Case study
CLH reports 30 to 40% faster 1040 return completion with Ready to Review
Using Thomson Reuters, the team reduced manual 1040 preparation work and moved returns into review faster
Introduction
Founded in 1992, CLH, CPAs & Consultants is a full-service accounting and advisory firm headquartered in Michigan City, Indiana. The firm provides tax preparation and planning, audit and assurance, business consulting, valuation, estate planning, and financial reporting services. To reduce manual 1040 preparation work and accelerate return completion, CLH adopted Thomson Reuters Ready to Review. By the end of March, the firm reported 30 to 40% less time to complete returns compared with the prior year.
30-40%
Less time to complete returns
1 hour
Time saved per return
The challenge
Like many tax and accounting firms, CLH faced mounting pressure to complete more work during busy season while managing staffing constraints, long hours, and the need to preserve time for review, professional judgment, and client service. The firm also wanted less experienced team members and administrative staff to support appropriate return workflows more effectively. However, as Bob Lange, Partner at CLH, says, “New professional staff are not really interested in working 70 or 80 hours a week in tax season.”
With tax season placing even more pressure on time, staffing, and review capacity, CLH needed a way to reduce repetitive 1040 preparation work without adding more hours for its team. CLH also sees the opportunity to improve his teams’ tax workflows for more complex source documents using modern connected tax systems, including K-1 and consolidated 1099 processing, client document movement, and smoother movement between other solutions in their tech stack" to say "CLH also sees the opportunity this season to further improve his team’s tax workflows through more connected tax systems, enabling smoother client document movement and more seamless workflows across the solutions in the firm’s existing tech stack.
“By the time we got to the end of March, we actually were seeing about 30 to 40% less time to complete the return than what we had spent the prior year.”
Bob Lange
Partner, CLH
The solution
CLH adopted award winning Thomson Reuters Ready to Review to help 1040 return work move into review faster. By reducing repetitive gathering and preparation steps, the firm can create more capacity with existing staff and give experienced professionals more time to focus on review, professional judgment, client service, and higher-value work. According to Lange, “If you have these tools, that can allow them to produce as much work but only have to spend 40 or 50 hours a week, you're going to have more job satisfaction.”
Ready to Review also helps CLH route simpler returns more efficiently, giving the firm a practical way to support growth for less experienced staff and place them on the right workflows while keeping reviewers focused on higher-value analysis and client needs in the field.
“One of the challenges we face, and this is where I see Ready to Review really adding value as it continues to expand, is allowing firms to utilize interns or admin staff to handle those easy, simple returns that come in the door first, especially when you have a lot of your staff accountants out in the field. I would say that having a Thomson Reuters Ready to Review team behind us makes a major difference. What I'm finding is when we get to the right people, the right experts within the organization, things go very, very well.” — Bob Lange, Partner, CLH
As Ready to Review continues to evolve inside Thomson Reuters CoCounsel with more advanced AI capabilities and is building toward a more connected, future-ready tax workflow ecosystem where automation, firm expertise, and professional judgment work together to improve capacity. to say "Ready to Review continues to rapidly evolve within the next generation of CoCounsel Tax, Audit & Accounting platform. Advanced agentic capabilities grounded in Thomson Reuters Fiduciary-Grade AI™ framework support an ecosystem where as a result of automation, firm expertise, and professional judgment working together, a professional's time immediately flows to client interactions instead of filing errors."
The outcomes
That time savings helped the firm move 1040 work toward review, increase capacity during the busy season, and preserve time for higher-value client service and stronger employee satisfaction. For CLH, the value was practical and immediate — less manual gathering and preparation work, faster movement of returns into review, and more time for professionals to focus on judgment, client needs, and higher-value work. Together, these improvements give CLH a stronger foundation for scalable 1040 delivery by reducing repetitive steps, using staff capacity more efficiently, and positioning the firm to adopt AI-enabled tax workflow innovations as they continue to be added to Ready to Review.
“This could really be a game changer… this is probably the most impressed I've been with Thomson Reuters out of any of the products that rolled out.”
Bob Lange
Partner, CLH
For firms looking to reduce repetitive manual preparation work and help 1040 returns move into review faster, Ready to Review offers a practical path to greater capacity during busy season.
At a glance
Industry
Tax and accounting services
HQ region
Michigan City, Indiana
Solutions
Thomson Reuters Ready to Review
Year founded
1992
Help 1040 returns start at review with Ready to Review
See how Thomson Reuters Ready to Review helps firms eliminate manual 1040 preparation steps, increase capacity, and give professionals more time for review and client service.
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