busy season management

let color-coded tick marks be your friends.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

one of your roles as ceo is reviewer. there are two types of review: primary and secondary.

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depending on the size of your firm, you may only have primary reviews. if your firm consists of you and a preparer, you won’t have a second level of review. i don’t consider the self-review as a review step. i consider it part of preparation.
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tell quickly when a delay is the client’s fault. plus: 12-step tax return and 8-step writeup workflows.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

let’s play buzzword bingo. i’ll go first: workflow.

workflow is the cpa firm buzzword of the decade. every vendor leech trying to suck the life out of your bank account drops this term, and in so doing, workflow now means everything and nothing at all. marketers have so devalued the term that we shouldn’t be surprised that no one has an effective workflow, because no one knows what it is. let’s flush the confusion.

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workflow is not scanning and import software. workflow is not workpaper binder software. workflow is not a portal or tax return preparation software. workflow is not project management software, much as it pains me to so state. these are no more workflow than a hammer is real estate development. they are tools to accomplish workflow.
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avoid the dreaded “what’s the status of” questions.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

let’s discuss two training issues in detail: teaching time management and teaching review skills.

the biggest training gift that you can give your staff is time management training. you may want to offer formal training, but i have never found one that was really specific to cpa firms and the daily challenges we face.

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two time-management skills are at the heart of what cpa firms do. first, teach your staff task switching. by that i mean they shouldn’t get locked in on one type of task to the exclusion of others.
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software helps, so here are three tips for choosing it.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

let’s talk about assigning staff to projects. understand that this discussion will mean nothing the first two weeks of april, when you may be assigning the family dog to some returns.

and that makes perfect sense in those circumstances. i’ve done worse. who knew that goldfish can’t type?

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there are two factors to consider in assigning a project to a staff member.

first, does your staff member have the technical capability to complete the project? some people are good at personal tax returns. others are good at business returns. a few rare, wonderful individuals are good at both.
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true tales about the busy season.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

your first role as ceo is chief strategist. that means putting the right people in the right roles with the right resources.

your second role is trainer and coach. this role is closely related to your role as chief strategist. you can’t put the right people in the right positions without the right people. this second role is about creating and keeping the right people.

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unfortunately, few of the people you hire will be the right people immediately. you have to grow them. they aren’t necessarily slackers or stupid. they have never worked in a forward-looking, well organized firm like yours. if you have made it this far through our discussions, you are well on your way to creating an extraordinary firm.
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personal touches matter.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

clients are not numbers on a list that needs to be reduced. they are all individuals and consider themselves very important people and want professionals who treat them accordingly.

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it is attitudinal and accountants must adopt that mindset and transmit that through to their culture. so you need to know when it’s essential to pick up the phone.
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not this time of year.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

a well-known practice management expert, whom i greatly respect, advises cpas to never tell clients that you don’t have time for them. i disagree with the never part. you know how it starts. on march 25th, the call comes in.

“i know you’re busy but …”

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a request follows that could most certainly wait until after tax season. you are hip deep reviewing all the personal tax returns that got stuck in process while you climbed out of the march 15th corporate tax ditch.

“i need to know if i’m paying unemployment taxes to the right states. i think i should be paying taxes to the people’s republic of california, but i’m not. i’ve been paying unemployment taxes to uzbekistan instead.”
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bonus: it’s cheaper than adding capacity.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

want to increase profitability and client retention? manage projects effectively.

if you don’t have these measures, get them, or turn in your ceo title. if, as a value pricer, you’ve sworn off practice metrics based on productivity, you’ll learn nothing from this article. you just don’t have the numbers. mark cuban is on hold waiting to yell at you.

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there are only three ways to increase client happiness and thus increase retention:

1. lower your prices
2. decrease the turnaround time for client work
3. increase quality

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