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<\/figure>\nTax season\u2014that special time of year when caffeine consumption triples, restful sleep becomes a scavenger hunt, and your spouse and friends begin to question your sanity. If you\u2019re deep in the trenches of tax filings, bookkeeping clean-ups, and client questions that could\u2019ve-been-Google-searches, you know the struggle is real. But after 23 years, I feel like I\u2019m finally finding my groove\u2026 and because I don\u2019t want it to take you<\/em> as long to figure out as it did me, I\u2019m sharing tips and tricks that have been successful, and maybe this vision for the future will make today\u2019s load a little lighter.<\/p>\n Tap Technology to Do More with Less<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ll start with the lifesaver of modern accounting: technology. Yes, I recognize that it\u2019s also the bane of our existence when \u201cMercury\u2019s retrograde<\/a>\u201d (or whatever we want to blame for it), but as my software-developer-husband likes to remind me, that\u2019s because I\u2019ve built my life around my tech stack\u2014and vice versa, have built it around my life. It\u2019s what facilitates the lifestyle I\u2019ve chosen for myself: a fully-remote CPA firm that allows me to live in Mexico during tax season<\/a> and travel during conference season, while making an important difference in the lives of small business owners back home in Chicago.<\/p>\n For me, that means making sure my tech is portable, accessible by my whole team, easy for my clients to use, secure, and reliable.<\/p>\n QuickBooks Online<\/a> has been my trusty sidekick on this journey for years. And I was such<\/em> a hater when it was first released! I still laugh when I think about how negative I was about it; because at the time, it was a real frustration that it didn\u2019t behave like or do what the Desktop version could. Thankfully those days are far behind us now. For the type of work we do, QBO has far surpassed its older cousin \u2013 it helps automate the tedious, repetitive tasks that used to eat up my team\u2019s capacity (especially when combined with RightTool<\/a>, my favorite QBO-loving Chrome extension). We lean hard into creating bank rules, automating recurring transactions and payments, and using third-party syncs with Point of Sale and Project Management systems. And because there\u2019s functionality for ProAdvisors that allows us to easily review and recategorize (check out my MSN article<\/a> on our favorites), it means I can feel confident about the quality of the end result\u2026 before<\/em> it goes onto my clients\u2019 tax returns.<\/p>\n A few QBO<\/a> life-savers I wish I\u2019d had in the Desktop Days: the audit log makes short work of the tedious task of figuring out why last year\u2019s retained earnings might have changed (and who was responsible); the reconciliation review allows a junior accountant to make sure all accounts are reconciled before we start our review; and the \u201ctransactions without payees\u201d report helps us make sure we don\u2019t miss any 1099 vendors. As a firm runner, I also love that I can assign different team members to individual clients, and that I can control their level of access \u2013 this came in very handy recently when I had to have a contractor jump in mid-season due to multiple team members having personal setbacks. As I recently noted on LinkedIn<\/a>, managing team capacity is hard enough without having technology get in the way.<\/p>\n I also rely on apps that help me make the most of our time outside of tax season. In my webinars on 1099 best practices<\/a>, I illustrate that an hour during tax season is about 4 or 5 times as precious as one during the rest of the year. So the more I can do in the off-season, the less my team and I have to cram into the space right before deadlines. A great example is Keeper<\/a> \u2013 we use them to create a year-round 1099 workflow, where we review for vendors and request W-9s as part of the month-end close. It also helps with practice management and client communication, as we\u2019ve standardized our annual process and language for collecting information from clients, and I have transparency into where my team is getting stuck in closing out the books and handing them off to the tax team.<\/p>\n And lastly, I couldn\u2019t do tax season without Ace Cloud Hosting<\/a>. Talk about a sanity-saver. They simplify the setup and maintenance of cloud-hosted tax software while still giving us enough administrative control to implement changes when we need them. We used to live in fear of our server going down just before a deadline; in the case of a significant software problem, now we have a whole team to assist in rolling back and restoring any data. I can honestly say that I sleep better at night than I did before working with them.<\/p>\n These tools don\u2019t just save time\u2014they support my mental health. Automating the little things and not worrying about the big ones means I can focus on higher-value work (or take a five-minute dance break between Zoom meetings\u2026 see my next point).