Key Takeaways:
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Table of Contents:
- How to Streamline Tax Client Communication
- Why You Only Want to Work with Your Ideal Tax Clients
- How Automation Creates an Efficient Tax Practice
A tax firm’s business operations are complex, with numerous clients, deadlines, engagements, and intricate details to manage, especially during the busy season. Your success relies on finding ways to create repeatable yet personalized client experiences. And the market for tax practice management software is crowded with various options all with the promise of improving your tax firm. Knowing the processes and technology you need to run an efficient practice can help set you up for success.
Here are three ways to boost the efficiency of your tax practice’s operations:
1) Streamline Tax Client Communication
Effective communication is a cornerstone of a well-managed tax practice. By streamlining client communications, you can save time, create a consistent client service experience, and reduce confusion for both your staff and clients.
How streamlined communication creates efficiency
By documenting your communication processes, you can continuously improve your tax firm’s business operations. Effective communication can result in the following benefits:
- Save time: Standardized communications eliminate the need to craft new messages for every client interaction, allowing you to focus on more critical tasks.
- Provide consistent service: A uniform approach ensures that all clients receive the same level of service, enhancing their experience and trust in your firm. By using communications templates, you can aim to create a repeatable, high-quality communications experience for all clients.
- Reduce confusion for staff and clients: Clear and consistent communication prevents misunderstandings and errors, both for your team and your clients. Consider having internal documentation like flow charts or checklists for processes that help your staff communicate consistently. For clients, early on share your communications expectations around document collection and tax filing to help them know what to expect each step of the way.
- Increase security: By using consistent templates and processes for emails and other forms of communication, your tax firm’s staff and clients will know what to expect. This is important to help mitigate the cybercriminal practice of spoofing clients.
Examples of streamlining client communication
The following are examples of how you can use a consistent communications process starting at tax client onboarding and throughout your tax client engagement process:
- Consistent engagement and intro letter: Use a template to send engagement letters and retainer invoices, if applicable, to your new client. Also, standardize any welcome letters you send outlining your services and what they can expect.
- Tax client portal invite: Use a client portal to streamline document sharing and communication.
- Task reminders: Templated reminders for key tasks and deadlines keep clients on track and reduce the need for follow-up calls and emails.
How Harness can help streamline your communication
Harness provides the training and tech tools necessary to streamline your communications. Our solutions ensure that your firm can maintain clear, consistent, and efficient interactions with all clients.
Harness helps you use templates to streamline and automate the following communications:
- Client Intro Letters
- Tax Client Portal Invitations
- Task Notifications and Reminders
- Task Completion Updates
- Advisor Completion Alerts Sent to Clients
- Client Engagement Letter Renewals
- Net Promoter Score Survey Emails
- Customer Satisfaction Score Survey Emails
2) Only Work with Your Ideal Tax Clients
Not all clients are created equal, and working only with those who align with your firm’s strengths and interests can significantly enhance efficiency.
How working with ideal clients creates efficiency
By identifying and striving to work primarily with your ideal clients, you can create the following benefits for your tax practice:
- Reduce distractions: By turning down clients who don’t fit your expertise, you can focus on delivering high-quality services to those who do. You also won’t be getting pulled in different directions having to learn specific tax strategies for a range of clients.
- Increase service delivery efficiency: Specializing in a specific client type enables you to refine your processes and deliver faster, more accurate results. For example, if you are doing tax code research, focusing on one client type, such as startup founders and employees, may reduce the amount of research you need to do compared to working with many different clients with varying needs. As you build tax code knowledge about startup equity, you can repurpose it and reduce the amount of research you need to perform to serve your clients.
- Create efficient client acquisition strategies: Attracting and retaining ideal clients becomes easier as your reputation in your niche grows and you become known for serving a specific client type. Additionally, marketing strategies such as paid advertising or attending events make it easier to create targeted efforts because you are only focusing on one type of client.
Examples of how to work with ideal clients
- Choose clients wisely: For example, you may want to avoid clients who have large amounts of paper documents in order to help streamline your operations.
- Specialize in a niche: If you specialize in working with tech employees or entrepreneurs, don’t take on family-owned small businesses. Focus on your niche to maximize efficiency.
How Harness can help find ideal clients
Through curated client introductions, Harness helps connect you with your ideal clients. Additionally, through the Harness community, you gain access to other advisors who can handle areas outside of your expertise, including legal and wealth management, ensuring your clients receive comprehensive service.
Harness-curated introductions can help you:
- Meet new leads: Work with your Client Success manager to get the most out of your leads and schedule introduction meetings
- Convert leads into clients: After meeting a new lead, formalize the partnership with an engagement letter that includes all services and deliverables
3) Use Technology to Automate Your Tax Practice Management
Leveraging technology is crucial for modern tax firms aiming to enhance efficiency. Automation tools can handle routine tasks, allowing you to focus on high-value work that directly benefits your clients.
