How to simplify your tax preparation invoice process

Your tax preparation invoice process shouldn’t get in the way of the tax work itself. Having the right solutions in place can enable you to spend less time billing and receive payments sooner.

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How to prepare a tax invoice for 1040 clients

Creating a comprehensive tax preparation invoice is the first step toward timely and accurate payments. To ensure clarity of communication, make sure your invoice includes the following:

• Itemized list of services provided. Clearly outline all services that your firm provided (e.g., 1040 preparation, financial advisement, bookkeeping). List each service separately, including any added fees (e.g., penalty for late document submission).
• Billing totals. Regardless of how your firm bills (e.g., hourly, per service), document the precise charge for each service and display the total amount due in an emphasized font. If the client is receiving a discount, be sure to include the before and after.
• Payment due date and lateness fee. It’s important to have an exact payment due date prominently listed on the invoice. Include information on your lateness fee. This may help avoid delayed payments.

If you haven’t already, you should also explore digital invoicing tools and encourage clients to use them. Embracing these solutions can reduce errors, result in quicker payments, and further streamline your invoicing process.

3 ways to stay organized with invoices during busy season

Busy season tends to make everything more challenging, so your firm needs to have a firmly established workflow. Is every member of your team saving files in the correct folders? Are they using the designated tools?

Here are some basic ways to keep your tax preparation invoice process moving smoothly through the most demanding time of year:

1. Establish file-naming conventions. Develop consistent file-naming conventions for invoices and other supporting documents. This makes it easier to locate specific files and ensures uniformity across your entire client base.
2. Use cloud storage solutions. Embrace cloud storage solutions to securely store and access client documents from anywhere. Choose a cloud platform that supports collaboration between clients and staff for a more streamlined workflow.
3. Leverage task management tools. Task management tools help you create structure, prioritize work, allocate resources efficiently, and meet deadlines.

Making these changes can have a transformative impact on firms of all sizes. You can solve invoicing issues while making improvements across your firm.

Review your tax return delivery and invoicing process

Right now, you might be handling delivery in one of two ways:

1. Mailing out a copy of the tax return and e-file authorization to your client’s home address. This requires labor resources to handle mail and often results in delays, as clients are notoriously slow to mail things back.
2. Using an online portal to upload PDFs of the tax return and e-file authorization. This option requires clients to print, sign, scan, and upload. Without a printer at home, they’ll need to print the e-file authorization at work or somewhere else.

While you may have been using these methods for years and find them satisfactory, the feeling isn’t necessarily mutual for clients. As you review your current invoicing and delivery process, you should consider not only business needs, but client experience.

1040 client expectations have changed

Mobile apps have become a part of our everyday lives. Most banks now give customers the option to manage their accounts and transactions entirely through their smartphones. It’s only natural for clients to wonder why their CPA firm doesn’t provide a similar service.

In the past, scanning, mailing, and physically signing documents wasn’t considered a hassle. But it is now. Successful firms understand the importance of client service. And they know that snail mail and portal experiences aren’t the answer. Providing clients with an effortless, fully digital platform to view their returns and render e-signatures is a proven way to encourage timely responses and strengthen partnerships.

Don’t give taxpayers a reason to procrastinate. Sticking to antiquated methods of delivery is not only a missed opportunity to satisfy clients, but it also adds to seasonal workload compression. Offering a mobile app is a critical component of streamlining your digital tax return workflow from start to finish.

Save time with all-in-one tax preparation invoices

It’s no secret that automation has led to incredible efficiency gains in tax preparation. Fully digitizing your invoicing can eliminate administrative work and allow preparers to focus on higher-value tasks.

The problem with many invoicing solutions on the market is that they are not accounting-specific and require sending your clients to a separate platform. Connecting with clients on several disparate channels can be confusing. Your invoicing solution should be all-in-one:

• Allow staff to communicate directly with clients
• Facilitate document gathering (e.g., through photo-scanning and auto-retrieval)
• Collect e-signatures (including KBA-enabled)
• Send invoice and e-file authorization
• Integrate with your tax software

Today, there are apps that can increase efficiency for But single-function apps add up. The more of these apps your firm adopts, the harder they can be to manage. Avoid SaaS sprawl and extra work for your IT department. Run a lean tech stack by favoring software that cover multiple functions efficiently.

Digital solutions for 1040 tax prep

SurePrep TaxCaddy is a cloud-based app that provides integrated invoicing and several other built-in features for taxpayers and tax professionals. It integrates directly with UltraTax CS, GoSystem Tax RS, CCH Axcess Tax, and Lacerte.

As the most taxpayer-focused tax client portal on the market, TaxCaddy helps firms:

• Reduce workload compression. TaxCaddy makes it easy for taxpayers to upload documents throughout the year. Don’t wait around while your clients store documents in a pile and mail them in all at once. Workload compression drops dramatically when your staff get access to documents earlier in the tax season.
• Streamline gathering. TaxCaddy creates an automated document request list based on the proforma data in your tax software. Both your staff and your clients can easily see which documents have already been uploaded to the tax client portal and which are still outstanding.
• Improve the client experience. Other tax client portals focus on the firm’s convenience at the taxpayer’s expense. TaxCaddy is designed to delight both your staff and your clients. Address taxpayers’ needs with native iOS and Android mobile apps, mobile photo-scanning, e-signatures, and automated document retrieval. Offering modern conveniences improves client service.
• Simplify delivery. TaxCaddy makes it easy to deliver final tax returns, tax payment vouchers, and your firm’s invoice. Clients can render KBA e-signatures, make tax payments, and pay their invoice directly from the TaxCaddy app for iOS or Android.

Why not simplify your firm’s tax preparation invoice process and exceed client expectations?

Remove the friction from taxpayer collaboration, receive client information in a timely manner, and keep your 1040 tax process running smoothly during busy season. Learn more about TaxCaddy→

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