Elimination vs. delegation vs. automation

You may have heard the saying before: When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

When you’re a tech-savvy tax pro, everything starts to look as if it can be automated. However, automation isn’t always the right solution. Choosing the right approach in managing your processes as a firm owner will help you implement changes more effectively and grow faster.

Here’s a quick story of how I learned this lesson. I recently had a list on Excel of people I wanted to reach out to. The first column had data that needed reformatting—and I wanted to fix it. Because the sheet had almost 500 rows, I assigned it to my virtual assistant to reformat the column instead of spending hours doing it myself.

Within 10 minutes, she had it fixed. I asked how she got done so quickly; she told me she just used one of Excel’s built-in features! Then, three days later, I realized that I didn’t even need the list in the first place .…

What’s the moral of the story? I had a task to be done, but I chose the wrong tool. I delegated, when I should have automated or eliminated the task.

Whenever you have tasks you want to take off your plate, before rushing to a new AI tool or outsourcing the job to someone else, start by asking: Should I delegate it, automate it, or just eliminate it?

When to eliminate

The easiest way to finish a task is not to do it. I’m not advocating laziness or procrastination; I’m advocating being ruthless in eliminating work that doesn’t need to get done.

In the context of tax and accounting services, most firm owners have had work scenarios like this:

• Clients that cause headaches and don’t pay enough.
• Work that’s not in the engagement letter.
• Work outside your area of expertise.
• Work that makes you want to bang your head against a wall.
• Collecting redundant information.
• Answering unreasonable client emails/requests.
• Taking unnecessary calls.
• Things “that have always been this way,” but you don’t know why.

One of the most common pieces of advice I hear from experienced firm owners is to focus the scope of your services, set clear boundaries, and avoid clients that cause a hassle. If you’re just starting out, it makes sense to take whatever work you can find. But as you grow, you should always be narrowing your scope and “firing” clients who are causing a headache.

Elimination is the easiest way to free up time. It allows you to focus on higher-leverage, higher-margin work. Just ask: Is this client or this project really aligned with my long term professional, personal, or social goals?

When to automate

If it’s a job worth doing, automation is my next consideration. Automation lets you complete tasks at a tiny fraction of the cost of doing something manually, freeing up time to focus on work that can’t be automated, such as advising your clients or meeting with potential clients.

However, automation can sometimes be difficult to set up. It’s best for tasks that:

1. Are done frequently now and in the future.
2. Are repetitive.
3. Are expensive to do manually.
4. Don’t require human touch.

In the context of a tax firm, common things that are worth automating include:

• Emails updating clients on the status of their return.
• Document intake.
• Running payroll for your own team and for your clients.
• Replying to common questions clients might ask.
• Low-level tax return preparation work.

Once you’ve identified that automation is the correct approach, the next four steps are straightforward:

1. Identify the tools you need to automate the job (or find someone who has done it before).
2. Build the automation.
3. Test the automation.
4. Monitor the efficiency and accuracy of the automation, then refine.

If you’re stuck and do not have IT specialists on staff, consider services such as Upwork that has automation specialists you can hire to perform custom work and guide you through any tech changes that have to be made. There are also Chrome extensions, ChatGPT apps, and Zapier integrations, as well as simple software apps to automate almost anything for a low cost. Just Google around before trying to build something from scratch.

When to delegate

When I say delegation, I mean giving a task to a teammate, assigning work to a virtual assistant, outsourcing, hiring contractors, or getting a friend to finish a task. The common throughline is that a human is still doing the work.

Delegation is best when:

1. The work is worth doing.
2. You aren’t the best person for the job or it’s not worth your time.
3. Automation isn’t possible or worthwhile.
4. The work can benefit from a human touch.

Keep in mind delegation is much more expensive in time and money than automation or elimination. If you can, evaluate those options first.

When delegating, clarity and context are key. If you give a smart person the right clarity and context around a job, you can empower them to make their own decisions and execute. Explain to your team how you make decisions. Hire the best talent you can. Over time, they’ll take over.

When to do things yourself

When nothing else is an option, you might actually have to do the work yourself. I know, what a crazy thought .…

In all seriousness, as the leader of a practice or department, the growth of your team is usually bottlenecked by what you can accomplish. It’s well known that successful firm owners don’t buy things with their money; they buy back time. In that regained time, they focus on higher-leverage activities and growing their firms. They stop working entirely in their businesses, and instead work on their businesses.

There is always work to be done that only you as the leader are qualified to do. For example, hiring a new accountant, deciding to take on investment from a private equity firm, or pushing a big technology-change initiative. This is high-leverage, important work that should not be automated, delegated, or eliminated. But in order to have the time and space of mind to focus on that game-changing work, you need to effectively clear your plate of things that are of lesser importance.

Finally, the process of evaluating your work to find areas to automate, delegate, or eliminate should never stop. You should be evaluating your practice before every tax season or every year-end. New technology and solutions come out that can help you automate more easily. As your practice grows and changes, new work will come up and your priorities of what needs to get done will change as well!

So remember: Eliminate what isn’t necessary. Automate if you can. Delegate if it’s still worth doing, but your time is better spent on more important work. Then do what is left—and do it well! Good luck.