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Intuit is after your clients
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In a recent multi-million dollar ad campaign, Intuit, makers of Quickbooks, TurboTax, ProSeries and Lacerte Tax actively suggests that clients fire their accountants and tax professionals. While they have been subtlety coaxing clients to move to them for years, this marks a troubling, more direct approach. Your best defense to this attack is staying connected with your clients in a meaningful way. While Intuit can try to steal client transactions, it is difficult to rip clients away that have a trusted relationship with your firm. And as subscribers to Practice Panda’s tools, you already understand this.
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Subscribers ask us every day how they can take better advantage of the tools and services we provide. This is heartening to hear as it matches our commitment to help you retain your clients, keep them informed, and enhance the success of your firm all while saving you time. Frankly, we can do a better job of helping you and your firm do this. So, starting this month, you will begin to see a monthly community brief from us. It will include: Ideas to help retain your best clients Industry news and views to help your practice A spotlight on a service to leverage your Practice Panda Tools I understand it is tough out there. It is hard to find and retain talent. New regulations and late breaking law changes are the norm. Many of you have no room to add new clients. And billion-dollar enterprises are actively telling your clients to fire you. But at the end of the day, you provide a valuable service to everyone that walks through your door, both literally and virtually. And we are committed to help you provide that service and stay somewhat sane while doing so. Please enjoy this first of many Practice Panda Community Newsletters And let us know what you would like to see. We are here to help. Sincerely, Steve Enzler President
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Community News
November, 2024
Analyze Evaluate Review
With the October 15th extension deadline in your rearview mirror, now is a great time to evaluate the success of your 2024 tax season. This review can set the stage for better efficiency, higher client satisfaction, & more profit for you and your firm. Here are areas to consider as you conduct a year-end review. 1) ANALYZE YOUR NUMBERS The first step in evaluating the past tax season is to collect and review key performance metrics. Here are several to consider: Total number of clients served. Did your firm see a growth or decline in clients compared to previous years? Average time per return. How long did it take your team to complete a tax return versus the amount billed? Could this process be streamlined? Client satisfaction rates. Review feedback from clients, both positive and negative. Were there common complaints or compliments? Error rates. Evaluate how many returns had to be amended. Use this information to know where to focus your energy for next year. 2) EVALUATE YOUR STAFF & WORKFLOW Tax season can be stressful for your employees (and you!), so reflecting on how well your staff handled the workload can really help. Here are some questions in this area to consider. Workload distribution. Was the work evenly distributed among the team, or were certain staff members disproportionately burdened? Training & preparedness. Were staff members adequately trained to handle their workload and new tax regulations? If not, what additional training ideas can be implemented for the upcoming season? Morale & well-being. Assess team morale post-tax season. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions can provide valuable insights into how they experienced the busy period. 3) REVIW YOUR SOFTWARE & OTHER TECHNOLOGY The right technology can make or break your firm's efficiency during tax season. Reflect on how well your firm's tax software, client management systems, and other tools performed. Software performance. Did your tax software handle the volume & complexity of returns efficiently? Were there frequent technical issues or slow processing times that hindered productivity? Integration with other systems. Review how well your tax software integrated with other systems, such as client portals, accounting software, or CRM tools. Seamless integration can help improve workflows and reduce data entry errors. Automation opportunities. Identify areas where automation could save time in the future, such as automating client reminders, invoicing, or tax return calculations. 4) ASSESS CLIENT COMMUNICATION & SATISFACTION Tax season often tests the strength of your client relationships. Reflect on how well your firm communicated with clients during busy season. Client touchpoints. Evaluate your communication process, from initial document requests to final return submission. Were there delays in gathering information from clients? Could you streamline the process with better automation or client portals? Client feedback. Encourage clients to provide feedback after the tax season. This could be done through surveys or informal conversations. Pay attention to common pain points or areas where clients were particularly satisfied. Client retention. Review client retention rates. How does this compare to prior years? (Now is a great time to reflect and improve next tax season. Hopefully these ideas will help.)
Ideas To Evaluate Your Tax Season
Remind your clients to submit their tax documents.
Late April 2025
January 2025
Each month we will spotlight one of the many Practice Panda tools available for you and provide some background and ideas on how to put them to best use to help your firm stay connected with your clients and find new ones. This month’s feature: our popular TaxVid service. TaxVid: the basics TaxVid or Tax Videos is a library of short, less than three minute, videos regarding a single, popular tax topic. Here are the marketing specifics: Target: Individual taxpayers and smaller businesses. Tone: Light, friendly and approachable Branding: Includes a pre-roll with your brand and a “call to action” at the end of the video with your brand and contact information. Updates: Automatic. As the law changes the video changes to fit, without you doing anything. Clutter: None. Unlike YouTube, your videos stay with you “view dancing monkeys” video will not pop up after playing yours. Channels: Videos can be emailed, posted on your website, or played in your lobby. Plus they are easy to promote through social platforms. Video objectives: Save you time, add billable revenue, enhance your expertise, and help stay in touch. This is done through simple education, helping identifying clients that need your help, explaining new tax rules, and presenting topics that will resonate. New versus current: Used for both current clients and prospecting for new. Great tool for retaining clients and helping current clients to help save your time and increase billing for those who need help. Popular topics: 2024 Tax Highlights and 2024 Business Highlights. Also, 5 Great Tax Secrets, Yearly Tax Essentials, and Retirement Can be Taxing. Ideas for Best Use Leverage your website. Your home page is a great place to start. Place a single tax highlights video (or new video periodically) someplace here. Then drive traffic to your web site by announcing the video through other channels like a newsletter, email or social post. Split your videos. You can place one on your home page, another on a business service page, and place your library of videos in another spot on your site. Your videos are always on. Even if you do not have a robust web site, we provide you a web location to play your videos. This can then be linked to and from any digital communication you wish. Look for kiosk mode. Did you know you can play your videos in your lobby? Practice Panda even has a collection fun buffer videos to help break up the TaxVid sessions. It’s a great way to get a smile from a client AND save you time ALL at the same time. How Can We Help? We would love to hear your ideas. Looking for a topic? A service highlight? We are open to suggestions. We want to make Practice Panda your resource to build a better practice, well positioned and well connected to current and new clients! www.practicepanda.com
February 2025
Client Communication Calendar
Schedule your email campaigns for end-of-the year consultations.
Schedule your final reminder to have clients submit tax documents April 15th.
Wes Kimple CPA Executive Editor
Let your clients know to schedule their summer tax planning sessions.
Stephen Enzler President
Send organizers to clients with a Tax Preview Newsletter
End of Year 2024
Spotlight on service: taxvid
Early March 2025
Nyla Hoffman Marketing