If there was one thing you could change about your practice, what would it be?

While no one has a 100 percent-effective crystal ball to predict the future, tax and accounting pros spend a great amount of time brainstorming and blue-skying how to improve their practices. I asked members of the Intuit® Tax Council this question: “If there was one thing you could change about your practice, what would it be?” Here are their responses.

Colin Horsford, MBA, CPA, Horsford Accounting & Advisory

I would automate more tasks, such as sending email requests and tax updates. Those tasks tend to be a grind when you have to do them and they aren’t revenue-generating activities. When I have to send out letters or email requests, I spend one to two hours crafting emails. I use an automated email service to send emails, but the construction of the emails is dead time.

Al-Nesha Jones, CPA, MBA, ASE Group

The biggest thing I’m looking to change in my practice is our work week; standard four-day work weeks are in our near future! That means that we have more work to do on our service offering mix—more accounting and advisory services, and less tax prep. We started this initiative in 2021 when we began requiring bookkeeping for tax prep that included business activity, but we still have more progress to make. As someone who’s only ever been an accountant, from auditing to financial reporting to now a small business accounting + tax firm, my entire career has been deadline driven. I’m looking to create a more balanced year-round schedule for my team and myself.

John D. Jordan, CPA PA

We are always trying to improve client communication to see if there are more effective and efficient methods of providing information and getting client data. We evaluate software options each summer to see what new tools are available. We also review our workflows to see what worked and needs to be improved for next year.

Timothy Wingate Jr., EA, G+F Business & Financial Consulting LLC

I would change the way we provide training to new employees. This is always something we are trying to improve in our firm. Right now, it’s a combination of watching training videos and on-the-job learning. This combination is good to have, but it needs to be built out a little better. We need a way to measure or test comprehension of the material.

What would you change about your practice? Leave a comment below to share your ideas.