Tax season is coming: What’s your plan?

Tax season is right around the corner. For many accounting firm owners, this can be an exciting yet challenging time of year. Increased demand, overburdened staff and ongoing recruitment challenges are just a few of the many hurdles you may face during the busy months of April to June. However, with proper planning and the right tools, you can ensure your firm is ready to take on the season and come out successful.

In this post, we’ll look at how taking a proactive approach to managing clients, processes and people planning can make this year’s tax season a success.

Tax season challenges

As an accounting firm owner, you've undoubtedly experienced the rapid increase in demand leading up to the end of tax season. While it can be one of the most profitable periods, it is also stressful. If not managed properly, you could see a decrease in employee engagement and satisfaction and increased turnover, stress and burnout.

Increased demand

For accountants and bookkeepers, April to August is the busiest time of year, but that doesn’t mean routine work stops. Your clients will still expect you to complete their profit and loss statements, payroll, balance sheets, bookkeeping, audits and financial documents on time.

Overburdened staff

If you’re one of the many accounting or bookkeeping firms struggling to recruit experienced professionals recently, you’re not alone. The industry has been facing a talent crunch for almost two years now. Tax season’s usual surge in demand may increase profits, but at what cost?

Overwhelming workloads during tax season could have severe impacts on your team, including:

• Anxiety, depression or other mental health challenges exacerbated
• Reduced productivity and engagement
• Lower employee satisfaction and retention
• Higher turnover.

Meeting your team’s needs with flexible, structured workloads will ensure your firm’s success through tax season and the rest of the year. Providing them with the tools they need to work anytime, anywhere and ensuring you have enough staff to handle incoming work will also be crucial to your success.

Be proactive in preparing for this tax season

There are several reasons to ensure your tax season preparations are well underway, including:

• Forecast for demand - Tax season’s soaring demand comes around every year. Understanding how it impacts your team and profitability is a must. Ensure you’ve recruited enough people in advance of the season and that they are all trained properly. This will ease workload pressures and ensure clients are serviced adequately.
• Meeting deadlines - While tax season is busy for all accountants and bookkeepers, ensuring all tax-related documents are prepared, reviewed and submitted before the deadline is vital. Proactively communicating with clients to set expectations on when they will supply their information can help.
• Accurate and timely filing - As a tax accountant, you play a crucial role in ensuring your clients’ taxes are filed accurately and on time. Incorrect or late filing can lead to additional taxes, interest and penalties, which can be costly for clients.
• Maintaining compliance - Tax laws and regulations are constantly changing, and accounting firms must stay up-to-date with these changes and ensure all clients comply with applicable tax laws. Leaving plannign to the last minute risks things being missed in the rush.

Increasing productivity and flexibility

Moving to the cloud or making a digital transformation has enabled global accountancy firms to take advantage of increased billable hours, decreased staff stress and modernisation. Using cloud-based infrastructure and platforms like QuickBooks supports tax season in several ways, including:

Accessibility - Access data anytime, anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. It means teams can work remotely, easily collaborate and access data on the go.

Automation - Reduced manual data entry time frees up your team’s time to deal with busier periods like tax season.

Integration - Cloud-based platforms can integrate with other software and platforms, such as CRM, project management and payment processing tools. It means data can flow seamlessly between different systems, reducing the time and effort required to enter data manually.

Real-time data - Get real-time updates on clients’ financial data making it easier to quickly spot issues, make adjustments and provide advice in real-time instead of waiting for monthly or quarterly updates.

Security and backups - Cloud-based platforms like QuickBooks offer secure backups and disaster recovery options, ensuring data is safe and restored in case of disaster or cyberattack.

Empower your EOFY with QuickBooks

Intuit QuickBooks is powerful cloud-based accounting software that will empower your team during Australia’s upcoming tax season. By automating many time-consuming, repetitive tasks, your team can focus on what it does best - working with clients. And since it’s cloud-based, your team and clients can work in harmony, no matter where they are located.

Sign up for our latest webinar to find out how QuickBooks can streamline your Tax and BAS workflows!