White paper
The tax pro's 3-step guide: Finding and fixing gaps in your software
Does my firm have the right tax solutions in place for a successful tax season? This is the question many tax professionals should ask themselves, especially as returns start piling up. That’s right. Although it may seem counterintuitive, tax time is the ideal time to identify inefficiencies and gaps that may exist in your current tax software and workflow processes. It’s your chance to make next busy season feel a lot less busy — while being a lot more productive.
In today's tax environment, advancements in technology, ever-changing tax laws, and shifts in client demands are the new norm. Firms that continue to operate on outdated software or software that lacks the functionality needed to effectively serve clients will find it challenging to sustain growth and their competitive edge. Don't let your firm get left behind.
While busy season may not be the ideal time to implement new software, it presents an exceptional opportunity to flag inefficiencies and gaps in workflow and collaboration among both staff and clients.
To help firms improve operational efficiency, this white paper explores:
- Common tax workflow challenges that can be alleviated through technology
- Features that firm leaders should look for in new tax software
- Implementation best practices when switching to new tax software
1. Understanding and addressing common tax workflow challenges
It's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of busy season. However, it’s beneficial to pause to take stock of issues hampering your tax practice while they're fresh in your mind.
The reality is that firms commonly cite these tax workflow challenges:
- Manual labor drain. Staff stuck in repetitive data entry and cleanup instead of serving clients.
- System silos. Disconnected software — no integration — forcing inefficient workarounds and duplicate efforts.
- Research rabbit holes. Professionals losing billable hours due to chasing tax law updates and interpretations.
- Update disruptions. Software maintenance interrupting busy season workflows when you can least afford downtime.
- Document delays. Client procrastination creating bottlenecks that cascade through your entire operation.
- Communication chaos. Endless back-and-forth requests eating into productive work time.
Now throw into the equation the impacts of an increasingly cloud-based, remote-enabled profession. In addition to keeping pace with tax industry changes and meeting moving deadlines, tax professionals often find themselves giving more support to their clients — and doing it all virtually.
The good news is that having the right technologies in place can resolve many of the grievances tax firms face and help them effectively serve clients — whether in the office or remote. The key is finding solutions that work together seamlessly, eliminating the bottlenecks that slow down your entire operation.
2. Alleviating pain points and evaluating solutions
When looking to alleviate pain points and research new tax software, it’s important to consider a holistic approach and — rather than trying to solve for a single, specific pain point — focus on establishing a technology ecosystem. This focus helps ensure that everything is integrated, and that every step of the workflow and every application complement each other. Think of it as creating a streamlined assembly line where each piece connects perfectly to the next.
It has become essential to consider a cloud-native platform — designed and built in a cloud infrastructure — that provides a comprehensive solution to fulfill your firm's tax compliance and management needs. Having a single source of truth across all integrated applications will help your firm improve efficiencies, increase profitability, and better collaborate with clients from anywhere at any time. This integrated approach eliminates the time-consuming task of switching between systems and reduces the risk of errors that occur when data doesn't flow seamlessly.
Essential vs. advanced: Tax software feature checklist
| Essential | Advanced |
Knowing your non-negotiables
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Determining your nice-to-haves
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3. Making the switch and choosing champions
The thought of implementing new software can seem daunting and intimidating. Why is change so hard? It doesn't have to be with the right mindset and approach in place.
As outlined by Greene, some helpful tips to keep in mind include:
- Determine why a change needs to happen and define your ideal situation
At a high level, instead of thinking about how to maintain your existing firm, think about what kind of firm you would build if you didn't already have one. How would you design a firm from scratch to best serve your clients? From there, think backwards to determine how you can get from where you are now to where you want your firm to be. Start with the end goal in mind; then work backward to create your roadmap. - Share your vision with everyone in the firm
Ensure staff that implementing new technology isn't meant to replace people but rather will help free up their time, improve efficiencies, and enable them to shift from mundane tasks to providing greater value to clients. Reinforce that change doesn't have to be scary and encourage staff to ask questions to help ensure they feel like they are part of the process. Moving forward, maintain a positive focus on change for both staff and clients. Remember, your team’s buy-in is critical to your success. - Introduce champions within the firm
Implementing new software is a major shift that should be broken down into bite-size pieces. Each process, such as a project or workstream, should have a champion who will spearhead that effort. For example, one staffer could oversee learning best practices related to state and local taxation in the new software and another could be charged with learning research integration. Each champion would then share their learnings and expertise with the rest of the firm. This approach helps ensure accountability and improves organization and coordination within the firm. - Set a timeline
To help set your firm up for success, be sure to establish timelines, targets, and milestones along the way. This tracking helps ensure the initiative stays on target and also demonstrates the progress made. To help stay on track and maintain momentum, consider regular updates like a quick 15-minute check-in at the start of each day to discuss what is working and what impediments may need to be addressed. Think of these as your daily huddles to keep everyone aligned and motivated. - Celebrate achievements
As your firm achieves goals and milestones, celebrate them as a group. Recognize the staff closely associated with those efforts and highlight how they contributed to the overall success. These celebrations don’t have to be elaborate; even small acknowledgments can boost morale and momentum. - Look ahead
Make sure everyone is aware of what will happen within the firm post-shift. How will it impact roles? What types of skills do you expect them to develop? How do you expect them to contribute value in the future state of the firm? Paint a clear picture of what success looks like for each team member. - Determine the impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of your firm
This means evaluating your staffing needs given the impact of the new technology. Do you need to reallocate resources? Be sure staff have a clear understanding of the impact and why such a change is taking place. Also, be transparent about how automation will impact workflows and what that means for everyone’s daily responsibilities. - Monitor post-implementation performance
The work does not end with implementation. Once your firm is up and running with the new software, it’s important to do post-implementation work to identify areas that need to be adjusted and improved to ensure long-term success. This means doing bi-weekly check-ins with staff to identify any necessary process improvements or changes. It’s also important to measure and track efficiency savings along with impacts to the top and bottom lines. In this stage, you’re essentially fine-tuning your new system to get maximum performance. - Identify capability gaps
Identify the gaps within your firm from a personnel and skill set standpoint. Perhaps there's a need to further expand a specific team, which could mean, for example, increasing headcount in that area and investing in more soft skills, international skills, or the re-skilling of some staff. Your new automated workflows might reveal opportunities to upskill your team in higher-value areas.
Turning your technology gaps into your competitive edge
You’re already on the right path. Now put your knowledge to work and mind the gap this busy season. Set your firm up for greater success and profitability by identifying inefficiencies and gaps that may exist in your current software and workflow processes. The firms that thrive in tomorrow's tax landscape will be those that embrace integrated automation today.
Firms that continue to operate on outdated software or software that lacks the functionality needed to effectively serve clients will find it challenging to sustain growth and their competitive edge. Take steps now to ensure your firm doesn't get left behind. The time for incremental improvements has passed. What you need now is transformational change that eliminates bottlenecks and reclaims hundreds of hours of productivity.
It’s not easy. Change can be intimidating. But the good news is that you're not alone. Trusted solution providers like Thomson Reuters can help set your tax practice on the path to greater profitability, a sharper competitive edge, and stronger client loyalty. With the right integrated platform, you can transform every step of your workflow — from document gathering through final delivery — with seamless, end-to-end automation.
Let tax automation mind the gaps in your software
Turn hours into minutes with a powerful tax automation suite that eliminates preparation, accelerates review, and delights clients.