34: Tax Season Debrief: Growth, Change and Challenges

In this episode I recap the latest tax season, detailing both the challenges and successes experienced. This year marked our transition to a fully remote team, including the addition of a new remote administrative assistant. Despite initial concerns, we successfully navigated remote work logistics, streamlined our workflow, and introduced a subscription model for clients. I also share personal anecdotes, including the emotional difficulty of a staffing change and the importance of maintaining healthy work-life boundaries. Overall, the season was productive, with minimal overtime and the successful early completion of tax filings.

Transcript

 So for us, anything over 35 hours is, would be considered working outside of what you would need to be working normally. So we never have anybody get to 40 hours, and typically if you're on our team and you work 25 to 30 hours. That's what you work all year, but there are some little highs and lows during tax time that has people working two or three hours more a week, maybe getting up to as much as 35, but usually not two weeks in a row.

If you did get that high. That being said, I think the team did great and we finished the season fairly early and we didn't have very many extensions.

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Accounting with Confidence. I'm Beth Whitworth, your host here on the podcast, and I'm coming at you about a month after tax season has ended. So April 15th is our traditional tax season end date, and we have managed to complete our 2024 filing season, um, here in April of 2015.

And now we're kind of regrouped and into kind of what we do for the rest of the year. But before we got too far into the year, I wanted to kind of give you a recap. Earlier this year, I came at you and said, okay, um, this is how things are going. And I gave the season at that point a b, you know, kind of as a, as a letter Greg.

Um, and I just wanted to follow up on what. How the season went. This was the completion of my 29th tax season in a row. I have been working in the industry a very long time and been in public accounting for 29 years, and I have, you know, seasons where things are great, and I've had things, seasons where things have been horrendous and this one wasn't.

Terrible. But there were some things that that could have been better and did impact us. So I'm just gonna share with you some things that were good, some things that maybe weren't so good, and kind of where we're going from here now that the tax season is over. So let's start with, uh, what was new? What was new for us for my 29th tax season?

And the number one thing that was new for us is that we went to a 100% remote team for the first time. So up until this point, as we went remote during the pandemic and the, pretty much the fulfillment team, so everybody who was um, part of the accounting. Department who was actually doing all of the work on the clients.

Those people went home and were working remotely, but I always kept. Myself part-time and then an administrative assistant at the office until this season. So last fall, we decided that we were going to try to kind of split that position away. I was sharing that administrative position with my husband's business who also needed some administrative assistance.

We decided that we were going to try to not do that this year. So we hired an administrative assistant who was remote and she, not just remote, but not even in St. Louis, so it wasn't like she could come to the office part of the time. She was 100% remote. And for us, our administrative position handles our phones.

Handles our scheduling, handles any tax check-ins. So when we get the documents for someone, from someone who to prepare their returns, whether we get them electronically or by paper, that person was responsible for checking those in and for, um, essentially assembling everything. So for it to be e-filed, um, responsible for 10 99 preparation and some help with some of our.

Uh, clients that have some assessments that have to be mailed out. So all of those things we had to adapt to having somebody a hundred percent remote. And I will say that there were some, some things that we really had to transition and had to figure out, okay, what's gonna happen here? Such as clients still wanna drop off their documents.

Uh, so without having someone in the office to immediately get those documents and scan them and get the process started for getting the return done, um, we had to figure out how we were going to manage that. So, um, I think I, I might have mentioned in the past, but what, where we are is that my husband and I, ever since I've gone out on my own and started my own firm back in 2007.

We've shared office space, so we've had multiple locations, you know, various leases. And so the space we're in now, we pretty much, as the accounting firm vacated and went remote and he was able to bring his business up into that front office, um, more like a retail location. And by doing that, his full time person, um, a shout out to Nathan, um, he was there during.

Business hours. He works 40 hours a week for us. So when people dropped off, we were able to have him take those documents, lock them in a drawer, and notify us that someone had dropped something off. So we then also. Found someone who worked in the building who, when she was done working her shift at another company, she came over and she did the scanning and she scanned it into teams.

And um, our administrative assistant was able to grab those and start the check-in process. So that's how we navigated that piece of our big change for not having someone sitting in a seat during office hours in the building. And I will say that that. That was fine. That worked fine. Um, and I think there's fewer and fewer people who are dropping off tax documents because everybody's getting them electronically.

So that's not, um, I. It's, it, it's not as big of a deal as I was thinking it was going to be. Along with that is we, what was new is we had a new admin, so this was her first tax season with us, and I will say she was phenomenal. Um, she was able to kind of roll with the punches and kind of take things and really try to.

