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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Who Needs Fall Tax Planning? Clients … and You

Avoid balance-due whining sessions AND earn additional revenue.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

You’ve surely had this conversation a million times during multiple tax seasons, most often in April. You give a client a tax return with a $20,000 balance due.

Client: I didn’t expect to owe that much.
You: How much did you expect to owe?
Client: About $5,000.

MORE: It’s OK to Say No to Clients (Even the Large Ones) | Control Your Time: Avoid Ambush Meetings and Calls | Train Your Clients Before They Train You | Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
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Here’s where my conversations may differ from yours a bit.

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CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

It’s Okay to Say No to Clients (Even the Large Ones)

Working with “smaller” clients can often be more rewarding – and profitable – than “big” clients.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

There’s a reason you aren’t actively training clients to allow you to work efficiently. You’re afraid that you’ll lose clients.

I guarantee that you will.

MORE: Control Your Time: Avoid Ambush Meetings and Calls | Get Clients to Bring Tax Docs Early … Yes, EARLY | Why Time Tracking Still Matters | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Clients have trained you to be inefficient. They’ll resist retraining. Some of them will leave and infect someone else’s practice.

The reason you fear losing clients is that you fear you can’t replace them.

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HUMOR

Why Business Email is Doomed

Malware, ransomware, phishing and other hacker tools will make email obsolete.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Last year, the CEO of Slack predicted the demise of business email in five years. I think he’s wrong. I think business email maybe has another two years. There are two obvious reasons why email has a foot in the technological grave.

MORE: Control Your Time: Avoid Ambush Meetings and Phone Calls | Get Clients to Bring Tax Docs Early…Yes, EARLY | You Train Your Clients, Whether You Mean To or Not | Train Your Clients Before They Train You | Why Time Tracking Still Matters | Business Owners Face One of Three Exits | Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Easy Ways to Avoid ‘Done But’ Tax Returns | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

First, spam killed the efficiency of email. How much time do you spend each day deleting spam? You can train your spam blocker, but professional spammers get through using variable email addresses and agreements with internet routing companies.
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MANAGEMENT

Control Your Time: Avoid Ambush Meetings and Calls

How much time do you lose to pop-ins and unscheduled phone calls? Get it back.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Ambush meetings and phone calls are unscheduled events. Clients just walk in with a tax document and want to say, “Hello.”

MORE: Get Clients to Bring Tax Docs Early…Yes, EARLY |You Train Your Clients, Whether You Mean To or Not | Train Your Clients Before They Train You | Why Time Tracking Still Matters | Business Owners Face One of Three Exits | Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Easy Ways to Avoid ‘Done But’ Tax Returns | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

This morphs into, “Quick question while I’m here. …” Fifteen productive minutes escape your life, which is really 30 minutes when you consider the mental time you need to switch back to the task that was interrupted.
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