit (per tier) |
| HBL PR | CODAMERE LLC |
| Luis Lomba | Michael Bitler |
| Date: _____________ | Date: _____________ |
This document is confidential and intended solely for HBL PR. It does not constitute a binding agreement. Engagement terms are subject to execution of a formal services agreement.