Intuit® eSignature offers Oakton Tax & Accounting true time and cost savings during tax season—and beyond

Josh Paiva is the owner of Oakton Tax & Accounting, LLC, in Fairfax, Va., a firm providing comprehensive tax, accounting, payroll, and human resource services. He began using Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax because he found it to be, “super easy to use, since it was built right into the QuickBooks® accounting platform.” 

However, once he began using the software and discovered Intuit eSignature, Josh was even more impressed with what ProConnect Tax could do for his firm, especially when getting clients to sign tax returns, forms, and other documents. 

“The ability to use electronic tax signing software to get everything signed and tracked—all remotely and all in one place with eSignature—is really efficient,” said Josh. “It usually takes clients some time to get things back to us, but when we send them their documents digitally using eSignature, the response is amazingly fast.”

The bottom line benefit of eSignature? Saving 8 to 10 minutes of prep time on every return

The speed and seamless integration of eSignature in ProConnect Tax is something that translates into real time and cost savings for Josh and his team.

”Even if postage were free, it takes a long time to print and mail something out for signature, get it back, and file. It eats up a lot of billable time. Because eSignature is built into ProConnect Tax, you can just click a button to request a client signature, and then e-file.”

Josh estimates that by using e-Signature, he saves at least 8 to 10 minutes on every tax return.

“With eSignature, it only takes a minute per return to execute the signature. If you factor in 100 returns a year, we are looking at trimming 11 to 13 hours. We’re doing more returns than that, but when you calculate the billable rate on those hours, it’s certainly a significant cost savings, especially when it comes to eliminating the traffic back and forth, and snail mail costs of preparation time, postage, and printing.”

eSignature continually evolves to meet the needs of progressive practitioners and their clients

Another timesaver that Josh is eagerly anticipating is the coming integration of e-filing capabilities in ProConnect Tax, but the compliance and security benefits of eSignature also bring huge benefits. For example, if clients aren’t manually signing their returns and forms, they are obligated to get IRS compliant identity authorization. Signing electronically with eSignature includes compliant identity authorization—and Intuit is one of only a handful of vendors that offer this capability.

Josh’s diverse range of clients, many of whom are in an older demographic, is not a concern when it comes to electronic signature. He does not see age as a barrier when it comes to offering eSignature to his clients.

“We have plenty of older clients, but they never have a problem with eSignature. People are accustomed to doing things online now, and I don’t think I’ve had a single client who has had issues. Plus, they look to us to provide the right solutions as their trusted advisors.”

At a glance:

• Firm: Oakton Tax & Accounting, LLC
• Location: Fairfax, VA
• Number of clients: 120
• Number of returns: 142
• Niche focus: Small businesses 
• Intuit Software: Intuit® eSignature, Intuit Link, and Intuit ProConnect™ Tax

With eSignature, Josh has realized some outstanding results, including: 

• A decrease in tax preparation by 8 to 10 minutes for each return.
• A savings of 11 to 13 billable hours each tax season.
• $1,500 less in preparation time, printing, and postage costs related to transitioning clients from paper returns.

Learn more about eSignature, contact us today for a demo or call 833-269-0977.