5 Ways for CPAs to Eliminate Stress During Tax Season

Tax season often triggers a surge of stress for CPAs, marked by relentless deadlines and unpredictable client needs. However, there’s no need to accept this stress as an inevitable part of the job. By implementing strategic approaches to manage your workload and mental health, you can significantly reduce the strain of this busy season.

Maintaining calm and focus during tax season is beneficial, and it’s crucial for your professional effectiveness and personal well-being. This introduction sets the stage for discovering five practical ways to combat tax season stress effectively. Less stress means more productivity—simple as that.

Here are five ways to deal with tax season stress:

Striking the perfect balance between the personal & professional

During the rigorous busy season, CPAs log insane hours to ensure that the tax returns are done within the deadline. And needless to say, working more than 10-hours a day is unhealthy for anybody. Therefore, it is essential to ensure a work-life balance. It will not only help you have better health but improve performance and enhance productivity at work.

Pro Tip: Figure out how much work you and your team can handle. If you want to onboard more tax preparers, consider outsourcing their work to an accounting outsourcing provider to scale your team quickly and effectively. 

Talk it Out with Your Partners/Team.

The stress that tax season gives CPAs leads to anxiety and a sense of uncertainty. And many times, this stress becomes unmanageable. This is when clear communication helps. Discuss problems with your partners and your larger team, strategize together to resolve issues, and make sure that all the decisions taken are taken on a majoritarian basis – so that all the stress related to decision-making doesn’t fall on your shoulders alone but is distributed amongst all stakeholders.

Clear communication and setting expectations will help alleviate stress for you and your team.

Pro Tip: Discuss the feasibility of outsourcing tax preparation services. If you plan early, you can strategize to bring down your operational costs by hiring an outsourced tax preparer as a Full-Time Equivalent (FTE). 

Keep Moving Throughout the Day

Sitting and working in front of the screen for straight 8-10 hours isn’t a healthy practice – particularly for your back and neck. That’s why you must move throughout the typical workday. If you have a work-from-home setup, make sure you keep taking small breaks for a coffee or a quick snack.

Sometimes, getting zoned into tasks with no breaks can heighten stress levels and decrease efficiency. So, make sure you have breaks every hour or two. It could be difficult during the busy tax season, but you have to get out of your seat, walk a few steps, and try refocusing and reducing your stress levels.

Pro Tip: An ideal solution is to delegate work to a team of tax preparers who don’t need to be micromanaged. Tax outsourcing helps you do just that. Hire a tax preparer with the kind of experience you need and free up valuable time. This allows you to take care of your health. 

Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep is every CPA’s dream during the tax season. However, it is a very distant dream, and if they can get some shut-eye, they are in luck. Typically, the tax season sees them burning the midnight oil, attempting to meet the strict tax deadline. 

This practice must stop. You must ensure that you get a good night’s sleep every night so you are refreshed, recharged, and ready to face all the challenges that come your way.

Pro Tip: Scale your team and build capacity before the tax season starts in earnest. If you will hire seasonal talent for the season, get on it when you have the time. This is why many accounting firms start looking for providers to whom they can outsource tax preparation so that they don’t have to scramble and experience sleepless nights during the tax season. 

 

Don’t Stress, Outsource

Tax season should be busy as it’s a commoditized service that helps you generate a lot of revenue. But this shouldn’t be at the cost of mental peace and health. What’s more, this shouldn’t come at the expense of your clients, who might need other services such as bookkeeping or payroll. 

You need to plan for challenges you might experience, including staff shortages, team burnout, and long work hours that disrupt team members’ work-life balance.

In such a scenario, tax outsourcing can help you seize the advantage over your competitors. With an offshore tax preparation expert, you have the opportunity to delegate your workload to an expert. They act as your extended team. While they take care of the operational tasks, you can focus on client servicing and managing client expectations.

How Tax Outsourcing Enables a Stress-Free Life

As an accounting firm owner, you want to make your employees’ lives happier and stress-free. However, during the peak season, it is difficult for your in-house team to cope with the stress and the workload. With a tax outsourcing team on your side, you will have additional staff, which will help prevent adding pressure on the in-house team. Along with relieving your teammates, it will also help you attain up to 50% cost savings.

Your team members won’t have to perform any basic compliance tasks, allowing them to spend more time on their particular areas of interest. 

Towards a Stress-free Tax Season 2022

Overworking during the tax season has become an unhealthy stereotype, and you, as a CPA, have to overcome that. It would help if you prioritized your health, physical and mental, and that of your employees as well. Take steps to manage your workload and minimize stress levels.

The opinions expressed in this blog post are solely those of the authors. They do not reflect the opinions or views of the company or any other employee.