3 Great Tips to Prepare for Tax Season Amid Talent Shortage

As one tax season ends, another quickly approaches, leaving accounting firms barely any time to catch their breath. This constant cycle is made even tougher by a shortage of skilled staff, stretching the capabilities of teams who are already working hard. The break between seasons is short, thrusting firms back into the thick of things with little time to prepare.

Tax season is always challenging for CPAs and accounting professionals. It tests their ability to manage a lot of work and keep up with everything. So, how can your firm handle this pressure and actually do well? It starts with being prepared and having a good plan.

Knowing the challenges ahead, firms must come up with smart ways to keep up their work without losing the quality of their services or overworking their staff. This blog will share three important tips to help your firm get ready for tax season. These tips will help you face the busy season confidently and meet your goals effectively, even when things get tough.

Talent Shortage Impacting a Profitable Tax Season

Finding the right talent is the major challenge for a vast majority of accounting firms. The talent shortage is a genuine problem in the accounting industry. This problem typically rears its head when you need this talent the most – yes, during the tax season. There are plenty of firms that start looking for tax experts when the tax season arrives in earnest. As can be imagined, such experts are in short supply and might be an expensive hire for firms. This impacts their margins. Or, in a worst-case scenario, firms might not even find talent to scale their team.

The idea here is not to scare you but to get you to think. Why get sucked into a talent problem? If you know there is a problem, why not plan to negate this problem? So, how do you handle the talent shortage in a busy tax season when you are trying to build capacity and scale your team?

We have some answers.

Preparing for the Talent Shortage

1. Better Forecasting

As tax season approaches, it’s crucial to assess the upcoming workload. Review your client list to gauge the expected volume of tax work. If it aligns with your goals, great; if not, determine how much more is needed. Set a revenue target and initiate your outreach accordingly. This is the perfect time to start acquiring new clients and to consider expanding your services with existing clients.

Sooner rather than later, you will get a fair idea of the amount of work you need to be prepared for in the upcoming tax season. This will tell you whether you need to scale your team or whether the existing team is enough to address client needs and fulfil business expectations.

This sets the stage to kick start a plan of action for bringing remote tax preparers on board.

2. Leverage Tax Return Preparation Outsourcing

Tax prep support outsourcing can be the ideal solution for your firm to scale your team without aggressively recruiting internal team members. Remember, adding employees to your payroll does build capacity but also increases overheads in the form of salaries, bonuses, and all associated expenses, including infrastructure costs.

A good way is to extend your team with remote tax preparers who work out of well-managed and advanced delivery centers. Capable of working independently, they do not need to be micromanaged and turn around tax preparation quickly and accurately. Outsource Tax Preparation to propel your firm’s growth and scalability.

When you outsource tax preparation, you set the stage to boost profitability by up to 50% and save on operational costs. This is a huge benefit. We discussed forecasting earlier; once you have a semblance of clarity on the work coming your way, you can identify the number of tax experts you should add to your team.

When opting for tax prep support outsourcing services, it is critical to work with an outsourcing provider who can meet your needs extensively and achieve the highest standards of data security and accuracy.

3. Think of a Long Term Approach

If you are taking the tax prep support outsourcing route, why not think beyond the tax season as well? You can get accounting professionals on board who can do accounting work. So, think of talent shortage from a long-term perspective. This problem is not going away anytime soon. If you want to scale, scale holistically. Think about all your services and how you want to go about building capacity for them.

The tax season does not mean other accounting work should take a back seat. This is why you need to strengthen your team with a future outlook and ensure optimal resource management to generate more revenue. If you are outsourcing tax preparation, why not think of accounting outsourcing as well?

Your firm will benefit from thinking strategically.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is doubly imperative that you have a plan in place to face the talent shortage this tax season and beyond. Not doing so will be detrimental to your firm’s fortunes this season. Strategically addressing this challenge by adopting innovative recruitment practices, leveraging technology, and fostering a supportive work environment will be crucial. Such proactive measures will not only help manage current staffing challenges but also build a resilient workforce capable of navigating future uncertainties in the industry.