Four Ways to Reboot for the New Realities

Dollar being built of blocksWhen things aren’t turning out the way you dreamed, it’s time to think about an overhaul. Here’s how to start

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

How does your current business look compared to the one you dreamed about before you started your entrepreneurial journey?

MORE: Boost Your Cross-Selling in Two Easy Steps | Why Your Social Media Is a Flop | The Biggest SEO Secret of All: Google Business Listings | Beyond Bookkeeping: Five Value-Add Service Areas
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Do you now have clients you love, a dream team, the financial rewards you are comfortable with, and plenty of free time?

If not, don’t give up. You can still get there, and a little business clarity may help you get there even faster.

Here are four steps:

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Fear and Loathing for Tax Season ’22

Most tax and accounting practitioners see a bleak outlook ahead.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Tax and accounting professionals are launching into Busy Season 2022 with widespread fears of crisis and chaos, facing a third year of pandemic conditions, the staffing shortage, a sputtering IRS, and political and economic uncertainties.

The Outlook for Busy Season 2022?
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A majority of accountants are telling the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer that they are expecting an even worse year than last year, with 40 percent bracing for “somewhat” worse and 11 percent girding for “much “worse.

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COVID Chokes an Already Crippled IRS

Can busy season get any worse? We’re about to find out.

IRS Workloads Up, Budgets Down
IRS Workloads Up, Budgets Down

By CPA Trendlines

The year 2021 gave tax preparers and taxpayers one big mutual hope — the hope that such a year never happens again.

MORE for TAX SEASON 2022: Eight Ways to Charm a Client | Prepping for Tax Season: Plug Small Leaks Before They Become Big Floods | Four Issues with ‘Quick’ Tax Questions | UPDATED: Accountants Critical of Competitor Price-Cutting | When to Pick Up the Phone This Tax SeasonGet Your Team Ready for Tax Season | Automate Busy Season with Apps You Already Use | These Five Procedures Will Simplify Your Tax Season | 11 Steps to Better Client Tax Instructions | 12 Ways to Squeeze Fun into Tax Season | Six Ways to Get Paid Faster | SURVEY: Worries for Small Business Clients | Busy Season Forecast: More Chaos |

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And just in case Congress didn’t get the message, National Tax Advocate Erin M. Collins submitted to that august body an annual report that pulled no punches and spared no explication. The new filing season starting Jan. 24 could bring hitherto unbelievable problems.

The situation, she said, was dire. READ MORE →

Boom! COVID Drives Startups

Small-business start-up rate running 50% higher than pre-pandemic. (via Zapier)

71% plan to continue with their new ventures.

By CPA Trendlines

As the world bemoaned the cruelty and inconvenience of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of entrepreneurs were making the best of times in the worst of times.

The result: a lot of new small businesses. And each one is an opportunity for an accountant.

MORE OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS: Accountants Critical of Competitor Price-Cutting | Are You Under-Pricing Your Client Accounting Services?  | Stop Complaining and Start Innovating | Five Tough-Love Strategies for 2022 | SURVEY: Tech Is the Path to a Better Tax Season | Private Equity at the Gates | Top 20 Trends for the Year Ahead | Sales & Use Tax Costs Are Higher than Anyone Thought |

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The pandemic years have seen a huge spike in not just COVID-19 cases but new business creation, a breathtaking increase of 50 percent, according to a survey from Zapier, the software automation company. It started just as existing businesses went into lockdown, and the trend isn’t stopping any more than the virus is.
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Your Best Advice: Get Smart, Get Tech, Get Moving

The new normal: Accountants race to adapt, adjust, and adopt new tools and tactics. (CPA Trendlines-Avalara Accountants Confidence Index) 

What accountants are telling other accountants about how to weather the pandemic economy.

HOW WELL is your firm ADAPTING to CURRENT BUSINESS CONDITIONS?
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We’re AHEAD of the curve   |   We’re KEEPING UP   |   We’re FALLING BEHIND

By CPA Trendlines Research
CPA Trendlines-Avalara Business Confidence Index

New readings from the CPA Trendlines-Avalara Business Confidence Index are unearthing a lot of good advice for firms venturing into the post- (let’s-hope-) COVID-19 world.

