CPA_Practice_Advisor_June_2020 - 5

FROM THE TRENCHES

Do You Have a Clear Tax Vision?
RANDY JOHNSTON

EVP & Partner
K2 Enterprises &
CEO of Network Management Group, Inc.
randy.johnston@cpapracticeadvisor.com
@RPJohnston

Some of you are handling 2020 like
any other year. Your firm tried to hit both
the business and personal tax deadlines
the best you could. Others of you were
swamped with the frenzy of advisory work
for SBA and PPP loans, distracted from
your standard tax compliance work. Now
you are trying to complete those returns
that you would typically have done by the
deadline. Several firms set the reasonable,
self-imposed deadline of June 1, so that
team members could have more free time
in the summer.

WHEN DO YOU DEFINE THE FUTURE OF YOUR TAX DEPARTMENT?
In 2019, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
(TCJA) disrupted the tax season, with
many claiming that it was the worst
tax season ever, with the most common
word heard describing the conditions as
"brutal." In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic
made work-at-home common. Workflow,
document management, 1040 Workpaper
automation, portals, eSignature, and other
technologies made work-at-home easier.
Did these forced conditions make you
re-think your strategies?
While tax practices range from low
to high volume, complexity, and variety,
only you know the needs of your tax
practice. What types of returns do your
team have the skills to complete effectively
and efficiently? Do your "A" clients have
requirements that you have trouble meeting? During the past tax season, what
steps were clumsy or time-consuming?
Are there new services you should offer
and are there services that you should stop
offering because they are not profitable,
or where you do not have sufficient time
to maintain your expertise?
Several vendors have delayed the
introduction of their new technologies

GENERALLY, AT THIS time of year, we would have both business and personal tax deadlines
behind us. With deadlines extended to July 15 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many firms
had a disrupted cadence this tax season. Typically by now, you would have completed your
post-tax season debrief, looked at the remaining workload, and developed a strategy to complete
all remaining work and begin considering new tax solutions that fit your firm and your clients.
because they recognize that with the
July 15 deadline, firms are not yet ready
to contemplate new or updated products.
These changes in timing will result in a
shortened selling season for the vendor.
Your firm will suffer a compressed
timeframe for you to consider your
options. Oddly, just what we need is more
compression in addition to the tax season
compression of the last few years. Possibly
worst of all, implementation resources
will be stretched during an uncertain
presidential election year.
Wise advisors, probably including you,
tell clients to do what is right for the longterm, whether that is in your business or
for yourself. While you should not ignore
the current conditions, this may be the
ideal time to invest in new technologies
to prepare you for the "new normal"
future. On the other hand, clients may
struggle, and their businesses may fail,
reducing your income opportunities. We
know of firms that have reduced staff and
cut partner compensation significantly.
Spending precious capital right now may
not be the wisest.

AND WHAT TOOLS HELP US MANAGE THIS NEW TAX PRACTICE?
We covered Practice Management in last
month's column. Having the right practice
management tools in place is certainly
a reasonable starting place. But Practice
Management software is only part of what
is needed to manage a group of tax professionals. Other tax tools should include:
■ Productivity software with Microsoft
365 (formerly Office), Zoho One, or
G Suite
■ Tax preparation with CCH Axcess Tax,
CCH ProSystems fx Tax, DrakeTax,
Intuit Lacerte, Thomson Reuters
UltraTax CS, or other professional
products.
■ Electronic tic marks with CCH Pro-

System fx PDFlyer, Doc-It, or SafeSend
TicTie Calculate supported by your
subscription to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
■ Document management with Doc-It,
CCH Axcess Document, or GoFileRoom
■ 1040 Workpapers with CCH Scan with
Autoflow, Doc-It, GruntWorx Populate,
SurePrep 1040Scan, or Thomson
Reuters Source Document Processing
■ Portals with CCH A xcess Client
Collaboration, Doc-It, or SurePrep
Tax Caddy
■ Workf low with XCM, CCH Axcess
Workstream, or FirmFlow
■ eSignature with SafeSend Returns,
Citrix RightSignature, or by enabling
knowledge-based authentication (KBA)
eSignature available with CCH eSign,
Doc-It, Intuit eSignature Powered by
DocuSign, Thomson Reuters UltraTax
CS eSignature, or other professional
products.
■ Tax planning with BNA, CCH, or
Thomson Reuters
■ Tax research with BNA, CCH IntelliConnect, or Thomson Reuters Checkpoint
■ Sales and Use Tax compliance with
Avalara, ONESOURCE, Sovos, or
VERTEX
■ And more
You can choose to remain in a family
of products from the major publishers
of Wolters Kluwer, Thomson Reuters, or
Intuit. Note that all of these publishers
have introduced new generation tax
preparation products with CCH Axcess
Tax, Intuit ProConnect Tax, Thomson
Reuters Onvio Tax. If you have not converted to the latest technology, you will
face this choice over the next few years.
However, it is more likely that you will
mix and match from the list of tax tools
above in 2020 to prepare for 2021. Again,
please consider the client experience, your
team members' experience, as well as the
effectiveness of your firm to work together.

JUNE 2020 ■

DECIDE THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Although I have said it before, repeating
now has merit. Accounting firms change
tax software as often as they change major
world religions or physicians; only when
they must. There are costs of changing
that include re-training, conversion, and
features that are gained or lost. I believe
you will change tax preparation software
soon if you have not done so already.
Consider the many options listed
above. While there are three to five
options listed in every category, you should
choose and focus on one. If you have not
considered alternatives in a while, you
should certainly look at the competitors
to the product you have. Create a grid of
options, prioritize which products you
can implement as a project. During the
project, make sure to plan for proper setup,
data conversion, process modifications,
training for your team, and documentation
to support your clients where they can see
changes made by your firm.
Do not tackle too much change at once.
However, note that eleven categories were
listed. There may be more specialized tax
needs in your firm, or you might have a
few less. However, you cannot wait eleven
years to make all these changes. Even
if you only chose two a year, five years
is way too slow to be competitive with
your technology tools. While you are
unquestionably considering not changing anything because there are too many
choices, remember that a muscle that is
not used atrophies.
Is your firm so out of shape that you
cannot exercise? And you know what happens to your body when you eat right and
exercise. What do you think happens to
your firm when you feed it the right tools
and training? What is your future vision
of your tax practice? Do you want to be
fit and competitive, or do you prefer the
alternatives? ■

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CPA_Practice_Advisor_June_2020

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