Tips for Information Gathering

[strongsilence]

I always want to reduce the annoyance of slow and haphazard and sporadic information retrieval from clients.  This year, I want to improve on last year. 

Hearing your Tips would be nice.

Here is one tip I am sharing.  Following the principle of "touch it once", which means deal with a tax form or tax calculation or piece of paper ONLY one time (because returning to it is inefficient), I am requesting that all clients give me ONLY ONE tax information package.  Of course, this is nearly impossible, but it makes my point that I want to get the return done fast and efficiently. And that I don't like managing multiple documents which often come from multiple sources (text, email, paper, Link, client portal, etc.).

Good luck!

[IRonMaN]

"I am requesting that all clients give me ONLY ONE tax information package"

You can always ask, but do you always succeed?

Most of my clients are pretty good at getting things to me in one pass.  But there are always going to be a few that will drop off 10 pieces when then need to give me 15 and they know it, but they will check in later with the standard "how is it looking?" question.

[strongsilence]

Do you have a tip to share?

If there will "always be a few" are you trying to make reduce that by one each year? If so how?  If not, I understand.  

[BobKamman]

I was reluctant for many years to give up any of the data entry on tax returns, even though I had one or two employees (full time during tax season, part time the rest of the year) who had time and inclination to do it.  I eventually trained one of them to do some of the basic work, which allowed them to spot missing items.  I now have most of the "drop offs" and "mail ins" data entered by someone who can spot missing items and contact the client for an explanation.  It's also better to have two pair of eyes looking at all the numbers, not just mine for final review.  (I do all of the Schedule D items, that's just too complicated to explain, at least for me.)

Are you working alone?  That's like running a cafe by yourself.  It can be done, we had a recent discussion about that here, but it takes a certain skill.  

[IRonMaN]

"Do you have a tip to share?"

Life is too short to take this job too seriously.  No matter how bloody the bottom line may look when the client has a real good year income wise, I try to make sure they still leave the office with a smile. 😁

[BobKamman]

@IRonMaN Sorry, no credit for that tip because it's not reported on a 1099.  

[IRonMaN]

That's ok, I worked some overtime to come up with it. 😜