Accounting
How CPAs can manage deadlines, optimize client communication and reduce year-end stress
Time management is critical in every industry and for all organizations. Budgeting employee resources, managing workflows and hitting deadlines are all part and parcel to doing business. But in the accounting world, time management isn’t just important – it’s elemental.
CPAs and accounting firms live (or die) by calendars and clear communication, with daily and annual deadlines — and many more intermediary checkpoints in between — dictating their day-to-day activities and priorities. Most of you in the field have an intrinsic understanding of this standard, and you have likely adapted your work rhythms to meet those demands.
But here’s a thought: What about your clients?
No matter how meticulous your team may be about managing time and meeting deadlines, clients can always be counted on to complicate the process. A CPA can only work as fast as their client does, and every delay and missed deadline has the potential to shift workflows and introduce new complexities that threaten to affect business — including that of other clients. Pick your metaphor — slippery slope, snowball effect, house of cards. None of them bodes well for an accounting firm trying to stay on task and satisfy a plurality of clients whose tax and accounting needs often culminate simultaneously.
So what’s the answer for accountants and auditors hoping to reduce work stress, promote smarter time management and reliably communicate deadlines and workflows to all stakeholders, especially when industry-related chokepoints inevitably arrive?
Start with communication best practices
The office can be a wild place, with a diversity of cognition and communication patterns — not only among colleagues but also clients. It’s an ecosystem like any other. But without rules in place to dictate how, when, why and to whom we convey information to one another, much of that communication is at risk of being lost in translation.
For instance, who handles your firm’s social media account? It may be a single employee or a team, but everyone involved must be on the same page about the goal, or goals, of social media. (For instance, is it community outreach? Marketing? Lead generation? All of the above?) That includes a plan that outlines precisely what information should be communicated, what forms they will take and clear direction about voice and tone.
At the end of the day, the crux of a firm’s communication best practices should be overcommunication. Careful consideration should be given to what needs to be covered in every face-to-face, Zoom call, email and marketing campaign. After each client interface, for example, a bullet-pointed list of next steps that includes key dates and deadlines can be a useful reminder to all stakeholders that also helps appropriately prioritize workflows for all. Building in regular communications, often via automation, through email updates, social media, SMS and text messaging helps ensure that clients are aware of and striving to meet the deadlines that are so critical to your business.
Create a better calendar
Hopefully you’re no longer relying only on the old-school broadsheet calendar tucked into the vinyl corners. There simply isn’t a desk big enough to hold the paper calendar you would need to denote every task and deadline coming down the pike. But even the standard-issue digital calendar built into your computer or handheld device likely isn’t sufficient when it comes to maintaining your busy schedule, let alone aligning it with those of a team and a long list of clients. In the mission of time management, streamlining and simplifying is the name of the game — and a truly dynamic calendar is your game-changer.
The key: high-quality calendar tools — including add to calendar widgets and subscription calendar features. A quick look under the hood reveals the kind of horsepower delivered by what could be mistaken as standard or basic offerings:
- Help CPAs, auditors and their teams stay organized by easily adding important deadlines and events to their personal calendars.
- Add events to clients’ calendars to help ensure that all stakeholders involved in a project are on the same page, while reducing the risk of missed meetings or deadlines.
- Subscription options that allow for clients and teams to follow those calendars and receive synced updates, making it easier for teams and clients to stay informed and manage their workflows.
Does this feature seem like something nearly every business and individual employee could benefit from? Quite likely, yes. Especially considering the time crunches accounting firms routinely face at specific points every year, like everyone’s favorite — tax season.
Given the full-stop necessity of receiving client paperwork within deadlines, a dynamic and easy-to-use calendar features are a CPA’s and auditor’s best friend.
The value of creating free informational resources
The usefulness of setting, changing and sharing deadlines with teams and clients in real time should be self-evident, particularly for accounting firms. But an integrated, dynamic and shareable calendar is just a single piece of the puzzle.
Getting clients to your conference table on time is a necessary step, but you’ve got to give them a reason to show up in the first place – and to then keep coming back. Creating informational content is an excellent way to showcase your firm’s expertise, introduce topics and concepts that spur conversation with clients and drive additional business. Readily accessible landing pages, blog posts and infographics — featured statically on your firm’s website, but also shared on social media and via email and message campaigns — build confidence in your firm’s capabilities and help promote and sell offerings that clients otherwise may not have even realized they needed or wanted.
Levels of attentiveness and tech savvy differ widely among prospects and clients. Make your tools and campaigns as simple, accessible and user-friendly as possible, whether that’s a straightforward “add an event” button or informational content that clearly aligns with your firm’s marketing materials and business offerings. Your frazzled, overworked future self will thank you for it later.
