Every year brings a new chance to make your tax preparation business more productive and competitive. One great way to do this is to equip your business with helpful tools and software that will make many tasks less tedious and time-consuming.
Improving efficiency demands streamlining your workflow and reducing disorganization. Ideally, you want to be able to accomplish many tasks from a single “command center.”
The first step in achieving such a setup involves identifying the tasks and tools required by your tax preparation business. Check out this list of the key tools you’ll want to have as a tax preparer. All of these tools are packaged into one handy software suite with ProClient!
1. Document Management Tool
Tax preparation requires you to manage a multitude of sensitive documents and capture key information accurately. You want to quickly refer to the correct document when seeking a crucial piece of data. The IRS demands accuracy in fulfilling income tax returns, and sending them one with errors can result in financial penalties.
Thus, the ability to cleanly organize and access documents becomes vital for you as a tax preparer. You would benefit from a tool that helps you store documents safely and securely, with backup functionality—just in case. The tool should allow you to categorize and sort files with ease. This is best accomplished by providing the ability to add your own tags to document listings.
When you need to look up a certain file, you should be able to pull it up quickly. You can find it by searching file names, tags, or dates added. And the documents should be linked to a particular client folder so that they don’t get mixed up with anyone else’s documents.
ProClient provides all of these features in an easy-to-use cloud-based application. Get ProClient for your business, and you won’t have issues securing, storing, finding, referencing, and updating multiple documents.
2. Client Portal
You can collect documents by asking clients to bring you their physical files and transferring the information to your system. But that’s slow, tedious, and prone to error. Many clients will just email documents to you, which is a huge security risk.
A better approach involves giving your client access to an online portal. They can use that to provide you with their personal information – including their name, address, contact info, and SSN. Of course, the portal should be secure to prevent the client info from being accessed by unauthorized people.
The clients will be able to send you documents using the client portal. Using their computer, they can upload their files to the cloud. You will be notified when the files are uploaded, and then you can manage them online.
This makes it easier to collect documents and store them securely. You can also avoid the errors that often arise while transcribing data from physical files.
ProClient lets you set up a secure portal that is easy for your clients to navigate. They’ll love the simple and intuitive process for sending or updating the documents you require from them. With ProClient, you can provide great customer satisfaction!
3. Calendar
While you can interact with clients online, especially via the client portal, you may still want to schedule meetings with them. Having face-to-face interaction is very helpful if you want to establish a good rapport with customers. Client appointments allow you to build a customer relationship that stands a chance of lasting a long time.
But scheduling can be a hassle. You are busy, your team members are busy, and your client is certainly busy. It can be tricky to schedule a meeting on a time and date that works for everyone. And then it can be difficult to reschedule if necessary.
That’s where a good calendar app can prove essential. A calendar tool can help you view the available times for your team and yourself. You won’t have to run after people to ask them when they are free to have a meeting because you can view that information on the app.
ProClient makes coordinating schedules simpler through its Calendar feature. Clients can schedule a meeting using the ProClient portal, and the scheduled meeting will instantly appear on your Calendar view.
Through the portal, the client will see what dates and times are available for scheduling a meeting with you (or another employee). No need for the hard work of matching schedules between client and preparer! All the client needs to do is select a meeting time based on published availability. It’s a great time-saver for all involved.
Plus, if you need to reschedule an appointment, you can quickly find a time and date that works for the team member involved. And when you change the schedule, your team member and your client will receive an automatic notification.
You also want a calendar tool that can sync with your other apps, such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. And you’ll want it to send you notifications of upcoming appointments ahead of time.
ProClient can do all of that!
4. CRM Tool
Customer relationship management has become a major concern in running any business. It is especially important for a service-oriented business like tax return preparation.
Since you are likely to have a fair number of clients, you may face the big task of keeping track of who’s who, where they work, and other pertinent details. Yet knowing this key information is vital in maintaining good customer relationships.
You want a CRM tool that stores personal information records on every client. This data should include their first name, last name, company, job title, contact info, date of birth, and information about their spouse and children. These are also bits of information you can call on when having a conversation with your client. They will appreciate your knowledge about their lives and view you as an attentive listener who has their interests at heart.
The CRM tool can also help you keep track of your transactions with a client. Misunderstandings can arise in customer relationships. It is vital to have a record of your dealings and communications to refer back to, possibly to clear up issues.
ProClient makes CRM more efficient and accurate. It’s a choice tool to help you establish a better bond with each one of your clients!
5. Team Management Tool
If you are managing a team, you want to supervise them without doing a lot of micro-management. A team management tool can help you keep track of your team’s activities without being too heavy-handed.
This tool needs to keep employee records organized and stored securely. You’ll want to be able to pull up a record anytime you like, without hassle. You’ll also be able to view key employee information such as assigned tasks, projects, and clients.
Ideally, the tool would be integrated with your other systems so that you can do things like add or remove permissions for each team member. For example, when a client uploads a document to the cloud, you’ll want the team member assigned to that client to access the document—while blocking access to team members who are in no way connected with that client.
And you should be able to use the tool for auditing employee activity if necessary. Check what time a team member logged in or out, and see which files they have accessed.
ProClient keeps Team Management a simple process—because overcomplexity can lead to errors and even security breaches. You will be able to set or change access and permissions for every team member’s account. This will help team members focus on what they need to do and ensure that client data is accessed only by the authorized personnel.
All 5 Tools in One Software Program
ProClient provides you these five essential business tools in one handy interface. Designed by tax preparers for tax preparers, ProClient helps you streamline tasks and organize files—decreasing your workload and saving you time and effort.
Get ProClient and say goodbye to a lot of tedious task management today!
- With ProClient Calendar, you can simplify the task of scheduling appointments.
- ProClient Portal makes it easy for you to collect digital documents from your clients.
- ProClient Docs lets you store such documents securely, organized using a personalized tag system.
- ProClient CRM places key client information at your fingertips.
- And the Team Management tool grants you a “command center” for managing employees’ access and security permissions.
Get ProClient and use it with UltimateTax professional tax preparation software! Together, they will provide all the robust functionality you need to run your tax preparation office. Still undecided? Try a free ProClient for free to see exactly how well it works!