Help manage me, which I've said before. I, I probably need the most management. I have a lot of ideas. I have some a DD going on and I have, um, I can't always stay focused. I can't always get things finished. So she was, um, very helpful and kind of getting me on track and keeping me on track and, uh, while she was learning our systems and learning our clients.

And the third new thing, she came in right as we were working through that, which was to convert our existing, uh, individual tax clients, our legacy clients, to a subscription or a prepay. And we rolled this out in October of 2024. Becky started with us in November of 2024, so she was in the midst of this, and I've talked about it before, but I've also, um, I, I probably haven't given it all the details, but it was a little bit of some growing pains for us.

We, um, I, I. I was hesitant to roll it out because I always project onto what I think people are gonna think. Um, so I was afraid of what was gonna come. Um, we increased our fees fairly significantly for some clients who had been with us for a very long time, but we also looked at it and said, well. We are not doing what we do best for those clients, and that is to help them not just in getting the return done, but in preparing for those tax implications of things.

And we, there was a, a. A, a section of clients that said they don't need planning, they don't need assistance with that. And uh, and so we were able to say, well then that's really not what we want to do anymore, and here are some opportunities to go to some other places who I believe are taking new clients.

So that was very, um, it was a little sticky, it was a little stressful. Um, it was probably should have been rolled out a little sooner. It really, it, it was new for us and it was for a couple of reasons. One, we needed to reduce the number of clients that we were working with just from a capacity standpoint.

Two, we needed to be able to know what our capacity. Was going to be, you know, what was the workload going to be in March? We would like to know that in January, not as we're waiting for things to come in. So, and then three was to get me out of the annual billing cycle. So every return that was just came in once a year, we did the return and we never saw him again.

Uh. That was a billing, that was a me going into our systems and invoicing and it was a bottleneck. So, so those were the new things for our 2025 season. And, um, what was good about the season, the things that I believe, um, really stood out to me is that our tech stack was very solid. It was very stable. So we use, um, Drake Tax and Drake Accounting.

Um, so Drake Tax for tax preparation, Drake Accounting for 10 99. Preparation and we have that hosted on a remote with a remote service called Advisory who also manages all of our security protocol for, um, security training and cybersecurity type things. Uh, so we um, have been using that for a couple of years and it has been very stable where there's not.

There wasn't downtime, there weren't times where we couldn't access the server. What was, we also host out there are the files that we continue to have on, um, QuickBooks desktop. Um, we do not maintain any type of internal server in our firm, so it's very important that we have a reliable, um, hosted environment, a remote environment that works for everybody that's on the team, and that went very well this year.

There were no major new pieces to our tech stack, and so last year was our first year with Canopy as our practice management and that, so that was, had its own, uh, set of growing pains or, you know, just learning how to deal with the system. During your most heavily used time. And so this year we were already past that and we had just a better handle on things.

There were still things that we came outta tax season wanting to tweak, but we also were able to, um, really utilize that system and manage our capacity. The other really good thing that I felt was that our team really excelled this year. Um, we had one person who was, this was her first tax season, not, not just Becky, the admin, but also we had a, a new person on the team who was.

Um, working through her first tax season and tax preparation season with us. She'd been here since, um, July of 2024. And so she had a lot of things that she had to, to learn. I mean, it's new software, it's new clients, it's new workload, and she did great. And everybody else on the team also did great. Um, we, yes, we were busy, but still no one was working overtime.

So for us, um, anything over 35 hours is, would be considered working outside of what you would need to be working. Normally, so we never have anybody get to 40 hours, and typically if you're on our team and you work 25 to 30 hours, that's what you work all year. But there are some little highs and lows during tax time that has people working, you know, two or three hours more a week, maybe getting up to as much as 35, but usually not two weeks in a row.

If you did get that high. So. That being said, I think the team did great and we, we finished the season fairly early and we didn't have very many extensions. So, but I also said that I would share what wasn't so great. So there's, there's always things within your business that, um, are, are. Are difficult.

And, um, early on in our tax season, um, we had some changes in, um, client load and what work was was going to be on everybody's plate. And we had, I, I decided to make a staffing change and it was very, it was, it was really, really hard for me. It was very personal for me. Um, it was, I was, uh, it. It hurt. Um, and, but I had to do this as the right decision for the business, and it took me, um, it took me a while to recover from having to make that decision.

And it was hard. I mean, it, it was just hard. So I'm, I'm, I'm tearing up now, but, um, but it was the right decision and. I hated it. I hated every minute of it. But now that, um, now that it's done, you know, we're stronger for it right now. And I think that, um, it was the right decision for the business. It's just, it just hurt.

