10 ways to get new 1040 clients

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and a
send ed your questions

and 5 ways to get more business tax clients.

question: i need a few more clients for tax season. any suggestions?

response: since we will be getting ready for tax season now is a good time to address this. here are two checklists, one for individual returns, the other for business client returns.

checklist: 10 ways to get new individual tax clients read more →

tax return reviewer ticking and tying

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aand complaining and correcting…

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: my tax return reviewer continually complains to me about the quality of the returns she gets to review. yet, many of the returns she passes on to me have errors. how do i fix this?

response: common problem. also common is the continuing nature of this problem and the apparent inability of cpa firm leaders to correct this.

more practice doctor q&a: 44 critical criteria for accounting staff performance evaluations  |  why i don’t hire on experience  |  5 time management tips for an overworked accountant  |  staff training starts with doing something  |  11 business-getting tips for the young staffer  |  when staffers don’t listen to you  |  questions and answers on selling a practice to staff members  | measuring growth in yourself, staff and partners  |  complaining client? no wonder!

the reviewer blames the preparer, but i see training the preparer as part of the reviewer’s job – if not direct classroom teaching, then an active ojt (on the job training) program where errors are called to the preparer’s attention, and the preparer corrects not only this error, but any returns already in the pipeline that they worked on but haven’t been reviewed with similar errors. read more →

23 reasons clients really need you for taxes

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aquestion: this is not a question that an accountant asked me, but a fellow traveler on my vacation. he was using a tax preparation service and wasn’t happy and felt he could do just as well by doing his own tax return. i told him there were many benefits to using a tax professional like a cpa or ea that were well worth the extra cost. so my question to myself is “what are they?”

response:  people with rental property, unincorporated businesses, investments that generate k-1s, grantor trusts, substantial investments in marketable securities or large retirement accounts and 401(k) balances need to engage a professional firm, and this checklist is directed toward those clients. read more →

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 forum: tax season prep tips?

readers’ forum: hours worked. firing clients. setting prices.

chris basom
chris basom
  • chris basom, managing partner of your money matters in mission viejo, calif., wants to know the “one thing you wanted to implement before tax season but just couldn’t get to.”
  • “is cash still relevant?” asked solo practitioner roxann otto of otto tax & accounting services in slinger, wis.
  • charles g. read in the melbourne, fla., area would like to know how other accountants arrive at the charges they present.
  • deborah mcdowell cain of her eponymous firm in fort worth, texas, asked, “does your firm work five, six or seven days a week? is overtime for staff mandatory? are senior staff hourly, salaried, offered overtime or comp time?”
    • and harking back to the busy season, she also asked, “how many people touch a return? why?” read more →

tax season quality controls: turning a cost into a money-maker

fact-checking adds little value. so why are you spending so much time on it?

by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns

too many otherwise very smart tax preparation operations confuse the two primary types of tax-return quality-control reviews: reviews for content and reviews for issues. each type of review requires a different discipline. one of them costs you money and the other can make you money, lots of it. read more →

new survey findings: tax season price wars

accountants scramble as competition surges for bread-and-butter tax work.
join the survey; get the results.

_top 10 tax season issues

by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

pricing and fee pressures are surging as the hot-button issues this tax season, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer.

to be sure, late or unprepared clients remain the single biggest issue, with 48% of more than 500 practitioners surveyed in february citing it, followed by tardy 1099s and k1s at 35%. those metrics are little changed from last february.

but this year, 31% of practitioners are complaining about pricing and fee pressures, which is triple the year-ago 10% figure.

related research
is the tax prep business topping out?  the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
tax season metrics shift for the better:   key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.
practitioners plot fee-pressure countermeasures:  competitors vie for clients on price and promises.

read more →

quality control: the first test of leadership

eight data points to check your tax season quality control systems.

by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns

accounting firms that have high review times usually have high error rates necessitating the higher review time. doesn’t that sound crazy?

why not set up procedures to reduce the error rate? i have been told that error rates range between 5% and 95%. 95%!? that is crazy! there must come a time when you decide to fix this. you can rationalize all the expediency reasons in the world, but this is just bad, stupid and poor business!

start by considering eight key metrics. read more →

tax return reviews: the key to a smooth tax season

em htrtr cvr cliptop leadership must set the tone for solid review work.

by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns

tax season is a microcosm of everything done in an accounting practice. one of the primary concerns of a business is having the proper processes and quality control procedures. many firms, however, do not have uniform tax return review procedures, and even when they do, they are not always adhered to. choosing how to properly use the reviewers’ time and interface them with the staff can contribute immensely to a smooth tax season. read more →