Want a 40-Hour Tax Firm? Your Wish Is My Command

Art Kuesel President, Kuesel Consulting
Moving Your Firm Forward

If you had one wish related to your public accounting career, what would it be? I bet for many of you that one wish would be eliminating the busy season.

Imagine, with just the wave of a magic wand, you’re no longer subject to the steep peaks and valleys in hours that have traditionally accompanied our profession. Instead, you’re able to successfully complete your work before looming compliance deadlines, all within the mythical 40-hour workweek. For illustrative purposes, we’ll call this fairytale wish the “40-hour firm.”

It probably sounds too good to be true, right? Well, what if I told you it doesn’t have to be? In fact, it’s probably not as hard to create as you may think.

To make your 40-hour firm wish come true, consider these five strategies.

1. BE JUDICIOUS IN ACCEPTING ONLY A REASONABLE VOLUME OF CLIENTS

The “bigger is better” mindset tells us that every opportunity for growth should be taken in order to earn greater rewards. While that may be true in some cases, in our talent-constrained market, that’s not realistic. Unfortunately, in many cases, growth often results in more work for existing team members.

Therefore, if you’re building a 40-hour firm, you’d eventually have to reach a limit on how many clients you could reasonably serve. That means, from time to time, you’d simply be “sold out” and would need to establish a waiting list.

While this way of doing business may seem like a negative (i.e., less business), there’s an upside—the ability to attract more talent to your firm. After all, who doesn’t want to work at a 40-hour firm? Remember, as your talent pool grows, you’ll likely be able to reduce that waiting list and bring in more clients over time.

2. SET THE BAR HIGH ON CLIENT QUALITY

When you keep a limited client roster, you should theoretically only have “good” clients. To me, good clients are those who can pay what I ask for, participate in the collaborative effort of getting the job done, and respect my team and time. Therefore, you need to set your client criteria carefully and enforce it.

Importantly, what may initially seem like a good client relationship may not ultimately be what you experience as you work with them. Also, as your firm evolves, so does your definition of what a good client is. So, be open-minded and assess your client base annually.

Further, you should assess what you’re charging your clients. Consider the basic laws of supply and demand: When demand exceeds supply, the price increases. That said, if you find yourself with excess demand with limited or fixed supply (i.e., hours), this means your prices should also increase.

3. HOLD CLIENTS TO THEIR SCHEDULES

Why does your doctor ask you to make an appointment? One reason is that the doctor has some general expectation of how many patients will be coming in on a particular day. It also creates a better patient experience by ensuring the doctor can see them at their scheduled time.

This should also be replicated, to some extent, with the 40-hour firm. Consider this scheduling approach for guidance:

• Break the year up into 52 one-week increments and schedule your clients by week. Only accept as many appointments as staff hours are available to serve them.
• When one week fills up, schedule clients to the next available week. Remember, high-demand weeks will fill up first, so you might have to push some clients to less desirable weeks (consider adjusting your prices for high-demand weeks, as you may be able to extract a premium).
• If someone misses their appointment, move them to the next available one. If there are no more appointments available, move them to the back of the line.

4. LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT

Technology tools are more than plentiful in our profession today. While it can seem overwhelming at times, the 40-hour firm needs to be a technology-forward practice. So, set a goal of evaluating and testing several new technologies per year. You should evaluate these tools for their cost benefit, ability to create efficiencies, and positive effect on staff and client experiences, among others.

Importantly, there can be no sacred cows at a 40-hour firm. As technology evolves, you must also consider replacing your current tools and changing processes to adapt.

5. CONSIDER OUTSOURCING AND OFFSHORING

A 40-hour firm needs to consider outsourcing and offshoring. It’s not about embracing these strategies as a cost-savings measure, but rather a means to expand capacity without increasing hours. All practices at the firm should be encouraged (if not required) to leverage these services to benefit the staff and client experience.

Bottom line, if you want to eliminate the cycle of hectic and stressful busy seasons and build the 40-hour firm of your dreams, you can probably make it happen easier than you think—no magic wands or genies necessary.

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