From Disastrous to Smooth: How This Tax Firm Streamlined Busy Season

We had just had a disastrous tax season thanks to the previous contractors we were using. We were looking forward to a really nice, good, almost relaxing tax season this last year, and it turned out to be anything but. Well, basically we had just had a disastrous tax season thanks to basically The previous contractors we were using dropping the ball and not responding to us, etc. And so we needed to make sure that we could be prepared for tax season well ahead of time and make sure that we were confident that we were actually ready and things were working the way they should.

Yeah.

I mean, that's the core of the business. Clients were getting reminders when they shouldn't get reminders, and then were getting frustrated and contacting us and wondering what's going on, which of course used up resources that we didn't have. Things weren't coming through to our internal processes the way they should, so therefore work was lagging. You know, we'd maybe think we didn't have files in place to work on a project when we actually did. Tax season, we had felt like at the end we had things working very relatively smoothly, so we were looking forward to a really nice, good, almost relaxing tax season this last year, and it turned out to be anything but. The fact that you Focus on working with accounting firms. I knew you were also in future firm, so I knew you were looking at the same things I was looking at. You were exposed to at least some of the same ideas and same type of thinking as we were. So I felt like probably our goals somewhat aligned, and I wouldn't have to explain myself over and over again.

There's something else I recall you mentioning made you confident, which we don't always do. But if you recall, we shared a kind of proof of concept at the time where we presented, "Hey, is there anything you've been wanting built?" And we went ahead and built that. Could you talk? about that experience a little bit?

There was an idea that we had had, and I had actually worked with a contractor through Upwork. And initially it was going to be a very simple project according to him, and it ended up dragging on and dragging on and costing us more and more. He kept wanting more and more access to our systems, etc., and it just wasn't happening. And I had mentioned that to you guys when you asked kind of what was number one on our wish list. And I think it was a week or maybe 2 weeks later you came back and you basically had it built without asking us for any more information. We didn't actually implement it at that point, but it looked like it was ready to go. That was a big, big selling feature. The fact that you were willing to invest in us to that extent to prove that you could do what you said you could. And the other thing was that right through the whole process, I was dealing— I was talking to you. I wasn't getting shuffled between various people. Honestly, even at the end, I still didn't know who did what. I think I know who my account manager was, but there was 2 people that I never really did quite catch on whose role was what there.

So it looks like you have multiple points of contact and there was like a clarity around their role.

We haven't gotten into tax season, but I will say that I like— I do find myself getting excited for the next tax season just because it doesn't feel like we're working with last-minute stuff. It feels we're actually almost ready to go, whereas other years we'd be looking at doing this stuff in January or even February and it gets to be so last minute it's not fun. And having a sense of organization like that, you know, you've made that pre-tax season check I feel way more in control of what needs to happen to get ready and to be, you know, to pull the trigger on the tax season when we get there.

Yeah, definitely. And that's something we've been getting better at as well, of like not only having the automations, but the steps that need to be done manually, documenting those as well so that people know exactly what to do. Anything you've been disappointed about or any, I guess, opportunity for improvement you've identified?

Not disappointments. There's maybe a wee bit of uncertainty I have. I don't feel like I have a good grasp on how much we can use you guys. Like, should I be shoveling more ideas at you? And just, I don't want to take advantage of things, but I don't either really know what kind of scope of work we can expect. And again, I wouldn't say that's a disappointment. It's just a bit of uncertainty. I want to get my money's worth out of what I'm doing, and yet I don't want you guys I don't want them to feel like we're taking advantage of anything. I want to have a good relationship that is sustainable in the long term for both of us. I would just tell them, go for it. I mean, give it a try and see what happens. We've been 100% happy so far, and, and yeah, I'd say give it a try.