Tax Practice Management

When it comes to running and managing a successful tax practice or tax department, you need the right tools and resources. This page offers guidance, practice aids, tools, and educational resources specifically designed to help CPA tax practitioners better understand and confidently manage day-to-day functions such as:

• Operating procedures,
• Maintaining strong quality control procedures,
• Developing client communication strategies,
• Managing technology (e.g., client portals and digital signatures),
• Hiring and retaining the right staff, and
• Using the best billing practices.

Featured Resources

Checklists, Practice Guides, and Templates

• Client Termination Letter and Checklist: The client termination checklist is to be used to help guide practitioners through the process of removing clients from their database, archived files, and client communications. This checklist should be used in conjunction with the sample client termination letter.
• Staying in Touch - A Year of Client Communications: Client communications resource for tax practitioners to reference or use to highlight and promote their firm during the year.
• Client Communication Tracker: Template worksheet that firms can use to capture communication touch points from all staff for each client. 
• Service Proposal Worksheet: Sample template to assist in determining how to price a variety of services in advance and in setting up payment terms.
• Tax Return Routing Sheet: Fillable PDF template that practitioners can use to document the workflow of a tax return. The template will help accumulate client and project information, due dates, electronic filing documentation, and assembly instructions on one form.

Videos, Webcast Archives, and Other Media

• Key Elements to Going Solo – Tips on How to Start Your Own Practice: Learn how to hang up that shingle
• Summer Staffing Strategies: Learn ways to keep your summer months productive and your staff engaged in this webcast archive.
• 2016 Spring Council - 10-The Shifting Landscape of Tax: AICPA's VP of Taxation Edward Karl, CPA, CGMA, and Troy Lewis, CPA, CGMA, Chair of AICPA's Tax Executive Committee, address preparer regulation, identity theft, IRS service, tax reform and other key compliance and practice management topics.
• Virtual Client Meetings: Webcast archive that provides a discussion on how to add virtual client meetings to your practice. In this webcast, you will learn: essential technology tools for conducting successful virtual client meetings, tips on how to stay engaged and connected to clients remotely, and proper virtual meeting etiquette.

Other Resources

• Thriving in Tax Season: Action Steps for Success, Tax Section News, Jan. 27, 2017 
• 10 Practical Tips to Secure Your Firm's Network, Tax Section News, Dec. 16, 2016 
• Managing Extensions: This resource page provides an overview of an extensions process and provides tools to help your firm implement an extensions process. Make sure to check out the summer reminder letter template that you can brand and customize. 
• Jumping Ship - Is it Time for a Career Change?, Tax Section News, Sept. 23, 2016 
• Compare your 1040 tax returns status reports with this dashboard that provides year over year comparison of key data points (# of individual 1040 tax returns completed, in process, and not started) as reported by users of XCM’s workflow solution. View the most recent dashboards from July and August. 
• Preparing for Fall Busy Season, Tax Section News, July 22, 2016 
• Making Workflows Work, Journal of Accountancy, July 2016
• Attract Millennial Talent with Social Responsibility, CPA Insider, July 2016
• Starting a Tax Practice: Are You Ready to Hang a Shingle?, The Tax Adviser, June 2016
• Tax Season Business Development, The Tax Adviser, Mar. 2016  

Learning

• Managing Your Tax Season: Reduce stress and make the most of your staff's time and skills with this hands-on guide to improving your tax season. Filled with checklists, sample letters, and worksheets to help keep your clients happy while effectively managing workflow during the busiest time of your year. Tax Section members save 20%.
• The Engaged Employee: Recruiting and retaining top-notch employees in today's environment can be challenging. In this guide, learn 10 key initiatives that your firm can employ to foster engagement and increase employee retention.