Client
Mystic River Consulting acted on behalf of one of the top debt relief programs based in California, supporting large volumes of tax-related operations for end clients.
The challenge
The company needed to automate two highly labor-intensive processes: pulling client data from the IRS website and filing tax returns. Each step took approximately 45 minutes per client when done manually, and access to the IRS portal was limited to a single set of credentials, preventing parallel work. The situation was further complicated by COVID-19, which significantly disrupted IRS operations, increased processing backlogs, and temporarily prevented the client’s employees from working due to lockdowns. An additional technical challenge was automating two-factor authentication required for IRS access.
The solution
We deployed a coordinated network of RPA robots designed to work sequentially and in parallel. One robot handled logging into the IRS website, retrieving tax documents, scraping the required data, and passing it forward for processing. A second robot automatically filed tax returns for clients using Intuit based on the extracted data. To overcome two-factor authentication, the automation securely accessed a mobile device via VPN and captured rotating authentication codes generated every 30 seconds. The solution was built to be agile, reliable, and resilient under highly constrained operating conditions.
The outcome
During a period when manual operations were severely limited, the automation processed over 1,500 IRS data retrieval cases in just over a week. The first robot completed 1,657 cases with an average processing time of 6 minutes and 28 seconds per case, saving approximately 38.5 minutes per case and more than 1,060 hours of manual work. The second robot completed 2,600 tax return filings with an average processing time of 4 minutes and 25 seconds per case, saving an additional 1,755 hours. Combined, the two robots saved 2,818 hours of manual labor in one week, equivalent to more than 70 weeks of full-time work and over $100,000 in estimated labor cost savings based on median California salaries. The automation delivered continuity, speed, and accuracy at a time when traditional operations were not possible.
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