Sweating the small stuff to avoid chronic stress
You may be sensing a theme here: a monastic attention to the details of work communication. And while the approach might be cynically viewed as micromanagement, the alternative — leaving stones unturned — is the quickest path to a snarl of missed deadlines, long nights of making up for lost time and a work-life balance for an entire staff that feels like a never-ending case of collective vertigo.
The best antidote to that worst-case scenario is a blend of established communication goals, best-practices development and the organization-wide employment of tech-based communication tools. In the case of CPAs, the old adage of failing to plan holds true: Take decisive and deliberate steps toward building a communication infrastructure that can be understood and adhered to by all involved stakeholders, or you might as well be planning to fail.
The accountant the world urgently needs has evolved far beyond the traditional role we recognized just a few years ago.
The transformation of the accounting profession is not merely an anticipated change; it is a pressing reality that is currently shaping business decisions, academic programs and the expected contributions of professionals. Yet, in many areas, accounting education stubbornly clings to outdated, overly technical models that fail to connect with the actual demands of the market. We must confront a critical question: If we continue to train accountants solely to file tax reports, are we truly equipping them for the challenges of today’s world?
This shift in mindset extends beyond individual countries or educational systems; it is a global movement. The recent announcement of the
The CIMA/CGMA proposal for 2026 is not just a curriculum update; it is a powerful manifesto. This new program positions analytical thinking, strategic business partnering and technology application at the core of accounting education. It unequivocally highlights sustainability, aligning with IFRS S1 and S2, and expands the accountant’s responsibilities beyond mere numbers to encompass conscious leadership, environmental impact and corporate governance.
The current changes in the accounting profession underscore an urgent shift in expectations from both educators and employers. Today, companies of all sizes and industries demand accountants who can do far more than interpret balance sheets. They expect professionals who grasp the deeper context behind the numbers, identify inconsistencies, anticipate potential issues before they escalate into losses, and act decisively as a bridge between data and decision making.
To meet these expectations, a radical mindset shift is essential. There are firms still operating on autopilot, mindlessly repeating tasks with minimal critical analysis. Likewise, many academic programs continue to treat accounting as purely a technical discipline, disregarding the vital elements of reflection, strategy and behavioral insight. This outdated approach creates a significant mismatch. While the world forges ahead, parts of the accounting profession remain stuck in the past.
The consequences of this shift are already becoming evident. The demand for compliance, transparency and sustainability now applies not only to large corporations but also to small and mid-sized businesses. Many of these organizations rely on professionals ill-equipped to drive the necessary changes, putting both business performance and the reputation of the profession at risk.
The positive news is that accountants who are ready to thrive in this new era do not necessarily need additional degrees. What they truly need is a commitment to awareness, a dedication to continuous learning, and the courage to step beyond their comfort zones. The future of accounting is here, and it is firmly rooted in analytical, strategic and human-oriented perspectives. The 2026 curriculum is a clear indication of the changes underway. Those who fail to think critically and holistically will be left behind.
In contrast, accountants who see the big picture, understand the ripple effects of their decisions, and actively contribute to the financial and ethical health of organizations will undeniably remain indispensable, anywhere in the world.
Congressional Republicans are siding with Donald Trump in the messy divorce between the president and Elon Musk, an optimistic sign for eventual passage of a tax cut bill at the root of the two billionaires’ public feud.
Lawmakers are largely taking their cues from Trump and sticking by the $3 trillion bill at the center of the White House’s economic agenda. Musk, the biggest political donor of the 2024 cycle, has threatened to help primary anyone who votes for the legislation, but lawmakers are betting that staying in the president’s good graces is the safer path to political survival.
“The tax bill is not in jeopardy. We are going to deliver on that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Friday.
“I’ll tell you what — do not doubt, don’t second guess and do not challenge the President of the United States Donald Trump,” he added. “He is the leader of the party. He’s the most consequential political figure of our time.”
A fight between Trump and Musk exploded into public view this week. The sparring started with the tech titan calling the president’s tax bill a “disgusting abomination,” but quickly escalated to more personal attacks and Trump threatening to cancel all federal contracts and subsidies to Musk’s companies, such as Tesla Inc. and SpaceX which have benefitted from government ties.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, who had — until recently — publicly embraced Musk, said they weren’t swayed by the billionaire’s criticism that the bill cost too much. Lawmakers have refuted official estimates of the package, saying that the tax cuts for households, small businesses and politically important groups — including hospitality and hourly workers — will generate enough economic growth to offset the price tag.
“I don’t tell my friend Elon, I don’t argue with him about how to build rockets, and I wish he wouldn’t argue with me about how to craft legislation and pass it,” Johnson told CNBC earlier Friday.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington told reporters that House lawmakers are focused on working with the Senate as it revises the bill to make sure the legislation has the political support in both chambers to make it to Trump’s desk for his signature.
“We move past the drama and we get the substance of what is needed to make the modest improvements that can be made,” he said.
