Look for notice management software that reads each notice, tracks its deadline across every client, and checks the figures that can be checked against payroll, with the gap in dollars. Then check that a person at your firm approves every response before it leaves.
Every CPA firm with employer clients runs a notice operation, whether it calls it that or not. Notices arrive by mail and forwarded email, someone works out what each one is, someone looks up the deadline, someone finds the payroll numbers, someone writes the response. In many firms that runs on a spreadsheet, a shared inbox and the memory of whoever handled the last one. Notice management software exists to replace that.
The checklist
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Does it read the notice for you? | The agency, notice type, tax period, amount and respond-by date, without retyping. |
| Does it track every deadline? | A notice nobody sees is a deadline nobody meets. One calendar across clients. |
| Does it check the state's math against payroll? | A rate or wage figure is an arithmetic claim about payroll your client already reported. |
| Does it put the gap in dollars? | "The rate looks off" and a yearly dollar figure lead to different actions. |
| Does it show its work? | The figure the agency used, the figure the records show, and how the gap was computed. |
| Who approves what goes out? | A person at your firm should review and approve every response before it leaves. |
| Is there a record of who did what? | A history you can show later: who saw the notice, what was sent and who approved it. |
Source: Kreto's buyer's checklist, the same questions as on the comparison page.
Two questions that separate tools
Does anything check the numbers?
Notice management is a mature category, and bringing notices into one queue with their deadlines matters. The question that separates tools comes after that: once a notice is in the queue, does anything check whether its numbers are right? A SUI rate notice or a Form 941 notice is an arithmetic claim, and checking it means setting it beside the agency's schedule or the client's payroll.
Who approves the response?
A protest letter has a known structure: the account facts, the agency's figure, your figure, the evidence, the request. Drafting it from checked numbers saves the most staff time. The non-negotiable is that a person at your firm reviews and approves it before anything is sent.
How to run the evaluation
A test beats any matrix. Take one month of notices from your five busiest clients and run them through each tool. Which were classified correctly? Which deadlines did it catch? Did it find the rate gap you already know about, and put the gap in dollars? The classification and deadline half needs no account: run the free notice scan. The amount in dollars needs an account with your payroll in it.
Where Kreto sits
Kreto checks unemployment-tax rate notices against the agency's 2026 schedule in 51 states, and Form 941 notices against your payroll in every state. Every other notice is read and its deadline tracked, not checked. Kreto drafts the response with the evidence attached, nothing goes to an agency until a person at your firm approves it, and every step is logged in a hash-chained audit trail. See the buyer's checklist and Kreto for CPA firms.
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