Accounting professionals face significant pressure during peak times like tax season and end-of-year closures. Effective management strategies are vital for maintaining accuracy and achieving work-life balance. Here’s how you can handle these demanding periods with efficiency during the busy season using time management, productivity tool, and accounting workflow software:
1. Understand the Scope of Challenges
- Fact Check: CPAs often work 50-70 hours weekly during tax season (AICPA). This is an accepted norm of the industry, and when coupled with unrealized opportunities for time savings through process improvement one can imagine a path to managing this back into a more acceptable time commitment.
- Biggest Hurdle: Time management, with 75% of CPAs citing it as a major challenge (Journal of Accountancy). There is a strong tendency to behave reactively or “run to the fire” instead of proactively seeking to improve processes with an eye towards process optimization. This requires a willingness to evolve, and CPAs are notoriously risk-averse.
2. Prioritize Tasks Effectively
- Use the Eisenhower Matrix: Differentiate between tasks that are urgent and important to focus your efforts.
- Leverage Technology: Employ tools like Jira, Karbon, or Dash360 for task prioritization and management. Some offer full-blown practice management and some are more focused on task management and workflow optimization. Take time to understand the needs of your team and the appetite for change. Many teams can benefit from a simple improvement in task management.
3. Set Realistic Deadlines
- Learn from the Past: Use historical data to inform current deadline settings. Utilize the wealth of past data in order to forecast realistic outcomes for existing processes.
- Communicate Clearly: Ensure clients and team members are aware of and agree with the deadlines. Generating buy-in can uplift morale and commitment to hit those goals.
4. Capitalize on Team Collaboration
- Delegate Wisely: Assign tasks based on individual strengths and expertise. Ensure an even balance of work across contributors or team members and measure capacity. Use team analytics and track workloads and time to complete tasks using a workflow management solution and provide visibility into bottlenecks and workload.
- Regular Check-ins: Hold team meetings to track progress and address any issues promptly and bake process checkpoints into 1:1s and team meetings. At the end of a major milestone have a team retro and evaluate what worked and what didn’t work. A basic “keep, start, stop” framework should be enough for this.
5. Embrace Accounting Workflow Software
- The Right Tool: Spend time outside of the busy season to evaluate team needs and build a scoring heuristic for various solutions and features. Dash360 streamlines processes, automates tasks, and facilitates collaboration.
- Benefits: Implementation of an effective process management solution should quickly yield an increased efficiency, reduced stress, and improved team loyalty.
6. Maintain Accuracy
- Automated Checks: Use software for error-checking to maintain high standards of accuracy. Create controls for critical tasks and automate where possible using automation software or RPA software.
- Stay Compliant: Ensure that all work meets the regulatory and compliance standards.
7. Improve Time Management
- Save Time: Technology can save up to 20% of your time during peak periods (Accounting Today). The issue here is that few accountants and accounting teams are leveraging technology effectively to actualize those savings.
- Focus on Strategy: With more time, focus on analytical and high-level tasks. One must take the time to invest in looking at existing processes and determine if those are correct, or more importantly, develop a process improvement cycle where test and learn cycles are employed to make small, incremental improvements with little risk.
8. Build Stronger Teams
- Positive Environment: Clear task delegation and efficient management foster team cohesion.
- Empowerment: Teams feel more in control and valued, leading to better outcomes.
Hopefully this brief guide helps accounting professionals to manage their workload effectively during peak seasons, leveraging technology and strategic planning!