<\/p>\n Remember That Work-Life Balance Is a Thing (Really!)<\/strong><\/p>\n Busy season has a way of making you forget that life exists outside of work\u2014but here\u2019s a secret: it\u2019s okay to take a break. Seriously. In fact, it\u2019s not only okay<\/em>, it\u2019s essential. And my clients will survive if I step away for a meal that doesn\u2019t involve eating over the keyboard. My brain functions better when it\u2019s not running on fumes, and my work is actually better<\/em> and more efficient when I prioritize rest.<\/p>\n My husband and I have a tradition: every night we have what we call \u201csunset wine\u201d. We climb a ladder to the roof and watch the sunset over an adult beverage. The birds are busy going back to their roosts, the sky changes colors, and my old friends the winter constellations start to draw their pictures up above. I picked this tradition during the pandemic, when I realized that I could not be relied upon to take a break. There was always<\/em> another email that needed to be sent, another article to write, another emergency to address. But the sun doesn\u2019t wait for \u201cjust one last thing\u201d\u2026 it\u2019s gonna set when it sets, and I have a date to keep. By creating an external trigger for my breaks, I was able to truly disconnect and decompress. And discovered in doing so that when I went back to work later that evening, I felt renewed focus.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a similar phenomenon to when I started dancing, 12 years ago. I felt like I didn\u2019t have enough time for physical exercise, because I was always so busy. But going to rehearsal three times a week only took about five hours\u2014and it turns out the exercise led to higher-quality sleep, so that I went from needing nine hours per night to only seven-and-a-half. Net weekly gain: over five hours.<\/p>\n I use an accountability app to remind me to exercise, where my best friend can see that I\u2019ve checked in each day, even if it\u2019s just a quick stretch, breathing exercise, or a kitchen dance party while I\u2019m making dinner. And once-a-week, a friend sets up a zoom session for one of our dance troupes, the Fabulous Ladies of Fitness. (In case you\u2019d like to follow along at home, here I am at Chicago SummerDance<\/a> leading 400 enthusiastic participants in a rousing routine to Laura Branigan\u2019s Gloria.)<\/p>\n Lean on Your Professional Community<\/strong><\/p>\n Accounting might be a numbers game, but I believe that it\u2019s primarily about personal relationships. And especially during busy season, your community can be a lifeline. Whether it\u2019s a QuickBooks<\/a> ProAdvisor Facebook group, a local networking event, or a paid community like Bookkeeping Buds<\/a> (I\u2019ve been a participant for almost a decade) or my \u2018Ask a CPA\u2019<\/a> membership \u2013 having a place to vent, ask questions, and share wins is invaluable.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t count the number of times a fellow ProAdvisor has shared a shortcut or app that\u2019s saved me hours. And when things get overwhelming, just knowing that others are in the same boat is deeply comforting. It\u2019s one of the main themes of my favorite conference, Bridging the Gap<\/a>; last year I presented a panel there on \u201cVulnerability as a Strength,\u201d about the importance of taking off our masks and sharing our challenges with each other; it absolutely builds trust and diffuses the isolation we often feel when times are hard. (Bonus tip: Last year\u2019s BTG also reminded me how effective expressing gratitude and helping others can be in building resilience and improving mental health. Having a rough day? Lift someone else up who\u2019s feeling low. Now two people feel better. This is one reason BTG\u2019s Randy Crabtree<\/a> and I both volunteer during tax season to assist AICPA as scholarship judges.)<\/p>\n I\u2019m also a dedicated attendee of the bi-weekly AICPA Town Hall<\/a>. Not only can I count on Lisa Simpson<\/a> to offer the latest technical guidance, but I also get some \u201cme time\u201d that clients and team members simply aren\u2019t allowed to interrupt. (Meeting hosts Lisa and Erik<\/a> in-person and getting my moment on-stage with them at DPCA was a dream come true.)<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s the Town Hall, Unofficial QuickBooks Podcast<\/a>, or The Accounting Podcast<\/a> (honestly, whatever your favorite flavor of continuing education is), you can stack keeping up on industry guidance with community\u2026 and maybe even exercise (I love listening while I\u2019m in the pool and I know many folks consume podcasts while on a walk). An easy three-fer.<\/p>\n So, don\u2019t go it alone\u2014tap into your community. It\u2019s like group therapy\u2026 but with more bank feeds and spreadsheets.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXeQGJ875GWUuz2phxBAQJH3I3JKufNLAokDvZFEI4XMHw1aBMnPaam44GI7eCzYjrEF3hVeGSLM0VuDT1djY85BGZNQnD14K6mmtfw_npzCJgqajQ2N_u4Y0Czq0ZBW2UfrAUWL5A?key=84lUaNutQ6fbWK_fARPd3RhD\")
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