train now before it costs you down the road

your time investment now could reap dividends during tax season. 

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

we’ve all heard it.

ask if an assigned project has been completed and get the, “it’s done, but …” followed by a few reasons why said project is still – let’s be honest – incomplete.

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let’s examine how we got a “done but” society. a lot of this will sound like, “back in my day, sonny …” old man nonsense, and a lot of it is.

however, i promise you a solution after my sociological exploration of 21st-century culture. you won’t need a degree in sociology to understand this.

i didn’t graduate with an accounting degree from college. it wasn’t sociology, either. i double majored in economics and finance, a mostly useless course of study that mainly qualifies me to troll target stock boys on facebook. you know who they are. they offer sage advice on world trade when they should be worried about the cleanup in aisle seven.

i ended up in an accounting job after college and thought knowing some accounting might be a good idea.

i took a cost accounting course at night while i pursued my accounting education. when was the last time you heard someone use the term “pursued” in a conversation about education? education was a pursuit. somewhere it became an entitlement. and, “stay off my damn lawn!” sorry, i just slipped into an old man’s trance. i hope i didn’t offend any millennials. that would make me sad.

my cost accounting professor told us that he preferred to teach evening courses with adult students over the normal day courses. when he assigned 10 problems for homework, adult students would return to the next class having attempted to complete 10 problems. younger students ignored most assignments.

what’s wrong with this very nice sentiment directed to evening students like me? it rewards effort, not results. out on planet real world, do we get paid for effort? will clients accept, and more importantly pay, for an attempted tax return? of course not.

i’d like to blame schoolteachers and professors for this shortcoming in our educational system, but i can’t. they reward effort as a way station on the train trip to competence. however, the train never leaves the station and moves on to the final destination. why? i’m guessing that failing 75 percent of the students in a college course isn’t the path to tenure anymore. but back in my day, sonny …

therefore, we end up with newbies who think they get partial credit for partially completed tasks.

because we live on planet real world, we get to solve the problem if we want successful practices.

training is the solution.

each answer you give is an investment in not having to answer multiple times in the future.

teach newbies that starting a project the day before it’s due won’t work. you’ll need a practice management system to track this, assuming you have cats (employees) to herd. i know a guy – actually that guy is me again. what a funny coincidence. i just happen to run a practice management software company.

second, teach newbies that asking questions is good. we have never shot an employee for asking questions. my aim is bad. teach them to ask questions early in the process, not the day before a project is due. 

how do you teach this? while i don’t condone shooting employees, threatening them with a loaded gun seems to fall within our profession’s ethical guidelines. it’s a gray area. or a loophole if you’re a tax partner.

reinforce the good behavior. kind words stick. so, rather than, “nice job, newbie. now i won’t have to reload the gun,” try, “thanks for asking while we still have time to address this. we have time to ask the client, and they have plenty of time to respond. great work.”

finally, instill a culture of training in which staff have access to the knowledge of people in your firm. finding time to teach about dependent care benefits on march 16th is painful but finding time to correct it multiple times the first week in april is worse. each answer you give is an investment in not having to answer multiple times in the future.

do i practice this? i try. but as i’m writing this, i’m maybe an hour from an assault charge for beating a newbie who has messed up yet again and given me garbage near a delivery deadline. for the third time, the federal tax withholding on a tax projection remains uncorrected, and the work papers even have the wrong client name at the top. i’m wondering if our firm’s hit man is available on short notice.

how will i avoid arrest? a few days ago, i asked his manager to schedule a meeting with him this afternoon. she’ll discuss this and find out why he’s having trouble with tax projections.

sometimes accounting personalities have trouble grasping the concept of tax projections, where we make up the numbers. however, the numbers must generally square with reality. it’s a big mental leap for people accustomed to stressing over rounding $.50 up or down to the nearest dollar.

he’s a bright newbie but seems to have a brain lock lately. a beatdown isn’t necessary – yet.

posted on november 7, 2023