this team member didn\u2019t want to work saturdays (really, who does?) so, feeling she was on track with her work (which may have been debatable), and the promised flexible nature of the firm, she didn\u2019t show.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nthis situation caused a lot more confusion and discontent than necessary. do yourself and your team a favor by clearly communicating your busy season expectations this year before it starts.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\nhere is a checklist of five common cpa firm expectations to set with your team:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nwhat hours you expect them to work.<\/strong>\n\nmany firms specify a minimum number of busy season hours per week, along with an overall annual charge hour goal. sharing these targets with your team makes it more likely they\u2019ll hit the goal, and makes a \u201clooks like your off-track\u201d conversation easier if it\u2019s ever needed.<\/li>\n if you set a range of hours, don\u2019t be surprised if some team members log off when they hit that minimum \u2013 not everyone is as motivated to put in extra time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n what days you expect them to work.<\/strong>\n\nagain, this may seem obvious. and you might know very clearly what days you plan on working. but out of an abundance of caution, let your team know what\u2019s expected on these items:\n\nsaturdays<\/li>\n sundays<\/li>\n do they get any full weekends off as a perk (some firms allow for this even for tax professionals)?<\/li>\n if weekend work is optional or based on their own professional judgment of their workload, talk with them immediately if their choices during busy season contradict what you might expect, based on your assessment of their workload.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n what the process is for preparing or reviewing work.<\/strong>\n\nif there\u2019s a familiar way of doing a certain task, have one of your staff take the time to write up the procedure, if it\u2019s not already documented. review what they write, you might learn how a few errors tend to show up again and again. share it with other team members. the best part about documenting your processes for preparing or reviewing work? you can use it in training and as a reference if a team member suddenly can\u2019t do their work anymore.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n when you expect them to be working.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\ndoes your firm have set hours for the full day? core hours only (a shift many firms are making, to having required hours of say 9 am \u2013 3 pm, and employees can choose if they want to round out their hours earlier, later, or split them up).*bonus points if you\u2019re open and transparent about when people are unavailable and honoring that downtime \u2013 which is critical to recharging and being a better professional overall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n what response times you expect for internal and external communications.<\/strong>\n\nsome firms and clients have come to expect, and rely on, near-instantaneous replies to chat and email messages. responsiveness is a hallmark of our profession and a measure of top-tier client service. however, over-responsiveness can come at a cost if you and your team never allow yourselves the time to dig into that complex return or sort out the high-risk audit issue that involves digging into lengthy revenue contracts. by setting response time expectations, you can allow your team to both serve clients at a high level, while also attending to the cognitive work that a true professional must do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a> \nfive common cpa firm expectations to set with your team<\/b> \nby kristen rampe<\/em> \nbusy season is here. are you ready? is your team ready?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1906,"featured_media":81744,"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":[2741,1363,1908,3120,3002,2297,1906,2246],"tags":[643,715],"class_list":["post-81985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-checklist","category-featured","category-management","category-pro-member-exclusive","category-special","category-staffing","category-tax-practice","category-busy-season","tag-hiring","tag-jobs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nteam expectations: a checklist for busy season - 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