{"id":58917,"date":"2025-02-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com\/?p=58917"},"modified":"2025-02-20T07:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T13:19:30","slug":"ways-to-deal-with-unprepared-or-late-tax-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accountants.intuit.com\/taxprocenter\/client-relationships\/ways-to-deal-with-unprepared-or-late-tax-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"4 ways to deal with unprepared or late tax clients"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the hardest things for anyone doing tax work is figuring out how to serve clients who aren\u2019t prepared. You know the ones I\u2019m talking about: those without books, those who don\u2019t have their documents ready, or those who don\u2019t follow your processes and don\u2019t work with you to get your return filed on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m breaking down some ways that can help you, as the tax preparer, deal with tricky or unprepared clients. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about what steps you can take to make tax time a little shorter and less stressful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Perform a client audit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alyssa Dillon on the Diaries of a Tax Practice Owner<\/a> podcast initially turned me on to this idea. Turns out, most of the high performing practice owners I know also do this at least once a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you keep growing your client base without focusing it over time, you\u2019ll end up burning out. There will always be clients in your growing client list who aren\u2019t prepared and cause headaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic idea of the client audit is to look at your entire list of clients and judge whether it\u2019s worth dropping a few of them. To do that, you need to evaluate a few things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n