How automation creates efficiency
Automating repetitive tasks can help you get more done in less time, offering the following benefits for your tax firm:
- More time to focus on high-value work: Automating routine tasks such as tracking client work frees up time for more complex and valuable activities such as client development and tax planning.
- Increase productivity: Using software to handle multiple tasks simultaneously can reduce the overall time spent on administrative duties.
- Increase client satisfaction: Digital tools provide a centralized platform for managing client interactions, documents, and tasks, allowing you to create a high-touch, personalized digital client experience.
Examples of using technology to automate your work
Various tax practice management software platforms offer different automation tools, including:
- Automated task notifications and reminders: Keep clients and staff informed and on schedule throughout the tax process. Leverage automated communications to collect documents and missing information.
- Bulk task management: Complete more work in less time with bulk creation of engagements allowing for templated sets of tasks for clients.
- Engagement dashboard: Manage client tasks and progress from a single interface.
- Digital tax client portal: Simplify onboarding and document collection with an easy-to-use online portal.
How Harness can help you automate tax practice operations
Harness equips your firm with robust tax practice management software. The platform is designed to streamline your tax practice, making it easier to manage tasks, communicate with clients, and automate routine processes.
On the Harness platform, you’ll get access to tax practice management software, including:
- A modern client portal
- Engagement dashboard with bulk task management
- CCH Access for tax preparation
- BNA IT Planner for tax projections
- E-signature and e-filing
“I wish I had come together with Harness before I expended so much energy finding the best tech when starting my firm. All of that was immediately at my fingertips with Harness.”
— Cari Manteiga, CPA
Ms. Manteiga is a member of Harness and is not being directly compensated for sharing her opinion and experience with our firm. Due to Ms. Manteiga’s relationship with Harness as a tax adviser on the platform, material conflicts of interest may arise. There is an indirect financial incentive for Ms. Manteiga to promote Harness as she is a tax adviser available through the Harness platform. Ms. Manteiga’s comments may not be representative of any other person’s experience with the firm. While Harness provides valuable tools and support, individual results can vary, and success requires effort and leveraging the platform’s resources effectively.
Ready to Grow Your Tax Firm?
Schedule an intro with Harness today to see how our modern tax practice management software, in-house concierge team, curated client introductions, and professional community can support your tax practice.
Tax Practice Management FAQs
As you work to grow an efficient tax practice, here are a few common questions we see from other tax professionals.
How do I scale my tax business?
To scale your tax business, focus on streamlining operations through technology and automation, including using client portals and automated task management systems to handle routine tasks. Consider specializing in serving a niche market to attract ideal clients, which may help enhance service quality and simplify marketing efforts. At Harness, we provide high-quality, curated tax client leads to tax practices and access to legal and wealth management firms through our Marketplace.
How do I onboard a new tax client?
Effective tax client onboarding can lead to more satisfied clients and faster time to revenue. At Harness, we streamline the onboarding process, from client acquisition all the way to filing a first tax return.
To onboard new tax clients at Harness, you’ll start by setting up your advisor profile on the Harness Marketplace and scheduling intro meetings with potential clients that match your expertise. Once a client is interested in working with your firm, you can send them an engagement letter and retainer invoice, if applicable, with the help of your Harness Client Success Manager. Next, invite the client to the Harness Client Portal to start collaborating, document sharing, and managing tasks. You can leverage engagement templates to efficiently assign tasks to clients via the portal. You’ll then conduct client intake questionnaires and gather information through the client portal to understand their needs thoroughly. Finally, you’ll prepare and e-file the client’s tax return using the Harness platform, with support from your Client Success Manager. For more information, see our guide to Tax Client Onboarding.
Tax related services provided through Harness Tax LLC. Harness Tax LLC is affiliated with Harness Wealth Advisers LLC, collectively referred to as “Harness”. Harness Wealth Advisers LLC is a paid promoter, internet registered investment adviser. This blog should not be considered tax or legal advice and is provided for informational purposes only.
Harness cannot guarantee future results. An advisor’s past performance may not be indicative of future results. Not all advisors have the same skills, knowledge or expertise, including those that have certain credentials. Content should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of Ms. Manteiga as of the date of publication and are subject to change.
As noted above, this blog contains an endorsement from a tax advisor who provides services through the Harness platform. This presents a conflict of interest as there is an indirect financial incentive for a tax advisor to promote Harness’s platform. The tax advisor’s comments may not be representative of any other tax advisor’s experience with the firm.
Certain information contained herein constitutes “forward-looking statements,” which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue,” or “believe,” or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or actual results may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Nothing contained herein may be relied upon as a guarantee, promise, assurance or a representation as to the future.
