tax return preparation costs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
the numbers are clear. scaling your practice means hiring people. otherwise, you\u2019ll cap out at a size where you\u2019re always nearing total exhaustion with clients constantly complaining that you don\u2019t provide the same service you used to. that\u2019s a valid choice, but not one i\u2019d choose.<\/p>\n
someone not so wise described managing people as like herding cats. many days, i\u2019d gladly opt for the cats. cats are mostly quiet.<\/p>\n
i\u2019ve wondered how some employees remember to breathe. we\u2019ve had employees who could get the answer to two plus two right about 80 percent of the time. we\u2019ve had employees who couldn\u2019t copy a column of numbers accurately from one page to another in excel using copy and paste. we\u2019ve had drug use in the bathroom. i could go on and gladly would with you over a beer.<\/p>\n
nonetheless, our practice is more profitable with people than without. i can concentrate on the highest-value tasks and let others do the rest. as i write this, we have our best team ever, including a couple of fresh-off-the-college-boat newbies. my primary role is traffic cop and client communicator. if i personally prepare as many as 20 tax returns this year, including my own, i\u2019ll be disappointed.<\/p>\n
there\u2019s a hidden value to assembling a team. your business will be worth more. i\u2019m putting on my certified valuation analyst (cva) hat. what\u2019s the most valuable type of small business? one that isn\u2019t dependent on the owner. if you can hand the office keys to someone else and the business chugs along, you have an easily salable business. if the business depends on you, you have little to sell. a buyer risks your clients leaving when you do.<\/p>\n
my business partner and i used to talk about maintaining the illusion. the illusion was that we appeared to be doing all of the work. clients would never talk to staff, and hopefully wouldn\u2019t even know they existed. we operated under the false assumption that clients wouldn\u2019t tolerate working with anyone other than our exalted, high holy, cpa firm partner selves. kneel and genuflect when you speak our names. you can return to your seat now.<\/p>\n
so you still think your clients only want to deal with you? here\u2019s why that assumption is wrong. the top few thousand firms in the country seem to have gotten past it. many of the people you meet at conferences have gotten past it. do any of the big four still have a name partner? of course not. and their clients produce a lot more revenue than yours \u2013 or mine, i must reluctantly admit. your clients expect to deal only with you because you have trained them that way.<\/p>\n
so, you think it has nothing to do with training your clients? how many times have you sold the concept to potential clients that you\u2019ll personally keystroke every bit of information into their tax returns, unlike that competitor, bob, down the street? in those moments, you are selling you, not the expertise of your firm. you have just promised a $350 client that you\u2019ll spend $500 of your time on his returns. don\u2019t be surprised when he refuses to talk to anyone but you on april 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\ntop-quality clients are smart people. if they own businesses, they get the delegation thing. they do it. they expect you to be a smart businessperson as well. if you\u2019re printing your own tax returns or scheduling your own appointments, they won\u2019t view you as a trusted advisor. if you can\u2019t run your business, you can\u2019t help them with theirs.<\/p>\n
will you lose some clients over this? yep \u2013 the low-dollar ones. they\u2019re the ones who tie up 90 minutes each march in meetings to show you all their w-2 forms, making sure you understand why their dog\u2019s medical expenses should be deductible. wouldn\u2019t using that 90 minutes to serve your best clients be a better use of time? bad clients crowd out good ones, and bad clients refer other bad clients. let them infect your competitor\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
by now, you\u2019re either convinced or you need a psychiatrist. let\u2019s move on to the nuts and bolts of staffing. if you\u2019re a sole proprietor, who should be your first hire? if you\u2019re in a larger firm, take a nap for the next few paragraphs. i\u2019ll catch you on the flip side.<\/p>\n
as a sole proprietor, hire an admin person first. you could hire both an admin and tax preparer, but if you haven\u2019t managed people in a while, try a tax season with just the unmitigated joy of having a good admin person. assign the following tasks to him \/ her:<\/p>\n
\nanswering the telephone<\/li>\n producing final tax returns<\/li>\n scanning client documents<\/li>\n scheduling<\/li>\n ordering office supplies<\/li>\n keeping you from killing a third of your clients<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nhiring an admin person risks very little. the wage rate will be relatively low. admin people are also somewhat easy to find and not disruptive to fire quickly if one doesn\u2019t work out. and from experience, i can tell you most won\u2019t work out. when you find a good person, give him\/her a raise after tax season to slightly above market pay.<\/p>\n
stability in your admin position is money in the bank. two of our admin people have been around for 15 and five years respectively. treat the good ones like family and the bad ones like a cancerous tumor. an admin person leverages your time, freeing you to prepare more tax returns. imagine the efficiency of having someone year after year who knows your procedures. then hire that person.<\/p>\n
hiring a tax preparer is more difficult. you have the chicken and egg problem \u2013 or at least you think you do. \u201ci need to hire a preparer to grow my practice, but i don\u2019t have the money to hire one until i grow my practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
again, other people have conquered this herculean challenge. aren\u2019t you at least as smart as your competitor down the street, who believes general ledger won the revolutionary war? we all know mel gibson won that one.<\/p>\n
consider hiring a per diem, part-time or tax-season-only person. you can call them what you wish. we use about 15 of these people to staff up during tax season. are they as good as full-time employees? generally, no. in general, you can\u2019t control their schedules and workloads as tightly as employees. also, as part-timers in the business, few actively pursue improving their skills.<\/p>\n
but there are exceptions. our best corporate tax person works for us part-time and lives in phoenix. we are located in northern virginia. i use his workpapers, not mine, to train others. if i had to choose between his life and the lives of my children, well, none of my kids is that useful during tax season. one of my kids is a cpa, but she\u2019s an auditor. we all know auditors aren\u2019t that useful. he might replace her in my will.<\/p>\n
people sometimes ask if i\u2019m disappointed i have four daughters and no sons. the answer is no, but i\u2019m disappointed i have no tax preparers as children. we need cheap labor. if you can\u2019t exploit your kids, who can you exploit? then i could \u201cemploy\u201d my kids and deduct a salary that they never get, just like our clients do.<\/p>\n
you can find the seasonal staff on craig’s list or some other similar site. oddly, we have not found good full-time preparers on craig\u2019s list. i have no idea why. that\u2019s just our experience. here\u2019s a craig\u2019s list hint: set up a separate email address to handle the resumes, unless you want your inbox to become your spam folder, full of interesting ways to fill lonely nights.<\/p>\n
local homeowners\u2019 association newsletters yield great candidates as well. lots of full-time moms and dads look to use their professional skills on a part-time, or tax-season-only, basis. welcome to the 21st<\/sup>-century gig economy. you can also find sole proprietors trying to use spare time while they start their practices. the danger with this last category is that, if they get busy in late march, your clients\u2019 returns will wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a> \nremember, bad clients crowd out good ones.<\/strong> \nby frank stitely<\/em> \nthe relentless cpa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1362,"featured_media":56466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1905,1363,1908,3120,3002],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clients-and-service","category-featured","category-management","category-pro-member-exclusive","category-special"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nmanaging people: the heart of effective project management - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n