Editor's note: Because of my travel schedule, this post is late. There will be two blogs from Miranda this week as a result. Thank you for reading.
DP
Clients are starting to flow in for their appointments, and DAPCPA is gearing up for a great tax season. Even though the craziness hasn’t set in yet, there is a lot of preparation work before the actual tax returns are completed. This week, I helped compile organizers, joined in a conference call, had a chat with James reminiscent of this summer’s educational discussions, and helped with letters for business clients. My primary task throughout the week was helping put together tax organizers for individual tax returns. My desk was completely full of different stacks: the stack of envelopes, the stack of organizers, the stack of engagement letters, the stack of business engagement letters, the stack of folders and tax appointment cards, and the stack of last year’s control sheets.
Compiling the organizers was an extremely dangerous task. The letters and envelopes know no boundaries; they slice through skin as if it was melted butter. As a result, I have paper cuts all over my hands from every time I’d flip a letter or envelope over; OSHA would be horrified. On a more serious note, putting together the organizers was a good learning experience. Reading the engagement letter gave me more insight regarding professional business writing and communication with clients. I also saw the large variances in the quantity of information required for different clients.
The organizers gave me more experience using different software, navigating our master list, and problem solving when a name or address didn’t quite match up between our spreadsheet and the tax program’s data. One particular issue was when people had children with the same name; once again, I completely understand why you would name your child “You Jr.” but it can make mailing organizers a bit interesting. Lastly, if you read the blog last summer, you read about my tedious acquaintanceship with the postage machine. I’m proud to say that the postage machine and I are on superb terms now that I’ve sent a few hundred organizers through it. I felt kind of bad for the postman. Poor guy had to come back to our office after the rest of his route to take the load of organizers.
On Wednesday we had a conference call with everyone from the Cheyenne, Riverton, and Winter Park offices. The topic was SSARS (Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services) 21 and we talked about the implications that it has for engagement letters. Afterwards, James talked with Tyler and I about codification, standards, and clarification.
On Thursday, after we completed the individual tax organizers, I started to work on making the spreadsheet a bit more useful for Rachael by linking individuals to their associated businesses. In the future, scheduling tax appointments and compiling tax documents for people should be easier. Later on Thursday and Friday, we started putting together letters to go out to the businesses for which we do tax returns.
Well, that concludes another busy week at DAPCPA, have a great week!
Compiling the organizers was an extremely dangerous task. The letters and envelopes know no boundaries; they slice through skin as if it was melted butter. As a result, I have paper cuts all over my hands from every time I’d flip a letter or envelope over; OSHA would be horrified. On a more serious note, putting together the organizers was a good learning experience. Reading the engagement letter gave me more insight regarding professional business writing and communication with clients. I also saw the large variances in the quantity of information required for different clients.
The organizers gave me more experience using different software, navigating our master list, and problem solving when a name or address didn’t quite match up between our spreadsheet and the tax program’s data. One particular issue was when people had children with the same name; once again, I completely understand why you would name your child “You Jr.” but it can make mailing organizers a bit interesting. Lastly, if you read the blog last summer, you read about my tedious acquaintanceship with the postage machine. I’m proud to say that the postage machine and I are on superb terms now that I’ve sent a few hundred organizers through it. I felt kind of bad for the postman. Poor guy had to come back to our office after the rest of his route to take the load of organizers.
On Wednesday we had a conference call with everyone from the Cheyenne, Riverton, and Winter Park offices. The topic was SSARS (Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services) 21 and we talked about the implications that it has for engagement letters. Afterwards, James talked with Tyler and I about codification, standards, and clarification.
On Thursday, after we completed the individual tax organizers, I started to work on making the spreadsheet a bit more useful for Rachael by linking individuals to their associated businesses. In the future, scheduling tax appointments and compiling tax documents for people should be easier. Later on Thursday and Friday, we started putting together letters to go out to the businesses for which we do tax returns.
Well, that concludes another busy week at DAPCPA, have a great week!