Leverage Your Strengths to Beat Stress

Woman tossing exclamation points into air

24 ways you may be better than you think.

By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms

How many times a day do we tell ourselves with the little voice in our head that we’re falling short of the ideal we have for ourselves? “I forgot to add the salt, so I ruined the recipe.” “I’m not good enough.” “I was mistaken.” “I’m not smart enough.” “I didn’t get picked for the finals.” “Nobody likes me.” And so on.

MORE: You Don’t Have a Time Problem | Ten Ways to Have More Energy This Tax Season | Seven Steps to Keeping Your Clients Forever | Give to Receive, and Eight More Ways to Boost Sales | Five Things That Clients Don’t Know about Accountants | Five Ways to Wow Your Clients | How to Fight Feeling Overwhelmed | You’re Missing 60% of Your Revenue | Make the Most of CPE Conferences | Beyond Compliance: Six Tips for Adding Value | Track Six Figures to Test Your Marketing | When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
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Instead, why don’t we focus on our strengths? A University of Michigan psychology professor undertook an extensive research project to discover 24 positive character strengths that each person has to varying degrees.
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Can Your Tax Reviewers Answer These 10 Questions?

Businessman looking up answers in a book

BONUS CHECKLIST: The answers!

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

The primary people who should review tax returns are trained tax department reviewers. However, often the bunching and compression of work shifts some of the review to higher level, non-tax personnel such as audit managers and partners who might not necessarily have the comprehensive training, background and experience to handle everything that might come up during the tax preparation process.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: The Top 12 Mistakes in Tax Return Preparation | Six Types of Person: Which Are You? | Answer These Two Questions First | Help Your Tax Clients, Help Yourself | What’s Your Value to Your Tax Clients? | Are You Excited About Tax Season?
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Additionally, in many firms, almost everyone on the staff prepares some returns. That lack of dedicated preparers with the trained skills places an added burden on the tax reviewers, making it important for them to have the range of experience needed to perform the review.

Following are 10 questions reviewers should be able to answer to qualify for their role.

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Nine Tips for a Healthier Tax Season

woman and man walking and talking outside office building

How to be at your best through April 15th.

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

Tax season can be a marathon. Everyone has their own tips and tricks, habits and techniques for staying sane and healthy. Here are 10 of mine:

MORE: Every Accounting Firm Needs Quality Control | Three Ways to Start an Accounting Practice | Free Consultation? Not Always | Referral Fee? Forget It | How Much Is Your Tax Practice Worth? | Merge in Lower-Priced Work without Losing Out
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  1. Eat lunch out of your office.
  2. Go for a 15-minute walk in middle of afternoon instead of eating a snack.

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You Don’t Have a Time Problem

Businessman running after clock in silhouette

Three ways to fix what’s actually going on.

By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms

I know it’s a bold statement and a lot of you will disagree. But please have an open mind and hear me out.

MORE: Ten Ways to Have More Energy This Tax Season | Are You Crossing Off Your Business Bucket List? | Ten Ways to Make Your Business Irresistible | Five Ways to Target the Low-Hanging Fruit | Are Your Revenue Projections Realistic? | Six Strategies to Make More without Working More | The Art of Prompt Engineering for Accountants | Calculate Your Business Relationship Ratios
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Time is the great equalizer. We all have the same number of hours in a day, yet some entrepreneurs, many of them self-made, become wildly successful, while others languish. Only one in 20 business owners in the U.S. make it past $1 million in annual revenues. I believe the way they use their time is a big factor in their success or failure.
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The Top 12 Mistakes in Tax Return Preparation

Businessman horrified by what he sees on computer screen

 

There’s good news, though: they’re preventable.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Here are the top 12 tax return preparation errors:

  1. Number transposition and spelling errors. This includes income and deduction amounts and client Social Security numbers, addresses and ZIP codes. Spelling errors should also be avoided – they indicate a lack of attention to what you are doing.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: Six Types of Person: Which Are You? | Answer These Two Questions First | Help Your Tax Clients, Help Yourself | What’s Your Value to Your Tax Clients? | Are You Excited About Tax Season?
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  1. Unreported 1099 income. Clients frequently leave out 1099s, but the preparer should make sure all 1099 items from last year are accounted for. Missing 1099s that were not final for last year should be accounted for.
  2. Tax payments. Entering incorrect and unpaid amounts can be avoided by requiring the client to provide “proof” of the payments. Entering “incorrect” amounts provided by the client is a major cause of tax notices.

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Every Accounting Firm Needs Quality Control

man using laptop, pen marking imaginary checkboxes in air

The lowest cost always comes when the person first performing the service does it correctly.

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

Question: I want to improve my firm’s review and quality control. Do you have any suggestions?

Response: This is a recurring issue for most firms. Every CPA practice needs quality control. The issue is whether a dedicated quality control (“QC”) person is needed and, if not, how the QC can be done without one.

MORE: Three Ways to Start an Accounting Practice | Fifteen Strategies for First-Time Supervisors | No One Listens to You? Change How You Talk | Free Consultation? Not Always | Measure Knowledge Gaps (Then Close Them) | 47 Types of Business Valuation to Provide | Referral Fee? Forget It | Should You Offer Financial Services? | Thirteen Things to Consider Before You Sell Your Practice | How Much Is Your Tax Practice Worth? | Ready to Retire? Selling Your Practice Is No Strategy | Uncooperative Partner Might Not be the Problem | Merge in Lower-Priced Work without Losing Out | 20 Things You Need for a Business Valuation
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A practice is a business and every business must be run efficiently and profitably. QC is an area that I have found many firms getting tied up in and either spending nothing or much more than they should.
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Six Types of Person: Which Are You?

Use the answer to help define your business and your future.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Is your practice satisfying?

Do you like it the way it is, or do you want it to develop and grow? Some people like the way things are and don’t care about change.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: Answer These Two Questions First | Help Your Tax Clients, Help Yourself | What’s Your Value to Your Tax Clients? | Are You Excited About Tax Season?
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If you’ve gotten this far, I would suggest that you do care about change, and change means you have to do some things differently.
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Get Clients to Understand Firm Processes … or Say Goodbye

woman in a business suit waving a red flag

With just a little advanced marketing, you can get paid year-round AND have more satisfied clients.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

When I’m frustrated, here’s how I explain the importance to clients of letting us work our process:

“When you get your car repaired, you don’t look over the mechanic’s shoulder and tell him which wrench to use. The same principle applies to us. If you knew the best ways to prepare tax returns, you should become our competitor.”

MORE: Train Now Before It Costs You Down the Road | Keep Clients from “Balance Due” Shock | It’s OK to Say No to Clients (Even the Large Ones) | You Train Your Clients, Whether You Mean To or Not | Business Owners Face One of Three Exits | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
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Let’s be perfectly honest with each other.

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.
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