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What do CPA's who only prepare/review tax returns do after 10/15(aside from projections which are later on)? I'm a tax manager and am literally doing nothing as we speak.

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
December 6, 2019
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Lacerte Tax

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Best answer by George4Tacks

Review last year's letter to client and update to get ready for tax season.

Review notes I have made during the year for clients that might need special attention - errors on prior returns to amend, possible pension planning, possible year end planning (especially with tax law changes), ...

Make new contact with clients to review their pay stubs and see how deficient their withholding is in light of this years changes.

Get ready for release of the organizer.

Review and update the Lacerte (1) Client Letter (2) Table Editor (3) Client Invoice. If you are charging my form now is the time to make increases as necessary and prepare a list of new forms for 2018 and (4) Prepare and review the Database reports (a) Client Summary and (b) Tax Practice Summary.

Clean up the piles created during the hectic tax season.

Review a listing of clients that did not return. Possibly contact them to see why they left.

Beef up continuing Education hours. I have found https://www.cpaacademy.org/ to be very affordable (free) and offering some very good topics. Lacerte also offers some training https://proconnect.intuit.com/training/lacerte/ Not the greatest, but it doesn't hurt to see if they off a new trick to make the practice more efficient.

George4TacksAnswer

Level 15

Review last year's letter to client and update to get ready for tax season.

Review notes I have made during the year for clients that might need special attention - errors on prior returns to amend, possible pension planning, possible year end planning (especially with tax law changes), ...

Make new contact with clients to review their pay stubs and see how deficient their withholding is in light of this years changes.

Get ready for release of the organizer.

Review and update the Lacerte (1) Client Letter (2) Table Editor (3) Client Invoice. If you are charging my form now is the time to make increases as necessary and prepare a list of new forms for 2018 and (4) Prepare and review the Database reports (a) Client Summary and (b) Tax Practice Summary.

Clean up the piles created during the hectic tax season.

Review a listing of clients that did not return. Possibly contact them to see why they left.

Beef up continuing Education hours. I have found https://www.cpaacademy.org/ to be very affordable (free) and offering some very good topics. Lacerte also offers some training https://proconnect.intuit.com/training/lacerte/ Not the greatest, but it doesn't hurt to see if they off a new trick to make the practice more efficient.

Answers are easy. Questions are hard!

rbynaker

Level 13

My list has a lot of overlap with George's so this seemed like a good place to reply.  I strongly recommend #3 "Make new contact with clients to review their pay stubs and see how deficient their withholding is in light of this years changes."  I've done a fair number of these already and it can be pretty ugly.  I had one of my clients add $1,000 per paycheck in FWH thru the end of the year to try to catch-up.  (Which reminds me, I need to study the new/draft W-4 for 2019, 'cause we're gonna want to turn that off in January!)

One of my CPE instructors last year had a good idea.  Keep an eye out as IRS releases new/draft forms/pubs.  Read the "What's New" sections.

Vacation starts on Sunday.  Anyone near LAX?

Today was mostly filing/clean up.  I filed my (one) 6/30/18 FYE 1120 today (yes, I got the extension filed by 9/15 instead of 10/15).  I met with a late 1040 client, got signatures and efiled.

I "soft" fired a client today and I think I'm going to use that as a template for others:

"Effective immediately, I'm firing all of my last-minute clients.  Boom, there it is, YOU just got fired.  <Mic drop>

<Pick mic back up>  The good news though, is that you still have an opportunity to be a brand new not-last-minute client for next year.  I'm putting a 3/15 deadline down for everyone to have their tax data in to me or they can go somewhere else."

And then I proceeded to tell him the things he could do NOW that don't have to wait until next October 13th to be done.  I've decided I'm tired of extensions.  Every year it gets worse.  Life's too short.

For some of my small Sch C clients we meet in Dec to get 11 months of bookkeeping done.  I make this win-win by giving them a discounted "off-season" rate and then I'm not slammed in March doing 12 months of bank recs.

I'm going to try to get organizers out in December this year instead of the usual late-January / early-February.

So yeah, I have a pretty busy Fall this year.

Rick

IRonMaN

Level 15

Vacation?

Slava Ukraini!

L

lakewoodbaseballAuthor

Level 2

I've already used mine. I'm just wondering if this is "the cost of doing business." That if you have own a big practice, you will inevitably have employees with a few months of heavy downtime.

P

poolcleaner

Level 8

Become a procrastinator because procrastinators find other procrastinators and they will keep you busy all year long. Stragglers are still appearing and I have 10 years to do for one entity. Learn to save any 1040-X, 1065-X, etc for after the deadline. Do all your CPE after the final deadline since it will be fresh in your mind in time for 2018 returns. Live in Texas because all C Corps, S Corps, limited partnerships, LLC's have Franchise Tax Reports due on November 15th. Payroll taxes go on all year long. Since I have known most of my clients for over 30 years, I have a number of dinner and luncheon invitations in the next few weeks. The list is endless.

Accountant-Man

Level 13

<<What do CPA's who only prepare/review tax returns do after 10/15(aside from projections which are later on)? >>

Answer posts about what they're doing after 10/15.

** I'm still a champion... of the world! Even without The Lounge.

T

TaxGuyBill

Level 15

LOL.

abctax55

Level 15

Rest/Vacation (I'm off to San Diego next week.... yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

CPE

Rest

Work on fine tuning in house accounting so entity returns can be done in January

Rest

Fine tune what I want my organizers to ask/say

Rest

Fiscal year end Non-profit returns (most I do probono)

Rest

HumanKind... Be Both

rbynaker

Level 13

"I'm off to San Diego next week"

I'll be sure to wave as I pass by on my cruise from L.A. to Cabo. :)

Accountant-Man

Level 13

Going to movies is good.

I only have seasonal employees.

Turn off alarm clock.

Walk in the woods.

** I'm still a champion... of the world! Even without The Lounge.

itonewbie

Level 15

If you're with a firm that has different practices, I'd also find out if there're any secondment opportunities to work in other areas to learn new skills and broaden my experience.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Still an AllStar

T

TaxMonkey

Level 7

I trying to finish off my CPE

abctax55

Level 15

"....That if you have own a big practice, you will inevitably have employees with a few months of heavy downtime."

THAT is a bit of an issue, and always has been in this profession. If the firm is strictly tax prep, then there are some months with very little for the minions to work on. Keeping employees busy can be tough. I've heard of firms that 'force' all vacations are during that down time.

I'm lucky, MY employees are willing to work really, really hard during tax season and then take it easy during the off times.

HumanKind... Be Both

T

Tsae777

Level 2

hile all the other CPAs in town did quarterly financial statements we only did monthly. While the other CPAs would slip behind a few quarters and have to catch up in the busy season, we were nedver more than 2 months behind. We dealth with issues each month is the slow season and had good tight books for the tax returns. But now the books are posted on QuickBooks by ex Taco Bell employees and tax season is a nightmare trying to figure out what they did and what thye were thinking. We have turned into detectives.

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