How do you pace yourself?

I'm just wondering how everyone paces themselves during tax season. I guess I'm referring to those of us who work on our own and don't have a boss breathing down our necks.

Do you:

1) Work a certain number of hours every day and take Sunday off? or half day Sunday off?

2) Do you aim to complete a certain number of tax returns per day?

3) Do you aim to bill out a certain amount of money per day?

4) Do you not stop working until all tax returns brought to you that day are finished?

For myself, I do a combination of 1) and 3) with a half day on Sunday. 2) doesn't work for me as a few tax returns may only take an hour, but I have some that take 10 hours and most fall in between. 4) I'll never achieve that goal!

So just wondering how you pace yourself?

My old employer scheduled staff to certain days they would work late. Even if I wasn't feeling productive on one of my late days and had no client appointments scheduled, I wasn't allowed to leave, so I would sit in my office spinning my wheels. Then, to make up for the "lost" productivity, I had to work another late night or stay on Saturday, which started the path toward burnout. Just one of the several reasons I left that awful place.

On my own, I think of myself as having "core" hours and "extra" hours. I plan to work my "core" hours. If I'm not feeling particularly productive that day, I'll find a good stopping point around the end time of those hours. If I am feeling productive, I'll keep going and get some extra stuff done (and maybe I can cut some core hours). I know I have to do X "extra" hours in a week; I just pick and choose which hours they are. If I start to struggle to meet my deadlines (self-imposed 2 week turnaround on dropoffs) then I will know that I need to make changes.

As a rule, I take one day off a week (usually Sunday but sometimes Saturdays instead) and I will be making a 3 day weekend the weekend after 3/15.

For close to 20 years I have done this so it becomes a habit:

1) Make sure all non tax work related chores are taken care of prior to tax season. This is very important. Unless I am really sick I don't make doctor's appointment or routine checkups etc. that will keep me away from office.

2) Each day starts at 8am after a good breakfast. I prepare a schedule for the day based on the appointments and I am working till 6 or 7pm.

3) I work Sat full day and half day Sunday.

Similar to ATSMAN. Also, I walk at Powerhouse gym at night to reduce stress. Beginning March 1, weather permitting, I make an appointment for myself to walk outside around a creek near the office which has a nice walkway. I make the appointment at 4:30, Tues, Thurs and Sat. I DO NOT CANCEL and tell my secretary I am NOT available at those times.

A lot of similar to above. I have trained my individual clients to get me the information - that means organizer and details needed to finish return. I have not accepted new clients for about six years so most have been trained since the majority of clients, my practice has been reduced to about 235 1040s, related 1041s, LLCs, 1120s, 1120 and most of the business items have started to become more than want.

This is the winter season, but I walk through everything daily - I will not walk at night (treadmill) as that keeps me awake. Seven days a week - daily hours vary, but put in 70 hours a week.

I do not always keep myself HAPPY, but after 45 years I am looking for an option, but time goes really fast.

I forgot to add that we all need a good night sleep. Go to bed at the same time (10pm for me) unless there is an emergency. If your favorite show is at 11pm, DVR it!

Believe me a good night sleep works wonders as we get older!

I also try to designate days for just appointments by bunching appointments into 3 days and the other 4 days just for working on returns where i will spend all day doing returns uninterrupted by any appointments.

I forgot to add that we all need a good night sleep. Go to bed at the same time (10pm for me) unless there is an emergency. If your favorite show is at 11pm, DVR it!

Believe me a good night sleep works wonders as we get older!

This is wisdom - I turned 50 last summer and have two little kids at home. I don't get to the office until 9:15 as have to get them on the bus, so try to work later, but try to get home early enough to give them a bath and ready for bed. Sometimes I'll work in the den until the wee hours, but it's gotten harder as I've gotten older. Better to just go to bed and get sleep.

My one kid can't go to school this week as he had some surgery, so my wife is taking off of work, so on the days that they get on the bus, she can walk him down and I can get to the office early. The other days he goes to a different school (not going to explain it), so I'll take him there.

For close to 20 years I have done this so it becomes a habit:

1) Make sure all non tax work related chores are taken care of prior to tax season. This is very important. Unless I am really sick I don't make doctor's appointment or routine checkups etc. that will keep me away from office.

2) Each day starts at 8am after a good breakfast. I prepare a schedule for the day based on the appointments and I am working till 6 or 7pm.

3) I work Sat full day and half day Sunday.

I like this a lot. I did same many years except 20 years ago I met a successful CPA retired. He said never work Sunday, it makes all days the same. Raise your fees 10 percent and clients will leave and your income will stay the same. It worked.

I’m 56 and now I only work 4 half day Saturday’s and my income is same if not higher than years past.

