OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Tax Refund Totals Up 7%

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data table

Individual amounts are up 5 percent.

By Beth Bellor

Winter is fading away but busy season remains with us.

MORE: Tax Pros Handle 46% of E-Filings | Tax Refund Totals Up 10% | Tax Refunds Plummet, but No Worries | Tax Refunds Up 18% Early On | First Tax Filing Reports Are In
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As of March 7, the latest data available, the Internal Revenue Service had received 61.4 million individual income tax returns, down 2.1 percent from the same period one year ago. It had processed 60.8 million returns, down 1.8 percent.
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Make Tax Workflow Work for You

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smiling woman wearing glasses, looking at computer screen

Tell quickly when a delay is the client’s fault. Plus: 12-step tax return and 8-step writeup workflows.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Let’s play buzzword bingo. I’ll go first: workflow.

Workflow is the CPA firm buzzword of the decade. Every vendor leech trying to suck the life out of your bank account drops this term, and in so doing, workflow now means everything and nothing at all. Marketers have so devalued the term that we shouldn’t be surprised that no one has an effective workflow, because no one knows what it is. Let’s flush the confusion.

MORE by Frank Stitely
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Workflow is not scanning and import software. Workflow is not workpaper binder software. Workflow is not a portal or tax return preparation software. Workflow is not project management software, much as it pains me to so state. These are no more workflow than a hammer is real estate development. They are tools to accomplish workflow.
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Define Your Worth, Then Tell the World

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Use these exercises to refine your message.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

An advisor is trusted when they can show that they

  • took responsibility for their end of the bargain in the client engagement,
  • educated the client of their responsibilities,
  • offered prompting and assistance throughout but then allowed the client to ultimately govern themselves in terms of following through on their commitments.

MORE by Martin Bissett
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This then empowers the advisor to make a commercial decision when the client now faces the consequences, as to whether they want to communicate even more assistance to make things all better for the clients and gain huge appreciation and emotional capital.
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Luke Templin: Lose Your Perfectionist Gene | The Disruptors

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Don’t be afraid to try new ideas or plans–or afraid to fail.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Luke Templin believes that CAS – Client Advisory Services – will be the key to success as an accountant in the future. Not only is it an effective recruiting and retention tool for staff, but “it’s an attractive offering to clients,” he says. “If you were to talk to most entrepreneurs on what they want, most of them are going to want some sort of proactive advice on the numbers,” and not just the basics of bookkeeping and tax prep.

MORE PODCASTS and VIDEOS: Ira Rosenbloom: M&A Numbers Are Easy – Culture Fit Is Hard | Roman Villard: Ditch the Suit & Shine | Monique Swansen: Align Firm Values with Services | Tina McGill: How to Create Lasting Client Impact | Stefan van Duyvendijk: Develop Operational Mindset | Steve Evans: Why Traditional Hiring Methods Fail | Roger Knecht: Can You Be an Accountrepreneur? | Beth Whitworth: Focus on Outcomes Not Hours |Mike Sylvester: Learn to Say No | Salim Omar: Identify Your Client’s $100,000 Problem | Jackie Meyer: Earn More with Fewer Clients | Jack Fleherty: Don’t Be a ‘Yes’ Person | Greg Adams: From Finance to Storytelling | The Disruptors | Jody Padar: Make Radical Changes Now If You Want to Be Relevant in 2030 | Rebecca Driscoll: Amplify Reach By Helping Other Firm Owners | Rory Henry: Create the Return on Relationships | Mike Maksymiw: Be the Leader You Wish You Had | Terrell Turner: Build a Solid Business Showing Up as Yourself | Kelly Mann: Be the Bull in the China Shop | Alicia Katz Pollock: Create A Human-Centric Business |  Nancy McClelland: Be the One Your Clients Ask First |Alan Whitman: Stop Accepting the Status Quo | Sean Duncan: Discover Your Own Genius | Ingrid Edstrom: True Wealth Is Not Financial |

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Over his career, Templin has built four different CAS offerings in other firms, including his own, A2 Advisors, which focuses on fractional CFO services. As Templin explains, the goal of CAS is “to get numbers as real-time as possible,” while a fractional CFO expands on bookkeeping, “helping the client solve problems with as real-time numbers as we can possibly get.”

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