Race to the Finish
That race almost always includes thoughts of next year - plans, fixes, and more.
If you’re reading this, you’re almost certainly a tax and/or accounting professional. And if you’re in the United States, you’re likely like me, and working through those last few returns before the 10/15 deadline.
Now is the time we’re dreaming of next year, and all the things we want to do differently - of all the ways we don’t want to be here right now, on 10/4, tail between the legs and preparing returns that should have been done a long time ago. Or choking back insults and ultimatums to send to clients who…haven’t gotten us what we need.
Or maybe you’re one of those gems who’s got this all figured out and your sitting back laughing at those of us floundering to get it all done (we know we will). If this is you, serious question: how do you do it?
I went out on my own for a multitude of reasons. One of them was to not be sitting here on 10/4 with more than one or two returns to prepare. Sadly, that’s not me this year. But I can take this energy to drive changes for next year:
What’s going to be different?
Do you mean besides having more than one or two returns to finalize right now? It all really comes down to client communication. Which, if we’re being honest, should be happening all year long:
Save those relevant receipts so you can tally and reconcile at year-end
Reconcile your dang bank account regularly.
Learn how to use your accounting software.
Tell your tax preparer if you’re getting married, divorced, selling your home, or have other major changes.
Follow through on those pesky things like giving your tax preparer information so they can run those calculations.
The Tools
Email, portals, checklists, organizers, reminders, all of it is overwhelming. This tool has those three features I need, but not the two I want. That tool has the two features I want, two out of the three features I need, and a whole list of others I like the idea of, but…is it really necessary?
In reality, nothing is necessary. We could set up shop a laptop on our lawn, take what clients bring us, prep a return, and send them on their way (assuming of course they bring us everything we need that first go).
But there’s so much to it than that.
And what happens when all of our plans and intentions go out the window because of notices galore, or an audit, or something else that really does need our attention more than the things already in front of our faces?
As I take breaks and breathers, I’m constantly considering my tech stack, what’s staying, what might go, what I might start using, and how that will affect my process. The things I think about the most right now:
ClickUp - project management. This one stays. It makes sense to my brain.
Superhuman - if you’re using Google Workspaces (or gmail, but, if you’re using gmail for your professional email, I highly encourage you to stop and pay the small monthly fees for the yourname @ yourdomain . whatever email address), this is an email game changer. Connect with a person or two who’s also using it, and share what you’re doing. I guarantee you’ll learn something useful. And if you’re not already in there, I’m happy to send you an invite. I just…need to know who you are - i.e., your email address.
Onvio - this connects with my tax software (UltraTax). It’s a fine portal. It does what I would expect a portal to do, including turning into a hot mess when a client has 10,000 files to upload.
Suralink - I love how organized this is, and that I can get quite specific and granular with the client. I love that notifications happen the next day by default instead of 10,000 notifications all day long. I wish it was prettier. I wish I could embed links. I wish I could embed code.
Infogram - this makes making infographics easy, even for non-designers like myself. Even better, it can pull data from a spreadsheet into it. This is why I wish I could embed code - Infogram has the ability to embed the code from the design into a website, making the infographic dynamic. If my thinking is right, I could build my automated pizza-timer for clients to have a one-stop shop to go to to see what they need to do still, what they’ve done, and maybe even have an idea on timelines and delivery.
Portal. It’s….another portal. It’s secure. It integrates with ClickUp. It will have KBA signatures eventually. It’s pretty. It can exist on my domain. I can brand it how I want.
Prep windows. Everyone gets one. Everyone gets some amount of choice in the matter. It’s communicated early and often.
Behind the scenes, I’m building out processes and procedures for next year, with systems that work for me, instead of me for them. Right now, it’s a little bit of a hodge podge of, “well, I needed a thing and I found a thing and here we go.” Some of it has served me well.
What about you? What are you thinking about as we race for the finish line? Have you already crossed it? What are you looking at using for next year? Will it be SALY or something new and shiny?