{"id":58147,"date":"2019-03-20t20:30:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-21t00:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=58147"},"modified":"2019-03-21t08:53:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21t12:53:15","slug":"tammys-tale-of-tax-season-tardiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2019\/03\/20\/tammys-tale-of-tax-season-tardiness\/","title":{"rendered":"tammy’s tale of tax season tardiness"},"content":{"rendered":"
by frank stitely<\/i> here\u2019s a story about a former staff member who caused me years of therapy and cost us probably 20 clients in one year. therapy for me consists of drinking craft beer, so i expect that i may need therapy for a lifetime.<\/p>\n more:<\/b> how effective project management makes your life easier<\/a> | value pricers ignore half the pricing puzzle<\/a> | cpas can\u2019t help you<\/a> | the agile accountant<\/a> | the cure for commoditization<\/a> | four amusing millennial myths<\/a> | 3 rules for asking great tax-return questions<\/a> also, note that this story happened before i started enforcing company policies with a loaded glock. the company handbook, which i wrote, allows this. i give you the \u201ctragic tale of tammy tardy.\u201d of course, 10 meetings later, she had no idea what she should work on next. so she just picked up a file from her office floor and began. she felt that it didn\u2019t matter which returns you worked on when you were overworked and in a hurry. there\u2019s a fixed amount of work to get done by april 15th<\/sup>, and you just jump in and do it.<\/p>\n tammy was wrong. tammy\u2019s clients began to call and call and call. after a couple of weeks, tammy was spending so much time on the phone that she had no time to prepare returns. this is \u201cwhat\u2019s the status of\u201d hell.<\/p>\n a client will call when he hasn\u2019t heard from his preparer after about two weeks. i know this concept well from 27 tax seasons of sometimes painful experience. i can even predict which clients will call next.<\/p>\n i wish i could write that tammy\u2019s story had a happy ending, but it didn\u2019t. tammy worked april 13th<\/sup> through the 15th<\/sup> with almost no sleep. clients called and offered helpful advice like, \u201cdon\u2019t you know this is april 15th<\/sup>?\u201d but by midnight on april 15th<\/sup>, she had barely dented her workload.<\/p>\n tammy wasn\u2019t entering her returns into our project management system, so no one knew tammy had dug a workload hole all the way to china. we had no idea how many returns were sitting on her floor or the statuses. seeing the number of files on her floor, i felt certain a pile of returns would be coming soon for me to review. those returns never came.<\/p>\n she learned, or should have learned, another lesson. consecutive all-nighters don\u2019t work. you can do this one night and then recover, but three nights without sleep reduces productivity to zero. she was probably hallucinating that returns were actually getting done. they weren\u2019t. many of tammy\u2019s clients left, disgusted that their returns hadn\u2019t been completed in over a month\u2019s time.<\/p>\n your honor, the prosecution rests. the case for effective project management has been made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a>or, why you need project management.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nthe relentless cpa<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n
\nexclusively for pro members. <\/span><\/strong>log in here<\/a> or 2022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\ntammy tardy was an average tax preparer who worked for us seven years ago. every tax season tammy, like many of us, met with a hundred or so tax clients. tammy managed her workload using the piles of files method. after a client meeting, she put the file on the floor, knowing she would get to it shortly.<\/p>\n