House fiscal hawks said that they hadn’t changed their prior positions on the legislation based on Musk’s statements. They also said they agree with GOP leaders that there will be other chances to make further spending cuts outside the tax bill.
Representative Tom McClintock, a fiscal conservative, said “the bill will pass because it has to pass,” adding that both Musk and Trump needed to calm down. “They both need to take a nap,” he said.
Even some of the House bill’s most vociferous critics appeared resigned to its passage. Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who voted against the House version, predicted that despite Musk’s objections, the Senate will make only small changes.
“The speaker is right about one thing. This barely passed the House. If they muck with it too much in the Senate, it may not pass the House again,” he said.
Trump is pressuring lawmakers to move at breakneck speed to pass the tax-cut bill, demanding they vote on the bill before the July 4 holiday. The president has been quick to blast critics of the bill — including calling Senator Rand Paul
As the legislation worked its way through the House last month, Trump took to social media to criticize holdouts and invited undecided members to the White House to compel them to support the package. It passed by one vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune — who is planning to unveil his chamber’s version of the bill as soon as next week — said his timeline is unmoved by Musk.
“We are already pretty far down the trail,” he said.
Now that tax season is over, it’s time to refocus on identifying and implementing business strategies that drive your firm’s growth and keep you ahead of the curve in an ever-changing economic environment.
The market is shifting fast, and accounting firms that spot these changes early will come out ahead. According to Intuit QuickBooks’
Here are three small business trends for your accounting firm to keep in mind this year:
1. Accountants may be scarce, but new small businesses continue to increase
It’s no secret that the accounting profession is facing a talent shortage as more experienced accountants retire or leave the industry and fewer young professionals enter the field. The requirements to become a CPA have deterred prospective candidates, leading to a
But at the same time, the number of small businesses is steadily growing, creating a major opportunity for your firm to expand its client base this year. The Entrepreneurship survey found that more than half (54%) of respondents plan to start a new business this year. That’s a wave of new entrepreneurs who will need the right financial guidance, tax planning and compliance support to ensure their first year in business is successful and represents the beginning of long-term success.
Accounting firms can position themselves to take advantage of this demand using technologies like AI to help close the gap. Additionally, for firms looking to grow, targeting the right clients is key. Whether through niche specialization, local networking, or strategic marketing — meeting business owners where they are can help firms build lasting relationships. Investing in outreach now can pay dividends in the form of long-term growth-potential clients and a stronger, more resilient practice.
2. Small businesses are prioritizing technology — and so should your firm
Small business owners are jumping on the tech bandwagon, and they’re not slowing down. From AI-powered bookkeeping to automated invoicing, they’re leaning on new tools to streamline operations, save time, and run their businesses more efficiently and effectively.
Why should your firm take note? Because business owners want more from their accountants than just tax returns and payroll. They’re looking for real-time financial insights, business advice and hands-on support to help them navigate evolving economic challenges like rising costs and higher interest rates.
That’s where technology and human expertise come together. On average, firms planned to invest
3. Errors are common for entrepreneurs who manage their own business taxes
Financial management is not always a small business owner’s expertise. While entrepreneurs need some level of financial literacy to run and grow their businesses, most are learning as they go. One of the biggest areas of concern? Taxes. In fact, 34% of business owners say they’ve made an error when filing business taxes in the past. This includes overpaying or underpaying taxes, filing at the wrong time, or using the wrong forms.
Across the board, business owners cite understanding tax laws and regulations as the most challenging aspect of filing business taxes, followed by keeping track of necessary documentation and maximizing tax credits and incentives. For accountants, this represents a clear opportunity to provide guidance and strategic support, helping clients navigate complex financial requirements while positioning their firms as trusted advisors.
With entrepreneurship on the rise this year, accounting firms have an opportunity to play an important role in small business success. Whether it’s tax season or beyond, keeping these small business trends in mind will help your firm stay competitive and drive long-term growth for both your business and the clients you serve.
Accounting is changing, and the world can’t wait until 2026
Republicans push Musk aside as Trump tax bill barrels forward
Donald Trump has many ways to hurt Elon Musk
New 2023 K-1 instructions stir the CAMT pot for partnerships and corporations
The Essential Practice of Bank and Credit Card Statement Reconciliation
Are American progressives making themselves sad?
-
Economics1 week agoHow young voters helped to put Trump in the White House
-
Blog Post6 days agoCommon Bookkeeping Challenges and Solutions for Small Businesses
-
Accounting1 week agoHighest paid jobs in corporate accounting
-
Economics1 week agoElon Musk says Trump’s spending bill undermines the work DOGE has been doing
-
Personal Finance1 week agoHarvard, Trump international enrollment battle affects college applicants
-
Economics1 week agoWhy the president must not be lexicographer-in-chief
-
Personal Finance1 week agoCrypto in 401(k) plans: Trump administration eases rules
-
Accounting1 week agoTrump to pardon stars of reality show ‘Chrisley Knows Best’