for most, anyway.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
the first results of the 2024 busy season barometer: emerging issues, opportunities, and trends are in, and so far, halfway into the tax season, accountants and tax practitioners are reporting another pretty good year.
that’s two in a row!
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last year, 58 percent of survey respondents said their year was much better or somewhat better than 2022, which, as you may recall, had been a rather rotten year.
so when only 32 percent of this year’s contributors say this season is better than 2023, it doesn’t mean fewer are having a good year. it means almost a third are reporting a year better than a good year.
another 38 percent say this year’s about the same as last year, which is another way of saying they’re having a second good year.
still, more than a quarter – almost 27 percent – say this year’s “somewhat worse.” hardly anybody – just 3 percent – says it’s even worse than somewhat worse.
breathe deep
so what’s going on?
for one thing, we’re seeing practitioners report a more manageable workload. some have managed to add staff. some are culling clients. some are better organized.
and some have managed none of the above.
the general staffing shortage is now the second-most common problem, reported by 37 percent. more serious by far is clients who are late or unprepared, a problem for exactly half of respondents. and of course some hapless practitioners have bad clients and not enough staff to deal with them.
pricing and billing rates ranked third, at 31 percent.
borbala banto, founder and ceo of concierge cpas, found a good solution, albeit not an easy one to achieve. her firm’s having a “much better” season, and this is why: “we overstaffed the office to anticipate growth and a smoother tax season.”
compare that with bruce ekmanian, owner of ekmanian tax & accounting, in california. he’s having a “somewhat worse” year because “with professional staff shortages, i have had to bring in contract tax preparer.”
someone with a small practice in virginia has found a magic combo: “we’re firm with client internal deadlines so we can concentrate on returns being filed by 4/15,” the anonymous respondent says, adding, “breathe deep and do yoga. limiting my hours so don’t work on sunday.”
better organization
tony coladonato’s year’s about the same as last year. he’s having trouble with too few staff and too many unprepared clients – a rock-and-hard-place situation – but he’s making up for it with better organization,
“we’re doing a better job of managing work flow,” he says, “with project tracking and managing client expectations with specific due dates for clients to have their complete tax information to our office in order to avoid their returns being on extension. we do this in particular with our ‘annual / tax return only’ clients.”
someone else is doing somewhat better by “logging each piece of information received, by date, type and source.”
and someone else is doing much better thanks simply to “working 99% remote.”
and somebody out in everett, wash., is trimming the firm and taking it easy. “not working late,” the anonymous practitioner says, “raising prices, firing clients that want in-person meetings and not willing to pay.”
respondent comments are by no means consistent. there are problems aplenty, but generally speaking, it looks like cpa and tax firms are finding solutions to their problems.
how are things in your neck of the woods? your colleagues across the nation want to know. click here to take the 2024 busy season barometer: emerging issues, opportunities, and trends survey.