Uh, and that we did that in February. So, um, it's been a few months. It's still, you can see it's still raw for me, but I, um, I still believe that it was the right thing that I needed to do. So. The other thing that I think wasn't so good this season and it had nothing to do with having to make a staffing change, um, was that we got some projects, some cleanup projects that came in, um, February-ish, um, and.

It ended up being some pretty big cleanup work. And the cleanup work typically falls onto me, um, or sometimes it falls onto my unicorn, Sarah. But this time of year she couldn't do that 'cause she was managing the tax flow. She was managing that entire workflow and keeping that going. And so. There were, so I felt like I was having to just dig to find time to even work on this cleanup project.

And for me, I started my, my firm when I went out on my own. Part of the reasoning was I didn't want clients to have to wait until after tax season to. Get to a, a, a specialist to somebody who could help them, because that is a, that's my goal, is I wanna help you. Well, this client came in and it was, it's, it was messy and they had a lot of things that had happened late in their year that, um, and they just, they, they needed help and I really, really wanted to help them and couldn't.

As quickly as I wanted to, so that I felt wasn't so great about the tax season. Um, since then, we have made some big strides on that project and think we should have that wrapped up, you know, in May as far as all of the cleanup and, you know, that was part of our extensions that needed to happen. And so, um.

So looking at that, I felt like I was not fulfilling my promise to myself, which was to create a firm that didn't make people who really needed help wait until after tax season. And so I struggled with that a little bit. Um, and I think going into next tax season, we've already talked about ways to make that.

Better, you know, so to take, you know, kind of spread that workout so that I'm working up here and not, um, working on things that I really don't need to be touching. But the only reason I was touching was because that the client had talked to me about something and I didn't get it clearly communicated to, um, the, the rest of the team.

So, like I said, um, we, we finished the season early, so the tax season ends on the 15th. That was a Tuesday this year, and so my lighting just changed. So we'll just go with it. Um. So it was a Tuesday this year and our goal was to finish on Friday, and we were pretty much done, um, by Friday, including having all of the electronic extensions taken.

We were left with a handful of returns that had to go out in the mail, um, because they couldn't be paper filed for whatever reason. Or we had a couple of people that had some, um, estimate checks that needed to get in the mail. And so that was. That was all that was done on Monday and Tuesday. In fact, I believe it was on the the 15th.

Of, yeah, on, on that, on that 15th, um, I met with a client in the office who, you know, wanted to kind of have some consultation around closing his business. Uh, we also had a Zoom call with a new client and was able to go through and, and they were just so happy to have us talk to them and not make them wait until after.

Tax season, they're like, I can't believe you were talking to us on April 15th. We're like, well, we're done. We're we're, we've already moved past tax time. So that was good. We, um, we didn't take very many extensions and almost every one of the extensions was for something that was beyond our control. Um, whether it was like the new clients that came in that we had to get cleaned up and they were new to us and so we, we didn't have enough, um, information to file.

We had a couple that were going through divorces. We have a couple that are always waiting for K ones until, um, October. Um, and so it really wasn't that much and what it really wasn't was that we knew who was coming. We knew what, who had signed on for our subscription agreements or prepaid, so we knew who to expect.

And if they didn't get their stuff to us, they've already paid us, we're still gonna do the return, we're still gonna do their extension. Um, we ended up only having one. Client, I believe, who dropped off her stuff, but she never responded to the prepayment. Um, and so we said, well, this is how much it's gonna be, or you can come get it.

You know that we, we reached out to you multiple times and you didn't respond. So there was only one of those, which I thought was pretty good 'cause it went out to like 90 people. So. Um, so yeah, not too many extensions and we were still able to take new clients throughout the tax season. Even ones that had businesses, we still got their returns done on time.

Um, so anything that came to us that wasn't a major project, we were still able to manage that. So the other things that I can say, um, things that I. Go into my tax seasons now with such a, a different attitude. One, I don't wanna be working more than 40 hours a week. I, most weeks. I don't even wanna be working 40, but I will grant that during, um, the tax season.

Um, but there were certain things that made this tax season something that was more tolerable for me. Um, one, um. Like I said, I didn't work over 40 hours a week except for one or two times, and one was probably the week that Sarah came to town and we had our planning meeting, which we did not skip. So we have, we get together about four times a year, once in June during scaling new heights, and then we try to schedule something quarterly where we're do working on our strategic plan for the business.