RELATED: SURVEY: Worries for Small Business Clients |  Busy Season Forecast: More Chaos   |  SURVEY: Drake Takes the Cake in Tax Apps  |  There Are 4 Types of Professionals  |   |  Pop Quiz: Can You Find $330,000 for Your Clients?   |  Remote Work Is Here to Stay   |  SALT: The Small Business Disaster Waiting to Happen   |   |  SURVEY: CPA Firms Reject Staff Vaccine Mandates

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In five nutshells:

  1. Adapt technology to virtual service.
  2. Innovate to deal with government tax and economic measures.
  3. Look for cloud-based apps accessible anywhere.
  4. Automate to stay competitive.
  5. Look for new revenue streams to replace older services.

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SURVEY: Worries for Small Business Clients

But they’re optimistic closer to home.

By CPA Trendlines Research

These are troubling times, no doubt about it. But despite the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration, Congressional turmoil, and disturbing events around the world, accountants are cautiously optimistic about the future of local business and the national economy.

MORE in SURVEYS & RESEARCH: Pop Quiz: Can You Find $330,000 for Your Clients? | Automation without Accountants | SURVEY: Your Favorite Desktop PC | Remote Work Is Here to Stay | CPA Firms Reject Staff Vaccine Mandates | SALT: The Small Business Disaster Waiting to Happen | SURVEY: Changed Rules Bust Busy Season

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Results from the CPA Trendlines / Avalara Accountants Confidence Index show deep concern for small-business clients, but generally hopeful that business will continue unchanged or get somewhat better over the next year to 18 months.
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Busy Season Forecast: More Chaos

Busy Season Barometer: 53% report a “worse” year, compared with 31% reporting “better.”

Ironically, the chaos translates into expanded business.

By CPA Trendlines Research

It was a pretty bad busy season for most of the nation’s tax preparers. COVID-19 was on the wane, but Congress was on the job, jiggering tax rules even as the season was underway.

And, now, with the prospects of a federal government shutdown and a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill, 2022 is shaping up to be deja vu all over again.

MORE in SURVEYS & RESEARCH: Pop Quiz: Can You Find $330,000 for Your Clients? | Automation without Accountants | SURVEY: Your Favorite Desktop PC | Remote Work Is Here to Stay | CPA Firms Reject Staff Vaccine Mandates | SALT: The Small Business Disaster Waiting to Happen |

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To be sure, a good number of accountants are assuaged by more clients and more revenue. But the CPA Trendlines Business Barometer finds preparers experiencing a long, tough slog.

On the frontlines (from left): Hochberger, Wright, Speed, Frazier, Widmann.

In all, 53 percent say they had a busy season somewhat worse (27 percent) or much worse (26 percent) than last year.

For some, it seems like a good time to call it quits. “Thank you for all the love and support,” says one firm’s auto-responder to incoming emails.

“As some of you may know, this past few tax seasons have been nothing short of chaotic, to say the least,” the three-office, North Carolina tax shop tells callers. “But I have enjoyed being able to assist each and every one of my clients.”

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SURVEY: Drake Takes the Cake in Tax Apps

Businesswoman working on laptop giving thumbs up sign… overall. But it has some shortfalls.

By CPA Trendlines

The annual tax software survey of AICPA members was kind of special this year.

MORE TECH: Zoom Tops Microsoft Teams for Now | Time to Buy a New Laptop? | Office 365 Users Targeted in New Phishing Attack | Accountants Are Losing the Technology RaceWhat’s Tops in Laptops

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Why? Because the tax year itself was kind of – to put it nicely – special.

COVID-19 and Congress were the culprits, of course. In a desperate attempt to keep the national economy afloat, Congress passed retro(ouch!)active tax relief – the American Rescue Plan Act – as the busy season was well under way.
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