Workpaper tool for CPAs and enrolled agents that imports brokerage 1099-B and options data to reconcile wash-sale adjustments across accounts; priced per firm at $199-$399/mo. · Tax Compliance Software
DEAD SLOW · CAUTIOUS
5.8 ShipScore / 10
Time-detached SaaS is strongest; niche CPA scale and unproven demand are weakest.
Condition: Proceed only if 10+ CPAs/EAs confirm they bill clients for cross-account wash-sale cleanup and would pay $199+/mo before tax season.
Part I — The Verdict what the instruments read
01 — The ShipScore breakdown
Control
7
C7 — owns workflow; depends on broker export formats, not one gatekeeper.
Entry barriers
5
E5 — no tracked leader; cross-account options logic is a modest technical moat.
Need
5
N5 — no corpus, Reddit, or funding signals; X products show near-zero traction.
Time-freedom
8
T8 — import-and-reconcile SaaS runs without operator hours once parsers exist.
Scale
4
S4 — US-only CPAs with active-trader clients is a narrow, seasonal niche.
What the five commandments measure
C — Control
Do you own the customer, or does a gatekeeper stand between you and revenue?
E — Entry
How hard is this to copy once it works? A rival's existence isn't the question — the durability of their advantage is.
N — Need
Is demand proven with money rather than vibes?
T — Time
Can income detach from your hours, or did you buy yourself a job?
S — Scale
How far does it reach without linear cost?
Scored on the evidence below, against CENTS as we've adapted it plus a Buffett-style moat reading of every rival — the same referee for every idea, including the ones we generate ourselves. The verdict follows the arithmetic: we never relabel a score to make it read better, and the weakest commandment is always named. The exact rubric stays in-house so the scale can't be written for.
02 — The pace test — $1M/yr
At $249/mo (assumed category price), you need 335 subscribers for a $1M/yr pace.
No tracked rivals with verified revenue to benchmark against.
Part II — The Evidence the receipts, good and bad
03 — Rival scan
No similar products found in the radar corpus — either genuinely novel, or too small to track.
tradeGIST — Sheets-based wash-sale/options/FIFO from broker exports; cheap substitute for small preparers.
WheelDesk — Auto cost-basis/wash-sale for wheel options traders; could move upstream to preparers.
04 — Demand evidence
No radar-tracked products, funded companies, or Reddit signals found — demand unproven in this scan.
X chatter on wash-sale reconciliation tools is almost none.
Sparse gripes on X about manual 1099-B issues and wash sales for tokenized stocks/crypto.
Adjacent trader-side tools exist but show near-zero engagement/traction.
05 — Risks
Incumbent tax suites or trade-accounting tools may already cover this, leaving no budget line.
Highly seasonal usage (Feb–Apr) drives churn on monthly pricing.
Broker export formats vary and change; parser maintenance is heavy.
Errors in tax workpapers create liability and trust barriers with CPAs.
06 — Kill switches — what kills this with one decision
Major tax suite vendors — Adding native cross-account wash-sale reconciliation erases the standalone need.
Broker data access — Brokers blocking or restructuring exports breaks imports with no workaround.
Part III — The Plan if you insist on proceeding
07 — What this scan can't tell you
Cannot see whether established pro tax or trader tax-accounting tools already serve CPAs here.
No data on how many CPA firms handle multi-account options-heavy clients.
Cannot gauge willingness-to-pay at $199-$399/mo versus per-return pricing.
Scores judge the market and business model — not your ability to execute. Verified MRR = independently tracked revenue; reviews/upvotes = platform-reported. Judged 2026-10-14.
Cheapest next step: Message 20 CPAs/EAs serving active traders (CPA forums, LinkedIn) offering a paid manual reconciliation of one client file this week.
Not quite it? Spin the model
Business-model variations of this idea, engineered to beat 5.8 — different vertical, audience, model, or wedge. Same harsh scale. Pro feature.
One evidence-backed gap a day, free
Close — but conditional. Every morning the engine files one mined gap, scored on the same harsh scale as this one. Free at 7am AEST, unedited.
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