You're halfway through a set of accounts and the phone goes again. A good answering service for an accountancy practice turns those interruptions into a queue someone can work through. It captures a new client's enquiry, takes an existing client's question and leaves you to finish the work in front of you.
Sayora is worth trying when a callback is the right outcome and you'd like a fixed £49 monthly bill, with unlimited minutes under fair use. If callers need a person or a transfer, compare ReceptionHQ: at low volumes, its published human plans can cost less. Jodie is a direct AI alternative, and Pocket Receptionist is worth a look for connections to accounting software.
I'll start with what your quiet and busy months would cost, then show you where Sayora fits and what each alternative does well.
One thing to flag before we get into it: we make Sayora, so we've got an interest here. Prices and provider claims were checked on 22 September 2026, the recommendations follow those published terms, and the call examples and bills are illustrations.
Price your quiet month and your busy one
If you do Self Assessment work, January may well be the month that tests your phone cover. A payroll, bookkeeping or company-accounts practice might peak at a different time entirely. So work from your own call records rather than assuming every practice has the same busy season.
Here's an illustrative practice taking 80 answered calls in an ordinary month and 160 in its busiest.
| Service | 80 calls | 160 calls |
|---|---|---|
| Sayora | £49 | £49 |
| Jodie Basic | £49 | £49 |
| ReceptionHQ | £99 | £188 |
| £204.80 | £409.40 |
The human bills work like this. For the ordinary month, ReceptionHQ's 50-call plan is £60 plus 30 extra calls at £1.30. For the peak, its 100-call plan is £110 plus 60 extras. Pocket's Growth plan is £145 plus 20 extras at £2.99, and its Pro plan is £230 plus 60 extras for the peak. In each case, that's the cheaper published bundle for those illustrative volumes.
A few things to check before you rely on those totals. ReceptionHQ's prices exclude VAT and Jodie's exclude applicable taxes, while Pocket's cited price page doesn't state its VAT basis. Sayora is shown at its published early-access price, under fair use. Before you commit, confirm the final invoice, any transfer charges and what your phone provider charges for forwarding.
The ReceptionHQ figures also assume standard message taking. Its service terms add charges for extended or customised handling and allow longer calls to move to a minute-based plan, so check that your brief qualifies for the rates shown.
And don't skip the low-volume result. ReceptionHQ's 25-call plan is £36 plus VAT, so on a quiet line a human service can cost less than Sayora. A flat-price AI service has to earn its place on fit and workload, not on any automatic claim to be the cheapest.
Where Sayora earns its place
Sayora answers around the clock from your business information. That can include the kinds of clients you take on, your document checklist, how meetings are arranged and a clearly stated submission cut-off. Sayora captures the caller's contact details and reason for calling, screens cold sales calls and sends a summary by text, email or both after the call.
What Sayora doesn't do is read a client's accounts or tax return. If someone rings to ask whether their return has been filed, Sayora passes the question to your practice. Keep that line clear in your instructions: Sayora can explain your general process, but an individual's position needs the person handling their work.
For a new-client test, ask about the services you offer and give the demo a business type and a callback number. The handover should make it clear what help they want and who in your practice will follow up. That's an illustrative test brief, not a customer result.
You keep your existing number and forward unanswered calls to your dedicated Sayora number, depending on your phone provider's settings. The £49 early-access plan has no setup fee, your seven-day trial starts when you claim the receptionist, and you can cancel at any time. Demo test calls are capped.
Now the limits. There's no live transfer or staffed fallback. Sayora can book into a connected Google Calendar or Cal.com, though not into your accounting software. If a partner needs to join the call, shortlist a service that offers that route.
Three alternatives with different strengths
ReceptionHQ: human answering with a visible rate card
ReceptionHQ's MyReceptionist includes message taking and call transfer options. It publishes 24/7 answering without an after-hours surcharge, on rolling monthly subscriptions. That makes it a practical comparison if you want people answering and your call volume goes up and down.
It's a general service, so give it the same limits you'd give your own receptionist: no client status shared with third parties, no guessing at figures and a clear owner for every callback. Ask for any transfer and notification charges alongside the per-call bill.
Jodie: a direct AI price comparison
Jodie Basic is £49 a month with unlimited minutes and email notifications. Its comparison table puts bookings and call transfers on Professional at £99, and prices exclude applicable taxes.
If you only need message capture, test Basic against Sayora at the same headline price. If you want calls transferred to a partner, test Professional, including what happens when the partner doesn't answer. And to be straight with you, unlimited minutes alone don't set Sayora apart from Jodie.
Pocket Receptionist: investigate the software connection
Pocket Receptionist's finance service names Xero, FreshBooks and Sage and describes transfers for priority clients. So it's worth a closer look if the service needs to work with your practice's systems.
Its published plans cover 8am to 8pm, with 24/7 sold separately. Find out exactly what the integration can read or write and what access it needs. A software logo won't tell you how a client's enquiry reaches the right person.
Keep confidential work with the practice
Whichever service you choose, ask where messages and recordings are stored, who can access them and how deletion works. Then give it the minimum it needs to take an enquiry. It should never ask a caller for card details, bank credentials, Government Gateway credentials or tax documents.
For Sayora, the data page explains the recording disclosure and retention. Callers can't switch recording off. Recordings are removed from the account automatically after 90 days, transcripts and summaries follow your account's retention, and backups expire separately. Automatic redaction helps, but it doesn't replace limiting what you collect in the first place.
One good call to test is a lender asking about one of your clients. The right result is a message for your practice, with no client details confirmed. Try a question about a service you don't offer, too, and a caller pushing for tax advice.
Make the callback process part of the trial
An answering service only helps if someone makes the callbacks. So before the trial, decide who checks the messages, when they do it and who covers when they're away. Sayora captures the work, but your practice still completes the callback. As you go, check whether each summary gives that person enough to go on, and whether callers heard realistic expectations.
The trial sheet is an easy way to record the answer, the message and the follow-up. Test the awkward calls as well as the easy enquiry.