Tax season is the most intense time of the year for accounting firms. Between straggling clients, organizational difficulties and supply problems, it often means high levels of stress resulting in unnecessary mistakes. The good news: there are tons of tools and methods out there to help you get through busy season while retaining your sanity.
Keep on Top of Tax Season by Setting Limits
Every accounting firm has its own requirements and everyday hazards can be hard to predict. There are however a few steps that can help you get through tax season. The golden rule is anticipation: come up with a reverse schedule ahead of time and provide your clients with clear deadlines for supporting documents and other required paperwork.
Organize Your Busy Season Schedule
Setting up an effective reverse schedule is a way of setting milestones and a start date by working backwards from the required task’s completion date. Follow these steps to create an achievable schedule:
- List all necessary tasks and break them down into smaller ones
- Organize your tasks by order of priority (urgent vs. important)
- Set deadlines for each step (date/time of delivery)
- Distribute the tasks and assign the responsibilities to your collaborators
By following this process, you’ll have a clearly defined calendar with realistic deadlines that can be easily be used as a reference to avoid confusion amongst your collaborators.
How to Avoid Accountant Burnout During Tax Season
Tax season means spending long hours at the office and probably sacrificing a few weekends while you’re at it. The best way to avoid exhaustion is to keep up with your usual routine as much as possible. Take regular breaks throughout the day, eat healthily, work out (the 7 minute workout is a good option) and define “work free” zones and times. A study by the Big 4 accounting firm Deloitte & Touche revealed that 91% of employees reckon that work/life balance is linked to more ethical behavior on the part of workers.
Cloud Accounting to the Rescue!
The cloud is your friend all year round and even more so during busy season! As a reminder, cloud software, or online solutions, allow you to work from anywhere and in collaboration with your clients and coworkers. Online accounting solutions usually provide you with a collaborative portal, enabling your customers to send you their accounting documents in digital format. Even though there’s more to it, this particular feature is especially useful during tax season because it eliminates time spent chasing up late clients. Solutions like OneUp also offer project and task management features.
Takeaways
As a CPA, implementing a time management plan and automating manual tasks are key elements of effectively managing tax season.
Looking for other ways to simplify your work during tax season? OneUp, the fastest online accounting software on the market, can automate most of your accounting tasks! Start your free trial now and join our community of over 700,000 business professionals!
This post is also available in: French