Clients reach you.
Even during tax season.
When call volume triples between January and March, fonea answers routine questions, books consultations, and chases missing documents — while your team focuses on closings and tax returns.
What is fonea for fiduciary firms?
fonea is an AI phone assistant that answers client calls at Swiss fiduciary firms 24/7, responds to standard questions about deadlines and documents, books appointments in your calendar, and routes complex matters to the responsible accountant — FADP-compliant with data hosted in Switzerland.
The tax-season reality
Why traditional phone solutions fail in fiduciary firms
Interruptions destroy client work
Every call pulls accountants out of focused work on annual closings or tax returns. Ten interruptions per day cost up to four productive hours.
University of California Irvine study
Temp staff are expensive — and unavailable
Qualified temps with fiduciary knowledge cost CHF 40–60/hour and are unavailable precisely when every firm is hiring: during tax season.
CHF 20–30k for 3 months full-time
Voicemail damages trust
Clients pay for personal advice and discretion. Voicemail signals overload — exactly what a client does not want to experience from their accountant.
What changes
How fonea relieves your fiduciary firm
No more missed client calls
Every call is answered immediately — Friday evening, Saturday morning, or during your crucial client meeting.
Appointments land in your calendar
fonea sees every accountant's availability and books tax consultations, annual reviews, and first meetings without a callback.
Discretion and compliance preserved
No client name is processed in the USA. Data residency in Switzerland, transient voice processing on EU servers — FADP and revFADP compliant.
Set up in 30 minutes
How we configure fonea for your firm
Kick-off
We analyse your most frequent client questions (deadlines, documents, contacts) and your calendar.
Scripting
We write responses for your top-20 standard questions in German, French, and Italian.
Integration
Connect to Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, or your fiduciary CRM. Call forwarding via Swisscom, Sunrise, or Salt.
Go-live
Test calls, fine-tuning, handover. You keep full control of scripts and escalation paths.
Typical call scenarios
How fonea handles client calls in practice
Standard document question
Routine inquiry that used to bind an accountant for five minutes — now fully automated with a correct checklist by email.
Deadline extension request
fonea recognises the limits of automation: extensions = accountant decision. Clean handover, scheduled callback.
Annual review appointment
FADP, revFADP and professional diligence
Why fonea is the right partner for accountants
Data hosted in Switzerland
All persistent data (call logs, transcripts, client context) is hosted with our Swiss infrastructure partner Supabase. No client data leaves Switzerland persistently.
Transparent subprocessors
Full list of all vendors (Supabase, Telnyx, ElevenLabs, Google, Anthropic, OpenAI) with data residency and DPF status. 30-day advance notice on every change.
FDPIC-compliant disclosure
Every caller is informed at the start of the call that an AI system is in use. This announcement cannot be disabled — it is part of our compliance DNA.
No voice ID, no biometrics
fonea does not create voice profiles or biometric voiceprints. Transcripts are encrypted at rest and automatically deleted per configurable retention windows.
Pricing
Transparent pricing
Included
- 120 minutes AI talk time included
- DE, FR, IT, EN, ES + Swiss German
- Calendar integration & appointment booking
- AI answering machine 24/7
- Interactive AI for customer service
- Email & SMS notifications
- Cancel monthly, no commitment
Included
- 500 minutes AI talk time
- 3 concurrent calls
- 3 phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Basic
- Outbound calls
Included
- From 2,000 minutes
- Custom concurrent calls
- Custom phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Professional
- Custom voice
- Zero Data Retention
- Custom SLA
Frequently asked
What accountants need to know before using fonea
Is fonea FADP-compliant for fiduciary firms?
Yes. All persistent client data is hosted in Switzerland (Supabase, infrastructure in Geneva). Transient voice processing (STT, LLM, TTS) runs on European servers in Germany with DPF or SCC safeguards. The revised FADP (effective 1 September 2023) and the GDPR are fully respected. The complete subprocessor list is available at fonea.ch/subprocessors.
How fast does fonea learn our firm's specifics?
Initial setup takes about 30 minutes. We configure fonea with you: your top-20 client questions (deadlines, documents, contacts, processes), response scripts in German, French, and Italian, and calendar integration. After go-live you adjust scripts anytime in the dashboard — or we help with changes.
What happens with complex matters fonea cannot answer?
fonea is deliberately not designed to give tax advice. Whenever a matter exceeds standard information (extensions, specific deductions, audit questions), fonea captures name, callback number, and concern, and dispatches a task to the responsible accountant — by email, Slack, or Teams.
Do calls through fonea compromise professional confidentiality?
No. The accountant's professional confidentiality under cantonal tax law is preserved because fonea does not provide advice. Client data is encrypted at rest, only your team can access transcripts. Retention windows are configurable (default: 90 days), and every processing step is documented in the DPA.
Can we turn fonea off after tax season?
Yes. The contract is monthly and can be cancelled anytime, no minimum term. Many firms keep fonea running year-round because the relief is noticeable outside high season too — but that's your call.
Does fonea support Swiss German and French?
Yes. fonea understands Swiss German (all dialects) and replies in High German or Swiss Standard German. Additionally: French, Italian, English, and Spanish — crucial for clients in Romandy and Ticino and for international clients.
How many client calls can fonea handle in parallel?
fonea answers arbitrarily many parallel calls — no busy tone, no queue. That is the decisive difference from a single receptionist, especially during tax season.
Will fonea irritate my clients?
fonea introduces itself as an AI assistant at the start of the call — this is mandatory under FDPIC guidance. Acceptance depends on callers experiencing competent answers and fast handover to humans; younger clients in particular expect this kind of direct, digital contact anyway.
Further reading
Treuhand: Steuersaison ohne Telefonchaos
KI-Telefonassistent für Treuhandbüros: Steuersaison-Anrufe bewältigen, Mandanten halten und Team entlasten. Mit ROI-Rechnung für Schweizer Treuhänder.
Empfangsperson, Telefonservice oder KI: Kostenrechnung
Empfangsperson Kosten Schweiz: CHF 6000-7500/Monat vs. Telefonservice vs. KI-Telefonassistent. Der definitive Kostenvergleich mit echten Schweizer Zahlen.
DSG und KI-Telefonie: Was Sie wissen müssen
Das Schweizer DSG stellt eigene Anforderungen an KI-Telefonie. 6 Pflichten, persönliche Haftungsrisiken und Checkliste für DSG-konforme Anbieter.
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