Outsourced Tax Prep Pricing

Debating on how to keep up with workload in the future. Investigating outsourcing some returns versus hiring a seasonal preparer. SurePrep is a vendor I keep seeing as an option. I know they have a domestic option only, as well as foreign outsourcing. Any idea on pricing per return? Other vendors to consider?

Just trying to get a little information first before I start making calls.

Ask yourself this: how do you diminish the value of your brand by having to outsource tax returns, both in terms of client quality control and your own work quality? In other words, I suspect by feeling a need to outsource, you are taking on tax returns that are likely not a great fit for your business. Have you calculated the cost of that?

We use SurePrep for organizing documents. It creates a slick "binder". We did not consider outsourcing tax returns. When we signed up with them, late 2019 early 2020 I believe they said the outsourcing was fully booked. I also think I saw they shut down the foreign outsourcing due to the current crisis. I just looked for the pricing for outsourcing but I guess they didn't give it to us since we weren't interested.

I just found some pricing for outsourcing 1040 and 1041. Onshore base price $140 plus $46-250 for various levels, plus $30-$60 for tax software fee plus....
Off shore base price $40 plus $23-$125 for various levels, plus $15-$30 for tax software fee plus....

That’s a good question, not sure I have a good answer. Right now, I’m at time capacity. The way I see it, there are a few options:

1. Increase fees substantially, lose clients. Only let new clients in that made a certain minimum. I get the logic, but to be completely honest, scared to do it.

2. Set a new client minimum profile, phase out clients that don’t meet the profile as I bring on new clients. This route would slowly create more time freedom, but it seems it would take much longer to do.

3. Outsource most of the return preparation. Either another company or internal hire. Focus on marketing and be the relationship manager for bigger clients.

#3 seems like it would have the most long term time freedom. However, #1 and #2 would still be wise directions even if I gear toward that route.

I don’t have all the answers! I’m genuinely asking for feedback as I know things need to change in my practice. Both short term in my practice, but also being smart long-term on where I want to build it.

We use SurePrep for organizing documents. It creates a slick "binder". We did not consider outsourcing tax returns. When we signed up with them, late 2019 early 2020 I believe they said the outsourcing was fully booked. I also think I saw they shut down the foreign outsourcing due to the current crisis. I just looked for the pricing for outsourcing but I guess they didn't give it to us since we weren't interested.

I just found some pricing for outsourcing 1040 and 1041. Onshore base price $140 plus $46-250 for various levels, plus $30-$60 for tax software fee plus....
Off shore base price $40 plus $23-$125 for various levels, plus $15-$30 for tax software fee plus....

Thanks!

MWEA the way I got started in this business was because of a senior tax return preparer was at full capacity and I "partnered" with him (after graduating college) to prepare the returns that he sent my way but he signed the return. I got a cut of his billing. The client did not know the difference because he was the face in front of the client. He did not have any payroll cost because I was self employed. Eventually I got a large piece of his book of business and then I was introduced as the face in front of the client and I started signing those returns.

You could find some young accountant who wants to grow in this business and do the same.

We use SurePrep for organizing documents. It creates a slick "binder".

How does their SPBinder compare to TTC plug-in for Adobe Acrobat? Appears very similar in functionality but as a standalone application...?

I have no experience with that.

Congratulations on getting to this point! The good news is that you have a lot of options.

Firstly, I'd look at your workflow to see what could be automated or improved. For example, I started importing trial balances into my tax software for my corporate returns this year -- what an incredible time savings that was! Look into ways of improving your 1040 process as well. The firm I per diem for has experimented with OCR but it took more time to clean up the data than saving in the data entry.

Secondly, do you have an assistant or receptionist? If not, look into that as well. Having someone who can soak up some of your non-billable work (or just stuff that can be delegated) would give you a higher capacity. Hiring a junior accountant is a longer-term growth strategy if you're looking to continue the growth and potentially have a succession plan. However, not everyone is looking for that type of firm (search for southparkcpa's posts on why it wasn't for him)

I'd also consider looking at your clients and either increase minimums or fire the PITAs.

We use SurePrep for organizing documents. It creates a slick "binder".

How does their SPBinder compare to TTC plug-in for Adobe Acrobat? Appears very similar in functionality but as a standalone application...?

Cornerstone, I've had experience with both SurePrep and TTC with Adobe. SurePrep's binder is purpose-built and very slick. It allows drag&drop import of not just images and pdfs but editable excel files. Much easier to mark pages reviewed and find unreviewed pages. Fine control over a number of settings. Easy to use linking between documents. Bookmarking system makes it very easy to find the document you're looking for and to move pages around.
By comparison, TTC is a glorified stamping plugin for Adobe. If you work with complex returns, SurePrep is far easier and more feature-rich.

Import from SurePrep to CCH can result in numbers going into the wrong fields. I've seen the same thing with import from GruntWorx to Drake, you're going to have to review import entries from any form processing software. Gruntworx has a ridiculous processing limit of 10 files per binder, at least when using Drake.

I'd probably use SurePrep myself depending on pricing, but it doesn't work with Drake so I'm stuck with TTC along with Gruntworx for processing/import.