And we did that in March. We, and so during that week we probably both got well over 40 hours. Um, I also probably had on that new client that was really messy that I took on. There was a couple times that I know that I was working, you know, it needed so much. Deep dive into cleaning up their cash. Um, that, I know that there was a couple weeks there where it probably put me over the 40 hours, but that was it.

I'm like, we're thinking maybe two weeks out of, um, so that would be 13, 40, 15, about 15 weeks, about two of 'em. I might have worked up to, or over 40 hours now, things that I did not sacrifice this tax season. And, um. Don't ever want to is one. Um, the boundaries that I've created around my calendar and my availability, I.

I stuck to those through tax season. There were very few times that I ever had to schedule something, a meeting on a Friday, Thursday or a Friday, um, with a client or with a member of our team. And so that, those days were reserved for me. Now, I wasn't off on those days. Uh, most of the time I was still putting in some hours.

Uh. Initially taking Fridays and and blocking those was so that I didn't have to work. And I would say that when it's not tax time, I don't. I don't, don't work a whole lot on Fridays. Um, but I kept those boundaries in place, including, you know, just the restrictions on my calendar, how someone can't get on my calendar with less than, um, 24 hours notice or 48 hours notice ever.

Um, because I, I don't want those surprises and I always want to be prepared so. That I stuck to. The other things that I did is I stuck to my workout routines, so I went back and counted and, uh, during tax season, I worked out 82 times out of 102 days. So. I missed 20 days and I could probably name them.

They probably had to do with snow. Um, and, or I was outta town because the other thing I didn't give up was the annual trip to Georgia for the first racing event of the season. So we go down to Southern Georgia in, um, mid to late March, and I've been doing this, this, I think this was my third year in a row, maybe my fourth.

That I'm finally saying I can travel for things during tax season. And, and I did it and I was, and it was fine. So, um, I didn't give that up either, so I did not sacrifice that. But the working out was what kept my sanity. And anytime I thought, oh my gosh, I, I have too much to do. I can't take this hour and a half to get to my workout, do it, and get home.

Um, I, I don't have it. To, to do. I don't, I don't have it to give. I know that when I do it, I feel better and I'm more motivated and have more energy. So, um, I work out, I, I do Zumba about five times a week and I work out with a personal trainer a couple times a week. And then once the weather starts getting nice, I try to walk outside.

So I did all those things and kept up with weekly date night with my husband and, um. I, I just did what I could and I go into every season now with not dreading it because I'm not gonna give up the things that, uh. Just bring joy to my life or that kinda keep me grounded and, um, moving forward without a lot of, um, anxiety around it.

Now, I, it wasn't all sunshine and roses. Like I said, I had a period of time there, especially when I made the staffing change that I was, I was struggling. Um, I was feeling overwhelmed. I was just. Just not in a great place, and I will say every interaction with a client isn't always great, you know? But. I was able to maintain a better attitude about things this year, and I know that that partially that is keeping my boundaries.

And part of that is, um, keeping my, you know, my, my personal routine intact. So, so overall tax season, uh, what was my letter grade? I said it was a BI would say that it. It's still a be, you know, um, I, I mentioned a couple things that kind of were not so great, and I think that's what brings that down to the be, but, uh, we've already put things in place and have started working towards what we're going to do next year to make it even better.

So I, like I said, I don't dread tax seasons anymore and I really, really, um, like to know that I can do this with. All my part-time people. You know, I, I, I don't know that anybody felt like they were so overwhelmed. That typically happens in a public accounting firm where they don't see their families, they can't do what they wanna do, they can't take a day off.

They are, you know, just working hour after hour and are exhausted. Um, I don't do that. Whenever we have a tax season that we come out with, um, our, our revenue targets, we came out with a, a greater understanding and help helping our clients because we changed kind of our, our methodology of not just doing a return, but getting into that return and making sure we're doing what we can to help them was very rewarding.

So that's, that's tax season recap. Maybe you care, maybe you don't. But I just like to share this so that you know that if you went through a tax season that felt like I just said, where you were exhausted, you were working hours and hours, you know, you had all of your weeks, well over 40 hours a week, there's another way to do it.

And I, we're not perfect, but we definitely, I would say, are. Happier than when I was, uh, running a firm that we just had hours and hours and hours that had to work. I don't, I tried so hard not to work weekends. I used to work every Sunday, uh, sometimes Saturday and Sunday, but definitely every Sunday for years, for decades.

So I don't do that anymore. Anyway. Okay. Everybody. Thank you for listening. I look forward to talking to you again very soon. Now that the season is over and my schedule feels a little freer, but I just wanna make sure you know that if you wanna build a business that you love, it's up to you. Thanks everybody.