take a tip from a peer.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer: emerging issues, opportunities, and trends is more than just a survey of the state of the industry at cpa firms across the nation. it also offers clues to what firms are doing to make the busy season better, easier and more profitable.
the clues are in the comments – open-ended answers where practitioners tell us what they’re doing, how they’re feeling and where they’re going.
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one of the best questions is “what are you doing differently this year?” each answer reflects an attempt to make the best of a stressful situation – the annual tax season.
here are a few quotes to think about, categorized by how well various respondents’ seasons are going this year. each is an idea that might make your year better.
somewhat better
- letting one of the new employees do the manual aspects of crm
- earlier start on getting planners and engagement letters out
- increasing prices
- switched to a different portal software. changed processes for accounting work last year so we don’t have as much backlog on financials this year.
- planned decrease in clients with a planned fee increase
- logging each piece of information received, by date, type and source
- using sureprep to enter info into lacerte
- we are trying to be more proactive in scheduling clients and utilizing our staff to better service our clients to reduce potential client headaches and problems. we increased our fees as well as our payroll, so profit will more than likely stay about the same.
- we hired an experienced accountant for business returns; keeping more consistent schedule; less personal chit-chat with clients when they have appointments; trying to keep review time efficient.
much better
- better staff and better use of technology
- more space between appointments
- i was better prepared. changed tax software last year. so there was a learning curve. contacted clients earlier in january than the previous year.
- more e-signatures
- overstaffed the office to anticipate growth and a smoother tax season
- 50% deposit in advance for tax returns, work flow management system
about the same
- pushing clients to send tax information earlier
- extending more clients due to congress considering retroactive legislation
- raised rates slightly this year
- i did not increase pricing sufficiently to reflect increased costs, especially labor. we also have fewer experienced staff, given retirements and younger replacements.
- outsourcing
- we’re doing a better job of managing work flow 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.
- working longer hours
- training people who i hope will stay thru filing season and continue to next year
- we hired more interns and more new staff.
- trying to take less work home
somewhat worse
- more global perspective and anticipate using extension periods
- different staff. more clients visited us prior to tax season and dropped off tax info when ready.
- new software changes which are not yet fully implemented
- attempting to manage workflow by greater use of electronic document transfer; minimizing in-person meetings when possible to get more done
- clients are not prepared and k-1s are late.
- i took on several new business and trust clients.
- for new clients, charging a setup fee. after march 1 new returns probably extended.
- we hired more interns and more new staff.
- hired a student to simply get through the tax season, and after tax season will re-evaluate exactly what it is i need and make a new plan.
much worse
- cut 180 tax-only clients going into the season
- nothing different since covid, fewer appointments, more clients mailing, dropping off or using portal, but they come in much later …
- hired new staff, but their experience is not what they said it was. took on more clients to support expense of new staff. really need irs to stop extension filing requirement as it is labor-intensive.
what are you doing differently this year? what’s working? what’s not? the busy season barometer’s the place to opine. click here to get started.