december2021 - 7

COVER STORY
g Up for Tax Season
However, remote work provides
another opportunity to bring in
talent, and expand your client base
outside of current boundaries with
more clients willing to virtually
work with their tax professional. So
while there are definite challenges
with staffing, if you're willing to
adapt to the changes, your firm can
grow and benefit significantly.
ADOPTING ADVISORY
SERVICES
We're seeing a shift in the tax
profession from leading with
compliance services to leading
with advisory services, such as
offering tax planning strategies
and business consulting. Offering
advisory services provides
an opportunity to showcase and
differentiate your expertise while
helping clients reach their financial
goals. Professionals are leveraging
technology and automation in tax,
accounting, and payroll compliance
to create capacity to offer advisory
services. Increased efficiency in a
practice can free up time to devote
to higher value services.
Advisory services can also
improve a practitioner's work /
life balance and can have a more
significant impact on your clients'
financial well-being. It is important
for firm managers to:
* Learn how to value and price advisory
services,
* Easily navigate and build advisory
service plans for a range of clients, and
* Identify the tools you need to add and
grow advisory services.
EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY
It's so important to embrace technology
to streamline compliance work
and give you and your firm more
time to meet with clients, provide
advisory services and more. There are
technologies out there that can help
you with flexibility, remote work and
more.
* A hosted solution for your desktop
applications provides better security
and automatic backups and updates.
Plus, an online solution provides for
flexibility of the cloud with nothing
to download.
* Electronic signatures are more efficient
by allowing you to get your client
documents signed remotely.
* Client portals allow you to engage
with your clients and collect / organize
source documents remotely.
* Cloud-based, online accounting
software allows for collaboration and
real time changes between accountant
and client.
* A cloud-based practice management
solution helps you better manage and
organize your work, clients and staff.
PANDEMIC CONCERNS
Continue to work in a safe environment
for yourself, your staff and
clients. Everyone's comfort
* Adequately train your staff about
tax changes and office systems and
processes. It's not only important that
you're prepared, but that everyone on
your staff is as well.
levels
are different, and the climate is continually
changing with new variants,
surges and more. Keep these things
in mind when working to build a safe
space:
* For in-person meetings, consider social
distancing, facemasks, vaccinations,
testing, and safety equipment.
* Think about using a remote environment
for staff and clients by leveraging
technology, such as cloud-based
solutions, electronic signatures and
client portals.
BEST PRACTICES
As it is with every tax year, don't forget
the basic best practices. It's been a
busy few years, but there are always
ways you can make it easier by being
prepared and remembering some of
the basics.
* Educate yourself on the upcoming tax
law and tax form changes early on. The
more educated and prepared you are,
the better advisor you'll be for clients
and the easier the season will be.
* Be sure to account for the tax changes
when sending out client organizers,
meeting with clients and preparing
tax returns.
* Think about posting some of the tax
changes in newsletters or on your
firm's website to educate clients and
bring in new business.
* Send out your client organizers early
and remind your clients to retain their
source documents.
* Challenge your firm to become more
efficient by going paperless, streamlining
operations and trying out new
software or applications.
As I've said, it's been a difficult
time for tax professionals the last few
years, but with some preparation and
a good attitude, you can be ready for
another successful tax season! ■
Mike D'Avolio, CPA, JD, is
tax law specialist and staff
program manager, ProConnect
Group, Intuit. He is
a customer and employee
instructor, customer and
government liaison, and a
public relations representative.
DECEMBER 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
7
http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
december2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of december2021
