This blog was provided by SafeSend, a premier sponsor of the PICPA.

By Shannon Jencks

The key ingredient to achieving a healthy accounting work-life balance is time. When so many hours are consumed by tedious, manual tasks, there is a shortage of time, disrupting the harmony between work and personal life. Just look at a tax engagement: sending engagement letters, gathering information and source documents, and, once the tax return has been prepared, assembling, delivering, and collecting signed e-file forms all take time. Hours disappear quickly as you repeat these procedures over and over.

Sending engagement letters, collecting client organizers and source documents, and assembling and delivering completed tax returns are all labor-intensive client touchpoints, but automating these processes and cutting down on manual procedures gives time back to staff. One option for automating client touchpoints within a tax engagement is the SafeSend Suite, a collection of automation solutions that helps firms address client needs all year long.

Digital, Fillable Client Organizers

The process of collecting paper versions of the necessary information and source documents for preparing tax returns is tedious and time-consuming. Printing the client organizers from the tax compliance software, mailing them out, and waiting for clients to complete and return them via the postal service is not efficient. We won’t even touch on physically going through a shoebox of receipts and papers in-person with the client.

Firms tried to go paperless by emailing large organizer PDFs, but the only way for the client to complete it was to print it, fill out the information, then scan and return it via email or physically mail it back to the firm. Unfortunately, that only shifted the burden to clients, who may not have printers or scanners readily available.

SafeSend Organizers converts a firm’s static organizer PDF to a fillable form, cutting out the steps of printing and manually filling in the information to be rescanned.

Automated Assembly and Delivery

Another paper-heavy process is the last mile of the tax engagement: printing the entire tax package, collating and assembling, adding “sign here” stickers, and mailing it out to clients. When portals for PDF transmission were introduced, some of the hands-on paper processes were eliminated, but portals added a new time-consuming task: fielding client calls to reset forgotten passwords – a frequent occurrence since clients often only log in once a year.

More than a typical portal or e-signature solution, SafeSend Returns streamlines the assembly and delivery process. Automation collates and organizes the digital tax returns, similar to what would be done in the paper world. An interface walks clients, step-by-step, through the review and e-signing process. Tracking and reporting features let you know exactly where all your clients are in the review process. Knowledge-based authentication (KBA) is used to grant access so clients never have to remember a username or password to access their complete return.

With automation, a process that could take 30 minutes or longer per return is reduced to 5 minutes or less, saving staff countless hours. This kind of time savings is a giant step toward achieving a better work-life balance.

Let Automated Reminders Chase Down E-Signatures

Once documents have been delivered, waiting for the client to complete and return them can be excruciating. Whether it’s an organizer or a completed tax package ready for signature, any firm admin can attest that waiting for these documents involves a lot more than simply waiting. Tracking which client has returned documents, which documents are still outstanding, sending email reminders, and making calls to get the signed documents returned can monopolize several hours in a day.

A batch reminder option within SafeSend Organizers and automated reminders within SafeSend Returns staff spends less time hounding slow-responding clients. SafeSend Returns and SafeSend Organizers both include document tracking and reporting that helps free up the last mile of the tax engagement.

Work-Life Balance

Automation makes tasks like manually tracking down unsigned 8879s obsolete, and when the time historically spent on these activities is freed up you and your staff get hours back in your day. The result is a better work-life balance. New or greater professional projects and personal pursuits can be achieved when more time is available.

What would more time mean to you and your admin staff? Could more tax clients be engaged or more advisory services be offered? Is it time to take a vacation rather than just dreaming of one? Imagine time to attend family events again!

The SafeSend Suite of tax automation solutions provides a smooth and consistent workflow throughout your firm. The tax automation solutions speed up and streamline the tasks that have historically monopolized your firm’s hours. Staff are happier when they aren’t frazzled, employee morale improves, and retention rates increase.

Learn more from SafeSend by downloading the free white paper, The 3 A’s of Paperless Organizers: Automate, Accommodate, Acclimate.

Shannon Jencks leads the sales effort at SafeSend, serving as educator, coach, and cheerleader. She empowers clients with the knowledge and tools needed to automate the client touchpoints around the tax engagement process and reduce their work.

SafeSend’s mission is to automate the tax and accounting profession with innovative, emerging technologies that help practitioners work more efficiently and serve their clients better. SafeSend offers several foundational technology solutions for the tax and accounting profession. Its flagship offering, SafeSend Returns is a multiyear winner of the CPA Practice Advisor Technology Innovation Award.

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