This article, "How This 40 Year Accounting Veteran Slayed the Tax Dragon with Cold, Ruthless Efficiency," originally appeared on TheDailyCPA.com.
Leveraging Technology to Conquer Tax Season, Not Let it Conquer You
At this point in my prestigious career, tax season no longer phases me. While many CPAs resign themselves to 80 hour work weeks filled with manual drudgery this time of year, I glide smoothly through March not breaking a sweat.
You see, when you’ve handled complex taxation for long enough, patterns emerge. As a young accountant I too struggled with crude software, disconnected systems and endless paper cuts from haphazard client documentation bleeding my firm’s potential.
But over decades I refined my workflows leveraging technology at every opportunity. I set up secure back end protocols allowing seamless client onboarding and centralized data flows regardless of format. PDF financial statements get ingested automatically through optical character recognition tools like Rocket Statements into our custom formatted databases. Figures populate forms intelligently minimizing review thanks to our proprietary tax form automation engine.
I don’t waste energy worrying about bottlenecks or fire drills from poor planning. As a veteran, I enforce structure upfront then leverage automation downstream saving countless hours vs repetitive manual processes. That frees up mental bandwidth for the subtle complexities only rich experience reveals.
While other CPAs scramble to beat deadlines by incrementally tweaking current broken models, I re architected everything from scratch years ago specifically to prevent such chaos in the first place. Tax prep happens on my terms, not through reactionary crisis management when systems creak under pressure at peak times by poor initial designs.
You earn client loyalty not by burning yourself out but methodically building firm infrastructure scaled to intake increasing complexity smoothly no matter the season. This lets you focus fully on delivering value during crunch periods instead of rote tasks. I utilize solutions like electronic signature platforms to finalize filings in minutes. Short term thinkers neglect foundations so trudge the hamster wheel indefinitely while the most elite firms continually invest in elegant systems cementing dominance.
I’m at the stage now where technology handles 80% of tax workflows in the background. My role becomes oversight, designing strategy and advising specialty cases based on pattern recognition no software can match. The beauty emerges seeing everything flow seamlessly end-to-end with minimal touch across my firm because we embedded client-centric thinking into infrastructure long ago.
The key is perpetually striving to enhance system leverage so the headaches mundane to most practitioners rarely darken my radar anymore. Creative applications of technology compound allowing more strategic thinking climbing ever upwards. Now I function chiefly as designer and supervisor rather than tactical doer in the engine room boiler suits.
I view technology progression not as defacing some nostalgic craft but responsibly elevating client service and outcomes thtarough precision and speed. The computer handles rote work so we can handle complexity. Any leader still relying on paper receipts and ink pens in 2023 really needs a retirement party.
To young CPAs, specialize fiercely and align infrastructures accordingly from day one. Outpace peers still clinging to one-size-fits models aligned for simpler eras. Leverage tools specifically around your niche, not just off the shelf suites – whether purpose-built bank statement converters like Rocket Statements or proprietary form population engines. If systems don’t exist, build them even if they are expensive initially. The compound productivity pays perpetual dividends.
This is the mindset allowing me to continue leading industry transformation even after 40 years in accounting. While contemporaries burn out or accept tax season suffering as inevitable, I breeze through on infrastructure built deliberately for this purpose then enhanced ruthlessly ever since. You no longer have to choose between sanity and world class service at scale. At least at my firm. Now who’s ready to take on these 2024 monthly closings with me?