Twenty-two questions about the stretch between “letter sent” and “ready to start”

Most firms can tell you how many hours a return took to prepare. Can yours tell you how long it waited?

The waiting starts the day the engagement letter goes out. It ends the day the preparer has everything needed to begin. In between sit a signature, an organizer, documents, answers, and a great many reminders. A return is only as late as its last document.

These questions are about that clock.

The clock

1. On what day does your intake clock start, and on what day does it stop?
2. From the day the letter goes out, how many days until you have everything you need to start?
3. Who owns that clock between the signature and the first hour of preparation?
4. Is the number the same for a new client and a returning one?

The request

5. Does every client receive the same organizer, or one built for their situation?
6. For a returning client, how much of what you ask is something you already hold?
7. How often is the same document requested twice, by two different people?
8. Does the client know exactly what is needed, what is optional, and by when?

The reminders

9. Who sends the reminders, and on what schedule?
10. How much of the follow-up happens automatically, and how much depends on someone remembering?
11. Who notices when a reminder is ignored, and what happens next?
12. Do clients answer on the channel you use, or the one they prefer?

The last document

13. Which item most often arrives last: a K-1, a 1099, a statement, an answer?
14. How many returns are sitting half complete, waiting on one item?
15. When does a missing document become an extension, and who decides?
16. Do you start work on incomplete files? What does starting early and reworking cost you?

The handoff

17. What does “ready to start” mean in your firm? Does the preparer agree?
18. Right now, who can see which clients are waiting on what?
19. Between the partner who signed the client, the admin who chases and the preparer who waits, who owns the file?

The cost

20. Whose hours go into chasing, and what do they cost? How much of it is billable?
21. How many clients go quiet after they sign, and do you know why?
22. What does the wait look like from the client's side?

If next season looks exactly like this one, is the waiting acceptable?

Which of these twenty-two can you not answer today? That is where your bottleneck is.