Evaluating and future-proofing your accounting practice after busy season

Although it never seems possible, busy season will slow down soon. Returns and extensions will be filed, and accountants can breathe a bit.

Here is another truth about this time of year: The processes and parts of an accounting practice that need to be tweaked or fully changed are in full view; the stress test of busy season will expose gaps, needs, and possible improvements.

Before the details become fuzzy, schedule some time to take notes and jot down observations from the last few months. Once the details are on paper, they will become a good starting point for an actionable change management plan–large or small. Here are five suggested areas to review.

1. Evaluate your processes

End-to-end processes of an accounting practice are the engine that keeps the books-to-tax busy season moving. The volume of work moving through these processes will expose bottlenecks and manual areas that are eating away at time.

Give some scrutiny to data collection and entry, reconciliation, and other areas that can take up a lot of time and leave the door open for human error.

Check into what you can do to move toward a fully automated end-to-end process. Ask your accountant peers how they automated the identified manual parts. Deep dive into accounting software and third-party apps. Embracing automation buys back the resource of time, but also paves the way for cleaner, error-free data.

Legacy processes may still be in place for a practice because they have traditionally worked. But all processes gather dust and need healthy scrutiny. Take time to circle the areas in your processes that are lagging and may need refreshing. There could be many more timesaving areas not available when the current process was first established.

2. Natural next evaluation point: technology changes

Make note of all the areas in your practice where technology worked well this year—and where it did not work or needs improvement. Reach out to your vendor representatives with your lists of needs, and ask for assistance in making the changes that would be beneficial to your practice. There may be holes in your tech stack or more efficient workflows that an outside observer can help you see.

And be mindful of the change management required for technology shifts, including timing and client communication. 

3. Review the client roster 

Client relationships are the heartbeat of every practice, where tendencies, timeliness, clarity, and other characteristics impact the accountant/client relationship. With recent client communication fresh in mind, evaluate each client with these two questions:

1. What work did we do for this client?
2. Is what we are charging this client in line with the answer to #1?

Look at workloads for specific clients and evaluate if what they are being charged is appropriate for the amount of work their engagement requires. Take as many notes as you can on each client. These notes can frame the conversations with clients at the end of their engagement and can also serve as a reminder for the team of specific nuances to keep in mind next year.

Ask the harder question of which clients can be offboarded. Are there clients that can be better served by a different firm or a different practice area?

Consider working through an exercise to identify the ideal client profile for your practice, and use this as a guide in further business planning.

4. Review service offerings

When automating parts of your end-to-end processes results in better quality data and more efficiency, there can be an opportunity to explore new or expanded service offerings. Think through your conversations with clients.

What were clients asking about this year? Are there new patterns in how small businesses operate and what they need? What gaps were there in service offerings that clients sought out in the busy season?

Adding new service offerings is not an easy lift, but keeping an eye on what clients need is prudent for the long-term success of a practice. Notice the patterns in what multiple clients are asking, and start to think about what added-value new service offerings can bring to your business and your clients.

5. Check in on the team

Busy season is hard on accountants, their families, and their support network. 

Leaders: Add a touch point at the end of the season to see how everyone is doing. 

Team members: Check in on each other.

Use an upcoming team meeting to compare any evaluation notes. See where there is pain-point overlap, or if it is more comfortable, leaders can set up meetings with individual members. If you’re a staff member and this outlet isn’t in place, ask for time with your leader to share your observations.

Technology and refreshed processes may serve a practice, but these are only as good as the people using them. Take a look at what changes can be introduced to staff training. Think through how to use the next few months to learn the necessary skills for growth, and also consider what kind of training is needed for clients to ensure the working relationship continues to be healthy.

Future-Proof your practice

Now is a great opportunity to close busy season on a positive note and future-proof for challenges next year. Give evaluation priority. Uncover the pain points and take the next few months to develop a plan to address them. The practice and clients will be set up well for the next busy season.

Intuit QuickBooks Accountant has a roster of product innovations coming in 2024. Consider how these updates can be beneficial to improving your technology stack. For more information on these or other ways the Intuit team can help, feel free to reach out to us.