Tax Returns When You Have Teams Working at Home
Simon Chaplin
Inspiring, Challenging, and Supporting Accountants to Be the Best They Want to Be
There was a conversation in my Accountants' Mastermind WhatsApp group this week as we went into lockdown. (Let me know if you are an accountant and you would like to join it)
It focused on teams working from home, and the number of tax returns many practices still had to complete.
I shared this in the group and though it was worth sharing here too...
I know lots of the things in this video will be impossible to implement now and will distract you from the tax returns, but you can use some of the basic principles for teams working from home.
My top tips...
Give everyone absolute CLARITY on what you want them to achieve each day. Not "some tax returns" but "five returns by lunchtime and ten by hometime" Even better "the tax returns for Mrs X, Mr Y, Dr Z etc." The clearer you can be (and plan) the better. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE!
Break the tasks down into smaller chunks, so it seems less daunting for them (and you). So ten returns a day, not 200 by 31 Jan. Then focus on doing that.
Celebrate every single one that is submitted. Celebrate milestones (say every 10) more and offer a surprise for finishing. Turn them into a game. Create a bet. You have to do them so it might as well be fun!
If you have given your customers deadlines that they have ignored decide today which ones you are not going to file. It will reduce your numbers and your stress. Then let them pay the fine - they will learn for next year or leave - either way, you win.
If you have customers, you do not want to upset (they are commercially significant) then call them Monday and tell them how you feel about the situation. Appeal to their sense of fairness. Give them a deadline with a time (5pm on Friday the 8th - not "by the end of the week"). If they do not respond to that, make sure you don't need them next year (you probably don't this year!).
Look after yourself. If you do nothing more than set a timer for every hour, stop when it goes off and take ten deep breaths standing up (be conscious of the ground when you do) you'll feel a whole lot better for it.
Any other ideas?
Helping Business Owners ?Understand your numbers ?Never miss a deadline ?Pay as little tax as legally possible via quality, friendly, proactive accountancy & tax advice #Stockport #Manchester #Cheshire
4 年Since the beginning of lockdown 1 in March last year we have done a daily zoom call with the full team - it’s just 15 mins or so where everyone goes through what there plan is for the day and we are able to catch any queries or challenges early on. They then each finish off the day with an email update to me and my business parter with what they’ve done and aob... it’s worked really well. Tax team do a weekly/bi-weekly tax return update - numbers completed, with client for signature, in and in progress, not yet started, info not yet received from client, and how many working days left / number of returns per day required... It’s working really well...
?? MD Lesser & Co Chartered Accountants & Vegan Accountants U.K., Ideal clients are Ltd companies. Tax Savings expert. General Practice. Growing Vegan Department. linktr.ee/keithlesser ?? World No1 Over 40s Racketlon!
4 年Excellent.
FCCA Accountant, Business Advisor, Practice Manager at Lewis Smith & Co
4 年Love this Celebrating every little return as a win ????
Awesome Accountant for SMEs & Start ups | QuickBooks | FD | Mentor ??
4 年Thanks Simon. Your clarity message is absolutely the best tip ?? I had about 7 days off over Christmas. It was my reward for working so hard during 2020. Thanks to you, we are ahead with tax returns so I'm feeling calm about January. It is still busy but its manageable and I'm not in a frenzied state of mind praying for a miracle ?????? Thank so so much for bring together the TRCC group ?? Guess who will be completing 90% of 2021 returns by November! ??