Multilingual phone reception for accounting firms
Quick summary
- A published Greek number already takes English, Albanian, Russian and German in the same week.
- The assistant hears the language on the first sentence and continues in it. It covers 70+ languages, and it can switch if they mix.
- Individual or company is still the first question. A name in English does not tell you which book it is.
- E1, payroll and formation stay requests. Filling a Greek box because they cannot read the fields is tax advice.
- The spoken rule does not change: the accountant will call back.
- The confirmation SMS goes out in the language of the call, with the list of papers for that request.
TL;DR
In a VAT week both of you are in a return when a director rings in English. They want payroll from next month, or an E1, or a company formed before a contract starts. They will not wait for the colleague who is comfortable in English to come back from a send. An assistant answers in the language it hears — 70+ languages, and it can switch if they mix Greek and English on the same call. It asks individual or company first, takes E1, payroll and formation as requests, books a time to leave papers if that time is free, and says the accountant will call back on anything that sounds like advice. It will not fill a Greek box because they cannot read it, and it will not explain a notice from AADE.
Key takeaways
- Leave language detection on. Pinning the line to Greek is how the 09:40 English call never reaches you.
- Put the individual-or-company question in every language you actually hear, not only the two you staff.
- Write the callback sentence once and never vary it: the accountant will call back.
- Do not let it explain a notice or fill a box on the call.
- Send the SMS in the language of the conversation, with the document list for that type.
- Read the first multilingual transcripts with an accountant. That is where a soft figure creeps in.
The first word is not Greek
A director says “do you speak English?” Both of you have a return open. The VAT send is this week. The person who would have taken the English call is chasing invoices. You cannot pick up. They will not wait.
The number they dialled is the one on the chamber listing, the Google profile, and the engagement letter a colleague forwarded. Those pages are in Greek. The caller is not. In a Greek firm that is English, Albanian, Russian and German in the same week, and often more than one of those before lunch.
Thirty seconds of hold, or a promise that someone who speaks English will ring back, is enough. They hang up and dial the next firm. A founder who wants a company this month will not wait. A resident with a first E1 and a notice they cannot read will not wait either.
You put the assistant on that published number. It hears the language on the first sentence and continues in it. It covers 70+ languages. If they start in English and drop into Greek for the company name, it can switch. Then it asks individual or company, takes E1, payroll or formation as a request, or puts a note in front of you: the accountant will call back.
See pricing for how a call you pick up is treated against a call the assistant answers.
What the assistant does when they are not speaking Greek
Once it is in their language, the first question is still individual or company. Those are two different books. A director who is both still gets two notes. The call being in English is not a reason to squeeze both into twenty minutes.
“Can you take our payroll from next month?” is a request, in any language. “If I pay the bonus this week, what is the withholding?” is yours. “What do I put on the E1?” cannot be finished on the phone. “What does this notice mean?” cannot. “Am I a resident for tax?” cannot. The assistant says so in the first reply, in the language it heard.
It checks the diary before it offers a time. It never offers a review sitting on a filing day. It confirms by SMS in the language of the conversation, with the list of papers for that request. You get the transcript in the caller’s words, and a note of the language, so the callback is not working from a Greek paraphrase of an English question.
Individual or company, even when you do not know the voice
In Greek, someone at the desk sometimes recognises the voice and already knows which book it is. In English, or Albanian, or German, that recognition is gone. If the assistant skips the split because the call is slow, it will attach a payroll note to a personal E1, or book one sitting for two files.
Configure the split before you turn anything else on. Collect a name, a number, an AFM if they offer one, and the topic in their words. It does not ask them to dictate income, confirm a balance, or spell every Greek field they cannot read.
If the caller is a director ringing about both, the assistant records both. Those are two conversations for you, even if they arrived as one call in a language the desk does not speak. They do not owe you an AFM on the first sentence. If they do not offer one, you can ask when you call back.
E1 in a language that is not Greek
The caller who needs an E1 and does not read Greek will ask the same two things. Can you take the return. And what do I put in the boxes. The first is intake. The second is yours.
Foreign freelance work is the usual extra. They worked in Greece and also in Germany, or they are a resident with income from somewhere else. The note should say that, in their words. “Freelance in Germany” stays “freelance in Germany”. The assistant does not recast it as a foreign-income position, and it does not say whether it goes on the same form.
It can book a time to leave papers, or take a number for a callback. It can tell them, from what you entered, what papers you actually want on the table. It cannot walk them through the fields. Filling a box because they cannot read the Greek label is the same as filling a box in Greek.
