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How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season

Make tax season less taxing and more productive.

By Sandi Leyva and ChatGPT

In the fast-paced world of tax preparation and accounting, time is of the essence. Embracing ChatGPT can dramatically transform your workflow, offering practical and actionable solutions to common challenges.

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Here’s how you can put ChatGPT to work, making this tax season less taxing and more productive, even if Congress decides to pass a retroactive tax bill right in the middle of busy season.

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AUDIT & ASSURANCE

Auditing Standards ‘Yellow Book’ Updated

Words "time for an update" on clock face

The changes are more than just technical.

By CPA Trendlines Research

America has a wealth of governments. They’re all over the place. Municipal governments. County governments. Parishes, boroughs, villages, hamlets. Special purpose local governments. School districts, fire districts, tax districts. Independent authorities, tribal councils and councils of governments. State governments, territorial governments and, of course, the big one in Washington, District of Columbia, with its thousands of branches, arms and agencies.

Love them or hate them, there they are. Tens of thousands of governments. And they all have one thing in common: they need to be audited.

MORE: Firms Culling Clients as Staffing Woes Persist | Revenue Up at 59% of Accounting Firms … and More Good News | ChatGPT for the Reluctant Accountant | Survey Shows Challenges, Priorities Shifting | Can Big Data Spot Financial Fraud? | Accountants Torn Over 2024 Economy, Offer Advice | SURVEY: Are You Offering the Right Services? | SURVEY: 42% of Accountants Turn Away Work Over Staff Shortages | Talent Gap Widening: Be Very Scared
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Or, to put it another way, they need auditors.

Being governments, their accounting and auditing standards are different from those of nongovernmental entities.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Firms Culling Clients as Staffing Woes Persist

man in suit exiting office building

Others tap outsourcing, training clerical staff as solutions.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Early results from the CPA Trendlines 2024 Busy Season Barometer: Emerging Issues, Opportunities, and Trends are showing a painfully persistent problem with staff shortages, though it seems the hardship may have improved a bit since last year.

MORE: Revenue Up at 59% of Accounting Firms … and More Good News | Compensation’s Up, but Up Enough to Retain Staff? | Are Accountants Charging Too Little? | ChatGPT for the Reluctant Accountant | CPAs Needed to Help Small Biz Adopt AI | Revenue Growth Is Top Priority for Small Firms | Is the CPA Business Model the Clog in the Pipeline?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

This year, like last year, survey respondents are reporting staffing as the second most common concern. Last year, it was reported by 47 percent, almost tied with the main concern: late or unprepared clients.

This year, uncooperative clients still rank first, at 50 percent, but staffing concerns have dropped to 37 percent.
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PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Three Critical Factors Drive the Value Pricing Trend

Embrace the value pricing perfect storm.

By Jody Padar
The Radical CPA

Ron Baker is known as the value pricing guru in the accounting space. He was way before his time in separating the price of labor from the value of a product. Labor-based pricing is based on the difficulty of doing a task. Value pricing looks at everything from the client’s viewpoint. His argument is as follows: the value you provide your customer, regardless of the deliverable, is worth way more than the hour.

MORE: Accounting Disruptors Are Heading Your Way … with Deep Pockets | The Convergence of Trends Makes Pricing Changes Imperative | Stop Looking for Talent that Does Not Exist | Advisory Work Must Be Priced by Value, Not Hours
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While value pricing isn’t new, automation has driven it to the forefront. Automation gives CPAs up to 90 percent more time to provide valuable services based on their expertise, knowledge base and experience.

Although it was clear the cloud was going to have a disruptive impact on our business model, Ron Baker would always explain: it’s not the technology that’s going to make value pricing the way to go, the value’s always been there.

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CHARTS & GRAPHS

Tax Pros Gain Ground, and DIYers Maintain Lead

data table

Refunds are up over 4 percent.

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

With about a month left in the 2024 tax season, the individual income tax returns keep pouring in, and the Internal Revenue Service keeps grinding them out.

The IRS had received 62.8 million returns, down 1.1 percent from the previous year, as of March 8, the latest data available. It had processed 61.9 million returns, down 2.1 percent.

MORE: Tax Pros Handle 46.4% of E-filing | Tax Refunds, Tax Pro Market Share Trending Up | Refunds Up as Tax Pros Tackle 41.5% of E-filings | Tax Pros Handle 37.7% of E-filings | Tax Pros File 33% of Early Returns
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E-filings

Electronic filings totaled 61.2 million, down 0.9 percent.
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