Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow

https://cpatrendlines.com/2014/02/02/marcus-metrics/Ask the right questions and stick to your processes.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Who makes the errors in your firm? Staff obviously, but that’s half of the answer. Clients are a major source of tax return errors. Clients cause errors in three ways:

  1. Errors of omission
  2. Errors of commission
  3. Errors in attitude

MORE: 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?
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Every tax season, we finalize and deliver returns only to hear from the client, “I think I might have forgotten to tell you that we had a baby last year.” Does this happen to you? This is a client error of omission. Unintentionally, clients withhold important information.
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Marchternity: The Solution Is Community

Before another grueling tax season, find your tribe.

More on Marchternity:
Just Say ‘No,’ by Seth Fineberg

By Liz Farr

The last several years have been rough on accountants, to say the least.

I left public accounting at the end of 2017, so I have been spared the never-ending chaos of the last five years, starting with the last-minute sweeping changes of the TCJA, and continuing on through the pandemic. However, thanks to social media groups like #TaxTwitter and Accounting Firm Influencers on Facebook, I’ve had an idea of the misery, confusion, exhaustion, and sheer frustration of tax pros trying to maintain sanity in the face of complete insanity.

MORE LIZ FARR: Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a MindshiftJennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone LovesMike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training PracticesHector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be FreePrivate Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt WilkinsonWhen Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey SchmidtCan Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves?Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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In 2020, Adam Markowitz, a razor-sharp EA and active member of the #TaxTwitter community, coined the term Marchternity, for the month of the 2020 tax season that never seemed to end. Ultimately, thanks to the mad coding skills of Chris Hervochon, the Marchternity Bot was born, providing “Daily updates on what day of Marchternity it is because March 2020 will never end.”

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Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity

Businessman horrified by what he sees on computer screenTackle the four error categories.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Determining the workflow harm that errors cause should be second nature now. Errors cause rework. Rework adds to work in progress (WIP) and, thus, increases turnaround time.

This happens in two ways: As WIP increases, capacity decreases. It’s a double whammy.

MORE: 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?
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When a reviewer spots errors on a tax return and sends it back to the preparer, the preparer wastes at least 15 minutes, and probably more like 30 minutes, fixing the errors. The return then goes back to the reviewer, who spends another 15 minutes re-reviewing the return. We have added 30 to 45 minutes to the WIP for this tax return. We know that adding to our WIP numerator increases turnaround time.

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How Bullish Are You This Tax Season?

Tax pros see gains in clients, revenue, and profits.

ROSY SCENARIO: 75% forecast increases in revenue per client. More work, or higher fees, or both?

Join the 5-minute survey. Get the answers. Start here.

By CPA Trendlines Research

If the early results of the 2023 CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer are any indication, tax practitioners can look forward to a lucrative year.

MORE TAX SEASON ’23:Accountants’ Top Problems for Tax Season 2023Tax Season 2023: Better or Worse? | Tax: The Procedural Checklists Your Firm Needs  |  Stop Tax Return Review Shortcuts  |  Offers in Compromise Aren’t for Everyone  |  Trump’s Tax Returns: Read The Originals Here  |  SURVEY: Tax Software Favorite Keeps Crown

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Over 46 percent of respondents expect a five to ten percent expansion of clientele, and another 13 percent say theirs will swell by more than ten percent.

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Accountants’ Top Problems for Tax Season 2023

As tax season gets underway, a lot to worry about.

Join the 5-minute survey. Get the answers.
Start here.

By CPA Trendlines Research

If you’re not worried as we plow into the busy season, you aren’t paying attention.

MORE TAX SEASON ’23Tax Season 2023: Better or Worse? | Tax: The Procedural Checklists Your Firm Needs  |  Stop Tax Return Review Shortcuts  |  Offers in Compromise Aren’t for Everyone  |  Trump’s Tax Returns: Read The Originals Here  |  SURVEY: Tax Software Favorite Keeps Crown

ON THE FRONT LINES: Langworthy, expanding with 200 new clients.

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And if you are concerned, you’re not alone.

  • In Van Nuys, Calif., Steve Glick came up with a new concern: “Now the software companies—TurboTax, Intuit, etc.—are competing against their customers by preparing tax returns.”
  • Gretl Siler, at Succentrix Business Advisors, in Panama City, Fla., has the problem everyone wishes they had, plus the one everyone wishes they didn’t. She says, “Note that I am not having any problem with increasing prices or with competitors.  The problem is too many new clients and staffing… plus the IRS is still terrible.”
  • To be sure, there’s Bob Langworthy, the founder of southern Maine’s Management Accounting. He couldn’t name a single concern. “None!” he says. “We served 1,000 clients last year and already have more than 200 committed new clients this season.”

For 2023, the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer expanded the list of possible concerns, 24 in all, plus an “other” option. It’s our longest list ever, and accountants checked off each and every possible worry.

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