Residency is the other trap. “I live in London, I work here three months, do I file as a resident?” is not a reception question. The assistant records the question. It does not give them a yes, a no, or a “usually”.
Payroll and formation from a director who lives elsewhere
A director whose seat is in Athens and whose own language is English will search in English, land on a Greek listing, and ring anyway. Often about payroll. Often about a formation. Often in a deadline week.
Take payroll as a request: company or the rare individual-employer case, a start month if they have one, a headcount if they offer it. Do not discuss rates, overtime, benefits, or withholding on a bonus because they asked in English. A first employee and an EFKA registration are still intake. How to register them is yours.
Take formation as a request: a name, a number, a preferred language, whether they already have papers. Do not recommend a legal form, a seat, or a VAT registration. “Should it be an IKE?” is yours, in every language.
If they ask whether you work in English, the assistant answers from what you entered. It does not quote a monthly fee. It does not promise you can take them on if you have closed the books for the month. It does not promise the meeting itself will be in English unless you have marked a person who can do that.
A notice they cannot read
They have a letter from AADE, or a MyDATA rejection, or an EFKA notice, or a Taxisnet screen they cannot get past. They cannot read it. They ask what it is. If the assistant summarises it, it has already said whether this is a deadline, a fine, or nothing serious. You decide what the paper is. The assistant does not.
The reply is short. I cannot interpret the paper. Send it or bring it. I can book a time, or I can flag this for a call back today.
A locked account, a stuck VAT send, and payroll tomorrow still go to a phone, not to an evening digest. The language of the flag does not change the route. The assistant takes the name, the company or individual, and a number, and puts it on a phone you actually hold. It does not walk them through a reset in English at 22:00.
If nobody is available to take the flag, the honest sentence is that the accountant will call back. It is not a set of next steps “until someone can help”. Next steps on a notice are advice.
What these calls actually sound like
The exchange in the panel above is the shape to expect. The caller asked for English, named an E1, named freelance work in Germany, and then asked the assistant to fill the Greek fields. The assistant takes the request, notes the language of the meeting, tags individual / E1 / foreign freelance, and refuses the position.
A German-speaking director who says “we need payroll from next month” gets intake and a time. The same director who says “if I pay the bonus this week, what is the withholding?” gets a callback. Notices and locked accounts get a same-day flag if you put them on that list, and nothing interpreted.
What it will not do, even in English
It will not fill a box because they cannot read the Greek label. That is the same as filling the box in Greek.
It will not read a notice aloud and tell them what it is. Explaining what a paper “means” is a tax position.
It will not answer a residency question, name a figure, or say a return is “fine” because the caller is grateful you speak English.
It will not promise a bilingual sitting you do not have. Reception in 70+ languages is not a tax consultation in 70+ languages.
The SMS and the papers
A confirmation in the wrong language is how a new book misses the time and decides the firm cannot handle them. The SMS goes out in the language of the conversation. That is a setting, not a hope. Test it.
The text carries the list of papers for that type. E1 is not the same list as payroll onboarding, and payroll onboarding is not the same list as a formation. A founder who spoke English should not receive a Greek list of καταστατικό and εφάπαξ just because that is the firm default.
A time to leave papers is ten minutes at the door. A review sitting is you, a folder, and an hour. The language of the booking does not change the length of the sitting. Turn on the SMS before you turn on anything clever.
The meeting language is not the call language
Answering in English gets them to a time. It is not a promise that the sitting will be in English.
If only one person can take a meeting in English, the assistant offers times from that person’s diary. If that person is in a return on Thursday, Thursday is not offered as an English sitting. If nobody can, the assistant books a time and notes the request. It does not sound more bilingual than the room.
Do not ask it to choose an accountant from an accent. Matching language ability you actually have is configuration. Guessing from the way someone speaks is how a company payroll lands on the person who only does individuals.
Do not ask it to produce a written translation of the call as a file note for the authorities. The transcript is for the firm, not a certified translation. You already have the caller’s words, a summary, and the language. If they ask for the engagement letter in English, that is a note for you. The assistant does not draft it.
Deadline season, August, and a call from another time zone
Foreign directors ring from another time zone, often in the evening, often about payroll or a formation that has a date on it. Residents ring once they have opened the notice. Deadline season is when the same caller is also competing with every Greek client who is late with invoices.
Shorten the ring-time before forwarding, so overflow is caught and you stay in the books. Keep times to leave papers bookable and advice as a callback. Route payroll tomorrow, a stuck send, and a locked account to a phone, in whatever language arrived.
