introducing sam sees — the first ai tax scanner built for 1099s
teni's core feature is sam sees: ai trained on 100,000+ 1099 returns filed by 1-800accountant over the past 25 years. sam has learned what deductions matter, what red flags the irs watches for, and what categories create the most savings for creators.
the problem sam solves: you take a picture of a receipt. it shows a coffee, a notebook, and office supplies from a staples visit. a human accountant looks at it and knows: "office supplies," deductible. a generic receipt scanning app will extract the dollar amount and the date and stop there. sam goes further. sam knows that the notebook was for your creative work, the coffee was at a co-working space you use for client meetings, and the supplies are directly business-related. sam doesn't just read the receipt — sam understands it in context.
how we trained it: we fed sam thousands of categorized receipts from our clients' returns. we showed sam the receipt, the category assigned by the accountant, and the tax outcome. over time, sam learned not just to recognize "coffee" or "office supplies," but to recognize the full context and tax relevance of a purchase.
sam's not just a classifier. sam asks clarifying questions. if you photograph a receipt from a car service, sam asks: "was this for a vehicle you use for business?" and "what percentage of your driving is for business?" it's the difference between being a tool that scans and a tool that understands.
we also taught sam about rules. the irs has specific guidance on what's deductible in different categories — meal expenses, home office, vehicle expenses, contractor vs. employee. sam knows all of it. when you take a picture of a meal receipt, sam asks if it was directly related to business (client meeting, event, travel), because a personal meal isn't deductible. sam isn't conservative — it's not trying to under-deduct to be safe. it's trying to be correct, which means maximizing legitimate deductions while avoiding the ones that create audit risk.
one more thing: sam saves time. instead of organizing receipts for months and then facing a pile of chaos at tax time, you photograph them as you go. sam categorizes them instantly. by the time you need to file, every receipt is in the system, categorized, and ready for your accountant to review. that's not just a convenience — that's the difference between a loose estimate and an accurate return.