I don't work Sundays. On Saturdays, I only answer the phone for clients with appointments or if they are returning my calls or emails. Saturdays is catch-up and by appointment only.

We have heard a lot, above, from sole practitioners. I would love to hear some feedback from anybody out there that is a professional staff member at a CPA or EA or otherwise firm. What is expected of you? How much do you work? How do you feel about it?

We have a few younger (under 35) staff people that are not into working long hours during tax season. The partners do put in long hours, though. We know they look at us and say, "We don't want to be them".

We have heard a lot, above, from sole practitioners. I would love to hear some feedback from anybody out there that is a professional staff member at a CPA or EA or otherwise firm. What is expected of you? How much do you work? How do you feel about it?

We have a few younger (under 35) staff people that are not into working long hours during tax season. The partners do put in long hours, though. We know they look at us and say, "We don't want to be them".

So I have 2 employees and I hear you loud and clear. We never work past 1pm on Saturdays and from 4/16 to basically labor day we close the office at 1pm. I have cut my Saturdays WAY BACK but they still work and they get paid fairly well for it.

That gives them some incentive but your point is valid.

We have heard a lot, above, from sole practitioners. I would love to hear some feedback from anybody out there that is a professional staff member at a CPA or EA or otherwise firm. What is expected of you? How much do you work? How do you feel about it?

We have a few younger (under 35) staff people that are not into working long hours during tax season. The partners do put in long hours, though. We know they look at us and say, "We don't want to be them".

So I have 2 employees and I hear you loud and clear. We never work past 1pm on Saturdays and from 4/16 to basically labor day we close the office at 1pm. I have cut my Saturdays WAY BACK but they still work and they get paid fairly well for it.

That gives them some incentive but your point is valid.

Your summer hours are a dream come true for just about anyone.

We never work past 1pm on Saturdays and from 4/16 to basically labor day we close the office at 1pm. I have cut my Saturdays WAY BACK but they still work and they get paid fairly well for it.

So do you work the same hours as your staff? Would you care to expand on "paid fairly well"? We pay 1.5x for OT. We also allow exempt employees to choose between 1.5x pay or bank as comp time to use after the season. Neither seems to be a big motivator.

Your summer hours are a dream come true for just about anyone.

Except for employees that want to earn full-time pay all year long, which is what we have. Although, I am sure they would not mind working 25 hours a week and getting paid for 40.

If a tax business is going to keep their FT people busy all year long, then it needs a significant amount of non-1040, business work. However, this makes tax season all that much more busy. We may be making an error, here, but our philosophy is that you gotta put the hours in during tax season to keep yourself busy the rest of the year.

We have heard a lot, above, from sole practitioners. I would love to hear some feedback from anybody out there that is a professional staff member at a CPA or EA or otherwise firm. What is expected of you? How much do you work? How do you feel about it?

I had an internship at a CPA firm with 5 FT staff, one guy who worked 6 months a year (tax and extension seasons mostly), and two college interns working 40 hours a week during tax season. The full-timers usually worked around 50-55 per week during tax season, if my memory serves me correct, and my understanding was that outside of tax season they worked 30-40 a week depending on if it was quarterly time or not.

At my former full-time job, my "official" hours were 40 outside of tax season and 52 during tax season. The partner was always looking to increase billing per staff member during the off-season, but that made tax season worse each year -- the real hours I worked inched up each tax season to around 65-70 by the end. The firm had about 10 full-timers and there was only one seasonal person who only did admin work and bookkeeping. They didn't hire a seasonal tax professional until after I left.

If a tax business is going to keep their FT people busy all year long, then it needs a significant amount of non-1040, business work. However, this makes tax season all that much more busy. We may be making an error, here, but our philosophy is that you gotta put the hours in during tax season to keep yourself busy the rest of the year.

It depends on the size of the firm and what your non-1040 work is, but it would be rare that a generalist small CPA firm has full-time work outside of tax season, while being manageable during tax season, without seasonal help.


Just curious, how many hours do you put in a week, how many do you expecting your employees to put in during tax season, and how many do they want to work?

We never work past 1pm on Saturdays and from 4/16 to basically labor day we close the office at 1pm. I have cut my Saturdays WAY BACK but they still work and they get paid fairly well for it.

So do you work the same hours as your staff? Would you care to expand on "paid fairly well"? We pay 1.5x for OT. We also allow exempt employees to choose between 1.5x pay or bank as comp time to use after the season. Neither seems to be a big motivator.

Your summer hours are a dream come true for just about anyone.

Except for employees that want to earn full-time pay all year long, which is what we have. Although, I am sure they would not mind working 25 hours a week and getting paid for 40.

