# Marcus Delgado, IT Systems Director at San Bernardino County — read of IRS Tax Processing Automation, June 12, 2026

> 16 years in government IT, currently managing a team of 9 across payroll systems, ERP integration, and compliance reporting for a mid-size California county.

## How I got here

My colleague Theresa forwarded a LinkedIn post from someone in our GovTech Slack community who said "found something that claims to cut W2 processing time, curious what you think." I opened it on my lunch break in the parking garage because I had 12 minutes before my 1pm. We've been talking internally about the IRS reporting crunch for three cycles now and I'm genuinely looking at options.

## What I clicked first

The hero number: "2000+ Annual Hours Saved per Agency." That's the kind of claim that either immediately earns a meeting or immediately earns a close tab. I scrolled to see where that number comes from. I never found out. It's just there, floating. No methodology, no "based on an agency processing X documents annually," nothing.

The second line of the hero stopped me: "Built for government IT, HR, and compliance teams." Okay, they know who they're selling to. That's more than I can say for half the pitches I get.

## Where I paused

The compliance section. They say: "Certified for federal tax processing. Meets OMB Circular A-123 internal control requirements." OMB A-123 is real and specific, so that was a small green flag. Someone on their team at least googled the right thing. But "certified" by who? There's no FedRAMP authorization mentioned anywhere. No FISMA. No mention of an ATO process. In county and federal government, "certified" without a named certifying body is not a claim, it's a sentence. I actually re-read that paragraph twice looking for a footnote that wasn't there.

## What I distrusted

The "4 Weeks Implementation Timeline" bullet. Four weeks. For a government agency. To integrate with SAP, PeopleSoft, or legacy HR databases. To get through our internal security review. To get an Authority to Operate sign-off. To get through procurement. I have been in this job for 16 years and I have never, not once, deployed a new external system in four weeks. The fastest we've moved was six months on a pre-approved state contract vehicle. Four weeks is either written by someone who has never sold into government or it's a marketing number that means something like "four weeks after you finish all the things that actually take a year."

Then I hit the bottom of the page. In smaller text: "Honest disclosure: we don't have live customers on this idea yet." And below that: Year-1 take-home estimated at negative $168,880. And a "1 in 20 meaningful success odds." This thing is a business idea being sold as a product. The page is a pitch deck dressed up as a product page.

## What would convince me

A single named government agency, even a small one, a water district, a transit authority, a school district, that actually ran a batch through this and can say how many documents, what the error rate was, what the integration looked like. Not a case study that says "Agency A saved 40%" but a real name, a real volume number, and ideally a contact I could email. In government procurement we do reference calls. That's not optional.

On the compliance side: a FedRAMP Ready designation or an existing contract vehicle number (GSA schedule, SEWP, something) would immediately make this a real conversation. Without that, I cannot even bring this to my procurement office.

## What I'd ask in an email reply

1. Which agencies are currently using this in production, and can I get one reference call before we go further?
2. What does "certified for federal tax processing" mean specifically, and who issued that certification?
3. Our county just completed a FISMA moderate assessment on our ERP environment -- does your system have an existing ATO we could inherit or leverage, and if not, what's your experience supporting that process?

## Verdict: dismissive

The "no live customers on this idea yet" disclosure at the bottom of the page is a clean kill shot. I'm not piloting federal tax document software with an unproven vendor on an idea that the builder themselves rates at 1-in-20 odds. The OMB reference suggests real domain knowledge, which is a shame, because if this had two real customers and a FedRAMP In-Process designation I'd be scheduling the demo.

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*Memo by skeptic persona, generated 2026-06-12. Studio breaks own self-grading loop.*