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Lending & Credit Risk

Before and after tax season checklist: How to increase revenue and add value

Sageworks
November 12, 2015
Read Time: 0 min

Hectic schedules and an immense workload often prevent accountants from fulfilling their role as a trusted advisor during tax season. Time crunches mean that some strategic planning that accountants wish they could implement for their clients goes out the window during these months. Though strategic planning for clients must be put on hold during these times, there are things your firm can do to construct its business planning around tax season and open the door to firm growth. 

Scheduling out the strategic advances you’d like to make with clients months beforehand can remove the extra pressures of being a trusted advisor during tax season. Having the right conversations before tax season and gathering the necessary financial information from clients can set firms up for success once busy season subsides. These “right conversations” are ultimately built around asking the right questions. 

Richard Muscio, from My Perfect Client, recommends asking questions that will show your clients that you care and can help them reach their business and life goals:

1.  What are your family’s key values?

2.  May I see your forward-looking projections/budgets/financial statements?

3.  May I see your Fair Market Value/Cost Basis Balance Sheet?

4.  May I see the most recent valuation of your business?

5.  Who is your most trusted advisor, if any?

6.  If there is one thing you could have more of, what is that thing?

7.  What keeps you awake at night?

8.  How may I serve?

It might be that some of your clients don’t have the kinds of information that you are asking for; if that’s the case, then you have already discovered ways that you can help provide insight into their business. 

Striking purposefully before the tax work begins is just as important as execution on the back end. Set yourself up with the right information so that once tax season closes you can begin executing your client’s strategic plan for success. 

This complementary checklist will walk your firm through the ways it can approach tax season with intentionality and purpose: Before and After Tax Season: How to Increase Revenue and Add Value

About the Author

Sageworks

Raleigh, N.C.-based Sageworks, a leading provider of lending, credit risk, and portfolio risk software that enables banks and credit unions to efficiently grow and improve the borrower experience, was founded in 1998. Using its platform, Sageworks analyzed over 11.5 million loans, aggregated the corresponding loan data, and created the largest

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