If a tax business is going to keep their FT people busy all year long, then it needs a significant amount of non-1040, business work. However, this makes tax season all that much more busy. We may be making an error, here, but our philosophy is that you gotta put the hours in during tax season to keep yourself busy the rest of the year.

I am a bad example... I have one EA who is salaried at a decent number, around 75K and she is expected to make 100K with bonus so she has a BIG incentive.

That is done by her working 50 to 55 hours a week during tax season. The other is hourly and yes they get 1.5 PLUS I write them a check for around 2K in addition to overtime. They are also paid even though they left on Friday after 4/16.

So... I treat them like management but I expect them to act like it. It seems to be working and last year we worked about the same, this year the EA will put in more hours than me by about 5-10 percent. I no longer work Fridays from 4/17 to Dec 31. They do and are expected to handle almost all . Logic was I would be happy to take a 20K pay cut and give it to them if they carried the water and kept pressure off me .

Just curious, how many hours do you put in a week, how many do you expecting your employees to put in during tax season, and how many do they want to work?

I average between 65-70 hrs/week during tax season (Feb 1 - Apr 15) and 40-45 outside of tax season.
We expect the FT professional staff can work 175 hrs of OT starting from the new year through 4/15. It ends up being around 125.

U-35s have grown up in a world where many employers were not loyal to their parents, aunts, uncles, and other adults in their orbit, so it really shouldn't be a surprise that this cohort has grown up to not have a lot of loyalty toward employers. So, working long hours for an employer is just not at the top of the bucket list...

It might be too late to make changes for this tax season, but as an outsider I don't inherently think that either you or your employees are unreasonable in your wants. 125 OT pretty much means 52 hour weeks on average and 175 OT means 58 hour weeks, which seems like a reasonable range for a smaller firm, so unless the reason you're working the hours that you're working is that the staff isn't contributing enough, there should be some room for an honest discussion and some give and take as professionals.

Nice topic. I am a sole practitioner in season 3. This is the first year I started to think about these issues, as it is the first year when my client load threatened to exceed my capacity. I didn't take the time to train my past clients very well in the past because I always had sufficient time to start, stop, recontact,wait on documents, start again, etc. Last year it seemed like good customer service. This year, as I pay the price with 75-80 hour work weeks, it seems grossly inefficient.

I think I am done with marketing for a while. My goal in the off season is to develop tools that will make my clients more efficient. Then I can throttle back to 55-60 hour weeks during the tax season. I think I'd be OK with that.

We never work past 1pm on Saturdays and from 4/16 to basically labor day we close the office at 1pm. I have cut my Saturdays WAY BACK but they still work and they get paid fairly well for it.

So do you work the same hours as your staff? Would you care to expand on "paid fairly well"? We pay 1.5x for OT. We also allow exempt employees to choose between 1.5x pay or bank as comp time to use after the season. Neither seems to be a big motivator.

Your summer hours are a dream come true for just about anyone.

Except for employees that want to earn full-time pay all year long, which is what we have. Although, I am sure they would not mind working 25 hours a week and getting paid for 40.

If a tax business is going to keep their FT people busy all year long, then it needs a significant amount of non-1040, business work. However, this makes tax season all that much more busy. We may be making an error, here, but our philosophy is that you gotta put the hours in during tax season to keep yourself busy the rest of the year.

I am a bad example... I have one EA who is salaried at a decent number, around 75K and she is expected to make 100K with bonus so she has a BIG incentive.

That is done by her working 50 to 55 hours a week during tax season. The other is hourly and yes they get 1.5 PLUS I write them a check for around 2K in addition to overtime. They are also paid even though they left on Friday after 4/16.

So... I treat them like management but I expect them to act like it. It seems to be working and last year we worked about the same, this year the EA will put in more hours than me by about 5-10 percent. I no longer work Fridays from 4/17 to Dec 31. They do and are expected to handle almost all . Logic was I would be happy to take a 20K pay cut and give it to them if they carried the water and kept pressure off me .

I do not post often here, but I remember reading one of your old posts from a few years ago (prob when I first signed up here) and took your advice, specifically regarding fees, bad clients, and scheduling

i liked your perspective on running a tax practice, as it was "outside the box" for most accountants I've known.

Since reading that post of yours I have instituted things like an end of season "Clients to Fire" list (my absolute favorite) and 1 day a week when we do not take any appointments (during the tax season). My partner and I are only in the office 3 days a week in the off season and each full time employee works a 4 day week (845 - 3pm) with 1 day off a week (paid).


Even though I'm spending more out of pocket to pay employees for days off, 5 holidays, sick days, vacation, etc.......it has paid off big time in terms of employee morale, loyalty, energy, productivity, and of course much needed "me time" and time with family for my employees and ourselves.


thank you for opening my eyes to that perspective on the business