Thank you all - lot of good food for thought in here to think on.
Just to add some additional perspective to the situation:
-Current culture is that every extension is treated like a full return to get as close to full liability expected as possible
-We value bill and bill additional for all planning which is done with the return + some during the year
-My primary reason for going this route is for the mentorship from the retiring leadership, I have a really solid background but didn't feel confident enough about the financial risk or knowledge base aspects of opening my own place
ReckedCPAEA wrote:My best recommendation right now is to network. Invite people out to lunch, or ask if they have any time available that you can stop by and introduce yourself (with some business cards in your pocket). My biggest referral sources are bookkeepers who like working with me, attorneys, and CPA firms who are not looking to expand or take on any more work. I would start with the local CPAs in your area. The referral network with local bookkeepers will be built over time, just prove yourself an asset to them and never "throw them under the bus".
Thanks for the reminder to check my own backyard. I got rolling on that recently and hopefully those contacts produce some interesting work. We have a ton of referral sources for tax work but leadership's fear is that a return we take now will turn into another return needing done March of next year but I think that's where we need to up front tell that new client they'll be an extension every year forward if they choose us.
ATSMAN wrote:So what will be your workload? Can you set deadlines? If things are out of your control and you have to work as a robot run for the hills!
It's hard to say right now but looking at the current process I could end up having 600 returns dumped on me to get done by either my hand or with help. I would say on average each person including leadership process about 200 by 4/15 but some folks have more entities and some are heavier with individuals.
I've brought up setting deadlines and they don't care for that for themselves because they like as much free-time the rest of the year as possible, but for myself I can mold my portion of the work so I'm going to look at my chunk of clients and think about what deadline would make sense. There's a chunk who could file in February but choose to come in March, I need to communicate with those folks that it's either get in earlier or file after 4/15 going forward.
RazorbackCPA wrote:We ended up losing and/or firing about 20% of the clients and feel like we are close to an ideal situation.
I think as I get a better handle on the numbers and more say this will be what we do. There's a fear that so many of our clients are connected that cutting one will = losing 20 but maybe that's the point. We turn away around 10 new client inquiries a day during the season so I really don't share that fear.
smtcpa wrote:Here's what I did:
In 2021, I began a process of shifting work outside of tax season in order to “flatten the curve” and work less during tax season. I also wanted to start transitioning my practice to focus on tax planning and ultimately financial planning and investment management (that is a separate story).
I think I'm moving along that same thought with looking for other complimentary work such as Controllership/Outsourced CFO services, something to add revenue/value and dilute the season a little bit. Thank you for sharing your experience working through that shift.
ItDepends wrote:I'm VERY sorry(!), but this doesn't sound like a good purchase to me. You will be working 16 hour days, 7 days/week, diluting your quality and customer service, and you will face very stressful situations with the many clients that you can't finish. Many will hold off on providing data for a week and throw it on you on the 12th of April, and still be livid with you for suggesting an extension.
I understand that concern - it's typically 12-14 hour days every day of March, maybe the first week of April for leadership due to the high level of review plus their own prep work. I will say starting April 1 we communicate that everything is a week+ out so there is some extension warning in that regard. A lot of the extensions are mostly K-1 folks which these days everyone has at least one so that's helping push people to extending.
ATSMAN wrote:I too have a few clients that have their brokers e-mail me statements BUT that does NOT change the deadline. That is made very clear to both the broker and client. Also I do NOT accept any text messages with tax information.
I'm huge on electronic everything so I press for broker portal access which we do have for a large number of folks where I can pull what I need when I need it. We don't meet with clients during the season if at all and are migrating towards a completely paperless operation which helps. We need to look more at deadlines for sure.