Teams telephony in tax consulting: Efficiency rethought

The modern tax firm faces increasingly complex challenges: a shortage of skilled workers, increasing demands for data protection and digitalization, and clients who expect flexibility. While many firms have long been using Microsoft Teams as a platform for online meetings and internal collaboration, one crucial step is often still incomplete: the use of Teams telephony .

But what exactly is Teams telephony – and why can it be a real game changer, especially for tax advisors?

What is Teams Telephony?

Teams Telephony means that Microsoft Teams is used not only for chats and video meetings, but also as a fully-fledged telephone system. The solution is based on the cloud—specifically, Microsoft 365—and completely replaces traditional telephone systems or separate VoIP systems.

Important difference to Teams Meetings:

• Teams meetings are scheduled or spontaneous video conferences between people who have a Teams account or invitation link.

• Teams telephony, on the other hand, is true PSTN telephony, meaning a connection to the public telephone network with traditional phone numbers. This allows calls to be made and received to any landline or mobile number worldwide.

With Teams telephony, law firms can make calls not only internally but also externally – clients, tax authorities or business partners can be reached on your law firm number, no matter where you are.

Independence from location and device

A huge advantage: you are completely location independent .

Whether you're in the office, working from home, on the go, or abroad, you can make calls using your usual landline number on any device (PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet). Even employees' private devices can be used without revealing personal numbers.

The concept behind it is called Bring Your Own Device : Employees bring their own devices, and the work number is provided via the Teams app. Hardware shipping and dedicated phones for remote employees are completely eliminated.

Devices and access are managed centrally and securely via Microsoft Intune – the integrated endpoint management solution that ensures that only authorized devices and users have access to telephony.

Differentiation from classic IP telephone systems

Many law firms already work with IP telephony (Voice over IP), for example, via local hardware or providers like NFON or 3CX. But Teams Telephony offers crucial differences:

1. Platform advantage:
   You make phone calls directly in the same environment where you chat, store files, and manage tasks. No more media disruption.

2. Seamless Copilot integration:
   Calls can be transcribed automatically. Copilot summarizes calls, extracts to-dos, or creates meeting minutes.
   A regular IP phone does not provide structured data for workflows or AI processes.

3. No local infrastructure required:
   Traditional IP telephony often requires servers or appliances in your own data center. Teams telephony runs entirely in the cloud.

4. Flexibility with phone numbers worldwide:
   All of the firm's numbers are managed centrally, regardless of location or device.

5. Future-proof compliance:
   Especially when it comes to sensitive tax data and client communication, it is essential that all processes are compliant with GoBD and GDPR. Microsoft M365 meets the highest compliance standards.

Transcriptions and AI-supported workflows

One of the biggest advantages for tax consultants: the linking of telephony with process documentation and automation .

Practical examples:

• A client calls to ask questions about the VAT return.

• The conversation will be transcribed automatically.

• The transcript ends up directly in the client dossier in Teams or SharePoint.

• Copilot creates a task list from the conversation for the responsible employees.

• The tasks appear automatically in Planner or To-Do.

• If desired, the transcript can be evaluated at the touch of a button: “What points did Mr. Müller address today?” – Copilot provides the answer.

This creates a written record of the organization that secures knowledge in the long term, makes responsibilities transparent, and simplifies documentation requirements. No more tedious note-taking, no more transferring information into files—everything happens automatically.

Future possibility: Automated client inquiries with Copilot

Another forward-looking aspect is the prospect of having client inquiries answered directly over the phone by Microsoft Copilot – without waiting times and around the clock.

This is what this scenario could look like in the near future:

• A client calls and is initially identified via two-factor authentication , comparable to the level of security used in online banking.

• After successful verification, Copilot accesses defined areas in the client directory .

• Recurring inquiries – for example, regarding the status of a tax return, payment information or deadlines – are answered fully automatically .

• If the client would like a personal conversation, he or she can be seamlessly transferred to a human employee .

This approach enables law firms to:

🔹 Completely automate standard requests and save valuable time.
🔹 Offer service around the clock , even outside regular office hours.
🔹 Relieve the burden on the team of employees , who can concentrate on individual advice and complex cases.
🔹 Make processes more efficient and scalable without tying up additional resources.

Especially in conjunction with the Teams platform, the security and compliance framework of Microsoft 365 and the integration into existing client files, this opens up completely new possibilities for intelligent, AI-supported client communication.

Compliance, data protection and governance

Especially in tax consulting, communication solutions are only acceptable if they meet the highest requirements:

✅ GDPR compliance: All data is processed in German or European data centers, including transcripts.
✅ Role and permission management: Only authorized employees can view calls or read transcripts.
✅ Confidentiality through the Microsoft Compliance Framework: Emails, chats, and phone calls are embedded in a unified security and governance model.
✅ Audit security: Transcripts and call logs can be archived in an audit-proof manner.

This fundamentally distinguishes Teams telephony from isolated cloud telephony solutions or private messenger apps.

Further practical advantages

In addition to the advantages already mentioned, there are many other advantages for tax firms:

🔹 Office-wide call distribution: Intelligent call queues and auto-attendant allow for structured control of accessibility despite home office.

🔹 Cost control and scalability: New phone numbers or extensions can be set up in minutes. There's no need to invest in expensive hardware or maintenance contracts.

🔹 Improve client service: Call recordings can be used for quality assurance and training if necessary.

🔹 Analyses and reports: Teams offers detailed analyses of who spoke to clients or authorities on the phone, when, and for how long – an advantage for resource utilization and process optimization.

🔹 Flexible tariffs: Microsoft offers simple, calculable flat rates with the calling plan.

Conclusion: A quantum leap in client communication

Teams Telephony is far more than just "telephoning over the internet." It's the logical evolution of tax office communication:

• Uniformly integrated into Microsoft 365

• Seamlessly connected with Copilot and AI-supported workflows

• Flexible on any device, anywhere

• Secure and compliant

This transforms the telephone call from an isolated event into a structured, searchable part of the client file – and this is precisely where the added value lies.

Tax advisors who now rely on Teams telephony not only create efficiency gains and cost savings, but also lay the foundation for a modern, AI-supported organization that sustainably improves client service and internal processes.