Why Time Management Is Crucial For Accountants During Tax Season?

Time management is an essential part of creating a productive work schedule for accountants. The right hours put in at the right time can determine where an accountancy firm’s reputation stands in the industry.

Skills, knowledge, and experience are alone no longer enough for the sustainability of accountancy firms in this digital era. According to Xero, companies relying on cloud accounting have 5x more customers than traditional accounting firms. Therefore, the invaluable cloud tools available for accountants today cannot be ignored.

Putting a tried and tested system of time management in place ensures that the accountant or the accounting firm has control over the billable hours. Evolving with time is the only way to gain integrity and profitability in the accounting industry.

· Time management refers to the right amount of time allocation for the right activity in an accounting firm.

· Ensuring effective planning and flexible infrastructure is a huge part of managing time.

· Having sustainable goals and objectives for the entire Tax Season is a precious commodity for accountants.

Let’s see more in detail.

Streamline Payroll/Payment

Accounting firms/accountants sell their time and expertise to the clients. The amount of money earned by an accountant depends upon the amount of time they put in for each client. The quantification of the price for work done depends on a pre-designed system agreed upon by both the accountant/accounting firm and the client.

If you are an accountant, then setting up a time management system through cloud service can help decide the payment that a client owes you before, after, or during the tax services. An accounting firm, on the other hand, can benefit from such a system by gathering accurate information for fair payroll management.

Keep Track Of Productivity

The key to increasing profitability for accountants is to maximize time spent in generating revenue and minimize time spent in unnecessary administrative work. Time management is necessary to increase productivity and chargeable hours for individual clients.

Keeping track of time will give you the idea of setting a fixed price for specific clients. This will ensure that you earn more money in less time. This will also ensure that the clients trust your capability in finishing their work in time for the right price.

Categorize Individual Activities Based on Cost

Accountants do not work by applying one formula to circumvent all tax issues. Every issue is handled manually or in an automated manner using cloud services. Each activity within the tax operations is handled separately for better use of time. Time management is of the essence to ensure that the cumulative price for each activity helps the accountant turn a profitable corner.

Accounting firms and accountants need to estimate every internal cost to ensure that they make a profit out of every customer interaction. The accountability of time guarantees that the overhead and operational costs are distinguished.

It also ensures that the evolution of the costs through the years is documented. Since 37% of tax accountants run single-person operations and the tax season becomes difficult to handle, categorizing specific activities and costs become essential.

Manage Tax Season Better

According to recent reports, 83% of accountants believe that companies, both big and small, are more demanding in the tax season now than ever before. Therefore, the stress level in the last few days of the tax season is very high.

Every accountant is flooded with new papers, new data, and new clients in the tax season. Professionals cannot accept last minute mishaps due to the rush hours, so, they keep time management as a top priority.

Prioritize Work

The workload can become unbearable in a few days before the tax deadline. The best way to get the most work done without having constant anxiety attacks and panic calls from clients is to prioritize work based on a pre-ordained system.

Even though e-fillings are on the rise and 91% of accountants agree that cloud accounting services will be the future, there will always be clients who bring the most work at the last minute. Time management can help you prioritize such activities within the deadlines.

Time Management Systems

The primary time management systems used in the tax industry include clocking, timesheets, computer-generated EOD programs, and automated cloud computing options.

While the traditional clocking system is not preferred by modern accounting firms; timesheets, EOD programs, and especially automated time management systems are gaining more popularity for the upkeep of time.

If recent reports are to be trusted, 67% of professionals prefer cloud accounting services to traditional services and the same amount of people believe that optimal time management can be achieved by the same.

Conclusion

Do you need a time management system? Of course, you do!

However, if your business does not charge for time spent, but only charges for services rendered, then time management might not be your priority. There are a lot of scenarios to consider before choosing a time management system. There can be a high cost to pay upfront for installing such a system but the long-term effect can be the make-or-break point for your career.

Being an accountant, your days will never be as scheduled as you want them to be. Your clients will keep calling you at odd hours and you might always have little hurdles to cross at the last moment, but, with the right tools like a tried time management system, you will always have good business growth.