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20 good ways to boost tax season production

people in office releasing balloonspeople like fun … but that’s not all they value.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

i have always loved accounting and tax season, but i have worked with many people who did not.

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they resented many of the working conditions and had a closed-in feeling that heightened their dislike of my great profession. i resolved that when i had my own practice i would not create that type of atmosphere.

here are some of the things i did to lighten the “burden.” these also enabled me to retain the entry-level staff i hired for longer periods.

  1. better hours during tax season
  2. a continuous recognition and “selling” of the benefits of tax season for staff
  3. make sure staff members are presented work they will enjoy and find stimulating
  4. have staff meet with clients to get tax information, sit in on such meetings, or call client for additional information and to obtain answers to open item questions
  5. set up self-checking methods so less work is submitted that needs to be corrected
  6. floating weekend day off during tax season
  7. close the office the weekend after march 15, and the day after april 15
  8. flowers or plants to the spouse or partner of a staff person, dinner on you after tax season, a surprise gift for young children of staff
  9. no mickey mouse overtime or “bonus” payments – pay for the work
  10. don’t make people work late before there are actual tax returns to do
  11. better scheduling of work
  12. flextime during tax season and/or certainly on weekend days
  13. involve staff in decision-making process on clients they work on
  14. occasional surprise ice cream or yogurt treats in the afternoon
  15. close the evening of valentine’s day (without a make-up date)

after tax season:

  1. day at a ball game or museum followed by dinner and a broadway show or whatever the pandemic allows in your area
  2. family picnic
  3. tailor-made appropriate cpe for each staff level
  4. unusual cpe such as a comedian economist (they do exist and i have seen a couple)
  5. cpe program at atlantic city (or similar resort, again depending on current restrictions) the first thursday and friday in may after tax season ends (with a cpe program from 1 to 5 on thursday and 8 to noon on friday) and give the staff money for dinner and entertainment so they don’t have to spend the entire night with you (no matter how exciting you think you are, you are a generation older than your staff and they want to have fun with people their own ages)

try some of these and see the changes in attitude, added excitement and more fun in the office. have a great tax season!

2 responses to “20 good ways to boost tax season production”

  1. george thomas

    one of the best way to boost tax season production is to get daily update about tax. communicating with employees & other staff members will also help to boost the tax season production.

  2. joe eckelkamp

    a lot of good ideas above, and a few that confuse me. three rhetorical questions on points you may want to embellish in the article:

    1–are there still firms that don’t do #4 with today’s professionals?
    2–what are “better hours”? do you mean shorter hours, flex-time, or something else.?
    3–“floating weekend day off during tax season” makes it sound like your team regularly works 7 days a week. or, do you mean they can take their “weekend day” on any day of the week?

    joe