It was Benjamin Franklin that said, and I quote “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Taxes are the one thing no matter what will always be that one chore on your list of things to do the same time every year. Even if you’re expected to receive a substantial return it’s still dreaded at times. Many people end up taking a mess of papers, forms, and receipts and hand it off to a professional tax preparer, and before you know it you’re signing your return. But what is it like for the CPA? Having to complete 75% of your work done in a 3-month period for every client you have. A San Diego bookkeeping service like BooXkeeping knows that would make most people have a nervous breakdown.
Here are the top 5 Stressors of a CPA:
January-April this is where all the stress begins, working 80 hours a week rummaging through shoe boxes full of receipts. The nature of this profession requires most of the work completed during tax season.
Tax Code Have you seen how complicated tax code can actually be? If not hop onto the IRS website and look at a few publications, it’s a true eye opener. CPAs not only have to understand many accounting concepts which can be very complicated concepts, but they are required to keep up-to-date with all the changing tax codes and laws.
Continuing education is a requirement of this job. CPE credits are a must in order to show proof of the continued education, each state is different on the numbers of credits required. So, throughout the year they are going to classes, conferences, and even some require taking exams.
It’s primarily a customer service job During tax season, a large percentage of a CPAs job is customer service. It’s their job to help the client and make them as happy as possible. In our culture where the customer is always right, this can at times be a challenge making the customer happy when you’re taking their money and handing it to the IRS.
Making an error can have horrific consequences. When most of us make an error, we learn from it then recover. However, a San Diego bookkeeping service confirms if one little error like moving a decimal point or forgetting a minus sign can lead to horrible consequences for a client? Not only do CPAs have to follow tax code, be ethical, make the customer happy, complete the work quickly because the clients usually all need it done right NOW but each return has to be completely mistake free. Now that is STRESS!
The good news is there are solutions, in the last two articles we talked about a breathing method for immediate stress reduction and meditation as alternatives to help with the stressors for business owners of any profession. For CPAs, a San Diego bookkeeping service has a solution designed just for you and your firm. For more information on how BooXkeeping can help relieve your stress click here.