August needs its own dates. Some of you close for two weeks. Some of you leave one person on the books. The published number still rings. The one person who could have taken the English sitting is often the person on leave. Set the closure dates, set who is on the phone, and set the sentence for new books. Do not let the assistant book an English review into a week when that person is not in the room.
A Sunday call about a locked account is a flag to whoever is on the same-day list, with a name and a number collected while it connects. It is not a Taxisnet walkthrough in English at 22:00.
Mixed Greek and English on the same call
They greet in English, give the company name in Greek, and ask the tax question in English again. The assistant can switch. The individual-or-company question and the callback sentence stay in force in both languages.
If they remember the accountant’s first name and none of the entity, the assistant still asks individual or company. It does not guess from the name. A director who says “payroll for the company, and also my E1” still gets two notes. Mixing languages does not merge the two books.
What you configure first
- Do not pin the line to Greek. Detection is the default. Turning it off to keep things simple is how the English call at 09:40 never reaches you.
- Individuals, companies, or both, and whether you are accepting new books this month — said in the language that arrived.
- The individual-or-company question, as a required step, including when the caller is struggling.
- The callback sentence, verbatim: the accountant will call back.
- E1, payroll and formation as intake-only topics, with the papers you actually want people to bring.
- Which people can take a meeting in which languages. This is not the assistant inventing a bilingual service you do not have.
- Which days are filing days and must not be offered as review meetings.
- The same-day phone list — payroll tomorrow, send stuck, account locked.
- SMS language = conversation language. Test it.
Then sit with an accountant and read the first twenty calls that were not in Greek. You are listening for the moment it almost named a figure, almost filled a box, almost explained a notice, or almost treated an individual and a company as the same booking. A soft “you probably do not owe anything on that” in fluent English is a worse error than a slightly stiff refusal.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers in the caller's language | 70+ languages, heard on the line | One or two | Whatever was staffed |
| Switches mid-call | Yes | Rarely | Transfer, if someone exists |
| Asks individual or company first | Same question in every language | If they remember | A name, usually |
| Fills an E1 box because they cannot read Greek | Never — the accountant will call back | Tempted to | Tempted to |
| SMS in the language of the call | Yes | If they type it | Sometimes |
| Transcript the accountant can use | Caller's words, language noted | A paraphrase | A short note, often in Greek |
What a month of unanswered English calls costs a small firm
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- About 160 inbound calls a month, three people.
- This example treats 18 of those as callers who open in a language nobody at the desk speaks.
- Of those 18, 9 hang up, or ask to be called back by someone who speaks English and then do not answer.
- 6 of the 9 were new-book enquiries — a foreign individual or a foreign-owned company.
- A new company client is worth about €480 in the first year of recurring work — put your own figure in, not ours.
- 6 new books never reach an accountant, because the first half-minute had no shared language.
- 6 × €480 = €2,880 of first-year recurring value in one month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €2,880.
About €31,680 a year, from the first sentence of the call.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to set up each language ourselves?
No. The assistant recognises the language from the first sentence and continues in it, including switching mid-call if the caller changes. What you set are the facts of the firm — individuals, companies or both, E1 / payroll / formation as intake, the callback sentence, what to bring — so those facts are there whatever language arrived.
Can it explain a Greek tax notice to someone who does not read Greek?
No, and you should refuse any system that will try. Explaining what a notice, a fine, or a deadline means is a tax position, even when the motive is kindness. It records that the caller has a notice, books a time or flags a same-day callback, and tells them to send or bring the paper. The accountant reads it.
What if the caller mixes Greek and another language?
That is common on this line, especially with foreign directors and residents. The assistant can switch mid-call. The individual-or-company question and the callback sentence stay in force in both languages. A mixed call is not a reason to drop the rule.
Will the SMS go out in Greek to someone who spoke English?
It should go out in the language of the conversation. That is a setting, not a hope. A document-drop confirmation in the wrong language is how a new book misses the time and decides the firm cannot handle them.
Does an answer in English mean the sitting will be in English?
No. Reception in 70+ languages is not a tax consultation in 70+ languages, and it is not a promise that the meeting itself will be in English unless you have marked a person who can do that. It gets the caller to a time they can book. The sitting is still yours. If only one person can take it in English, the assistant offers times from that person's diary.
Is the transcript usable if the call was not in Greek?
You get the caller's words, a summary, and a note of the language. That is more usable than a Greek paraphrase written from memory between two other calls. An accountant who needs a full written translation of a long call still commissions one. They are not starting from nothing.
