If you're a CPA, every season brings you closer to tax season. If you're thinking about how to make 2011 a banner business year, optimize the business in two words: financial advisor. Your role, as an advisor, requires constant communication with your clients about how to plan and manage taxes. Regardless of your firm's size -- if you're a solo practitioner or part of a national public accounting organization -- start now to implement best practices.
Here's How:
Become client-focused. Most businesses believe they're driven by client work, but consider your business from the client's perspective. Do you plan work around the needs of client's requirements and meetings? Are you available on a priority basis to clients, or does "other work" come before the needs of a client requiring urgent attention?
Improve communications. Simple things count. For example, your staff is working on a complex return and has worked out a timeline to complete the calculations. As a managing partner, you're aware of what the team is doing. Is the client advised of the timeline? The client's expectations must be managed. Part of keeping clients happy is easy. Additionally, communicating with clients minimizes the drain on staff and administration. When the client knows her return isn't going to be ready for another week, she doesn't need to call the team. She knows when to pay the bill for services.
Provide necessary tools. Lots of new and improved versions of tax software and systems exist. When the company pays for tools to create more efficiency, make sure the team knows how to use the new tools. Scheduling training sessions helps deliver a greater return on the investment of the tools and the people who use them.
- Assign a project manager. If you're a solo practitioner, this step may be unnecessary. You have a to-do list, and you're constantly adjusting it. In a practice of more than one, knowing what projects and needed tasks must occur to complete each project helps keep everyone on track. Monday morning, or whenever your staff meeting occurs, is a great time to review the open task list with the project manager. Provide due-dates for each part of a major assignment. The project manager summarizes and distributes this week's tasks and scheduled completion dates. Streamline your work flow by organizing the details.
Ensure quality control. Assign necessary reviewers for major projects and make sure the required hours are built into the reviewers' work schedule. Short-cutting the needed quality control steps won't make a valuable client happy. Perform each step as if your client were part of the process. He is!
Analyze costs of preparing to excute work. Clients with complex requirements take more time than the average return. Make sure your client's fee represents the massive amount of research or analysis required to perform the actual return. One-size fees don't compensate the firm for costs of extensive research. Individual and professional practice productivity rely on the ability to predict time needed to execute client needs. As above, communicate with the client if a complex return requires higher-than-anticipated fees. The client wants the best work and doesn't want to gamble because of a fee he owes the firm.
Make sure your client receives an invoice. Your firm may be so busy performing work that the client doesn't receive a bill. Develop process to ensure automatic client billing. Ideally, your client should pay in advance of the performance of work. Consider two payments -- one upon engagement and another at completion of the client's return. Your business needs cash flow to operate at peak efficiency. Clients seeking your expertise understand this.