I Did 16 Returns Today With Clients Present

[ILLMAS]

Complete 3 returns today in 9 hours.

[BHoffman]

I finished a monster today - one client with a 1040, 3 S-corps and 2 partnerships.  I'm mailing him about 18 pounds of paper. 

[Lion EA]

Yeah, here I am with not one of the five family returns complete; although, I have emailed them for DL info and a couple of other questions.  One of them moved to Utah!  I never met anyone who lived in Utah.  Is there anything I should know about Utah?

But, I have heard from two that I emailed yesterday.  A couple of kids with kiddie tax, but I don't prepare parents' returns.  Dad emailed me info tonight.  Then mentioned his son received a 1099-MISC for opening a bank account, $50 deposit from the bank.  Darn.  Is that Line 21?  Haven't had that before.

And an couple who confirmed bank accounts, but will send me DL info tomorrow!  I'm trying to work faster, but I'm getting answers slower, like pulling teeth.

And, when someone faxes their NY DL, those teeny, tiny DCN are unreadable; so I have to email them to type out the numbers for me.  I hope these DLs are doing some good, because they're a real pain to deal with.

Rant over.  Will try to flesh out the five returns before I sleep.  At least the phone isn't ringing and almost no one is emailing me now.  If hubby stays out of my office, I'll be good.

[FDNY]

I hope you went to bed by now, it's almost 6am and I've been here an hour already, we're on opposite schedules.  The DLs are driving me nuts too for the same reasons.  Before the season started I printed out all my NY clients' NY INFO sheets (over 100)  showing the license info since it doesn't roll over.  I curse when I look at one and it's expired.   This year I am not showing the info on the NY INFO so I've been updating the 2016s manually for next year.  Trying to make a lousy situation better, but it's probably a good idea for ID theft, I guess.

All I know about Utah is I once floated in the Great Salt Lake and Marie Osmond lost 30 pounds on one of those TV diets.

[ILLMAS]

Why isn’t ATX generating an error if the DL is not entered?  I know in Proseries you cannot efile without it.

[RitaB]

22 minutes ago, ILLMAS said:

Why isn’t ATX generating an error if the DL is not entered?  I know in Proseries you cannot efile without it.

Sssssssshhhhhhhh

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Hmm, I thought the DL was a state requirement.  I do get a nasty note if I've overlooked re-adding the not rolled over info for Ohio. I thought it was an OH requirement not IRS.  I got a blue or yellow reminder for my Australian clients who don't file a state return but if I forget for Ohio, it's red.

[rfassett]

12 hours ago, Catherine said:

And then they staple everything together so we can't get it out of order, too.  SO thoughtful of them.  

When I become President and make the rules, everybody will open their own mail and dispose of all of the envelopes before it gets to the accountant's office.

[JohnH]

Utah?  Fantastic skiing on/in dendrite powder.  Slopes less than an hour from the airport.  Beautiful scenery throughout the state.

[Jack from Ohio]

ATX does show a red error for the states that REQUIRE the drivers license information.  Ohio is one of those.

[Lion EA]

Yep, Ohio, New York, a few more that I don't remember until I get the diagnostic!

FDNY, I do work late instead of getting up early.  I seem to get more time without emails popping up or hubby sitting down in my office, and the phone is not ringing (even though I let it go to voicemail during the day, if it's not a client I need to talk to/get info from).  And, when I email a client for more info, they do see it when they get up; so I usually have a reply by the time I get up.

[FDNY]

2 hours ago, Lion EA said:

Yep, Ohio, New York, a few more that I don't remember until I get the diagnostic!

FDNY, I do work late instead of getting up early.  I seem to get more time without emails popping up or hubby sitting down in my office, and the phone is not ringing (even though I let it go to voicemail during the day, if it's not a client I need to talk to/get info from).  And, when I email a client for more info, they do see it when they get up; so I usually have a reply by the time I get up.

Same here, love the quiet time, also clients are impressed when they see my early emails.  If we had a partnership it would be a 24 hour tax service....not sure that is a good idea though, clients would take advantage and might call the wrong number and wake one of us up.

[Lion EA]

Tag Team Tax Services, LLC

[Abby Normal]

I got 8 done yesterday and then my Office Manager tells me as she's leaving for the day that we have more returns in now, than we had on 4/17 last year.

Holey shirts, Batman! I need to crush it!

[Abby Normal]

On 3/26/2018 at 11:29 AM, Lion EA said:

take at least 45 minutes to print

At 30 pages a minutes that's 1,350 pages. I'd just give them a PDF.

[jklcpa]

 

I think Lion's time includes the other assembly time too.  If her printer was *that* slow, I hope she'd be buying a new one. 

[Alex]

Only 2 done today. I feel like I'm slacking off. Are we all racing to the finish line (or crawling and dragging ourselves across it?) 

 

[rfassett]

I am in coast mode and will simply coast across the finish line.  I don't care what the sob story - I will not be forced into making the clients lack of planning an emergency for me.  Had one in today - "Oh, we just got back from Florida Saturday (have been there since October).  If we bring our stuff in tomorrow can you get it done?"  My response was "maybe .....and maybe not".  My thought was, "I guess the US Postal service and the world wide web does not work in Florida."

Anyway, I have horsed around and got four done today.  I did some of my own company accounting on Saturday.  Through March 31st, our billings are up 13.25% over last year.  Right there is a great explanation of why I am now in coast mode.  I am flat out tired out.

[FDNY]

I'm also coasting.  Got the bulk of my work done, all repeat clients.  I don't take on new clients anymore.  But still have about 20 of the usual laggards that I plan to do 1 or 2 a day, some extensions, and  try to finish the 5 or so that are done, just waiting on an OK for a SEP or IRA as they try to find the funding.

I think I'll make an appointment for a massage, I haven't received the masseuse's package yet, maybe my aching back will remind her.

[Lion EA]

Yeah, did upgrade printer a couple years back.  Takes me time to stuff all their stuff and return in a folder and upload signature forms/return to my portal and package it for mailing or call them for a pick-up time (well, I try via email as it takes less time than talking to them on the phone).  Semi-retired hubby goes to PO and makes deliveries for me.  He knows nothing about taxes, but I put flags when signatures are needed.

But, as of this morning, I cannot connect to internet, update my software, transmit returns, receive/send emails, etc., from my desktop computer.  Hard drive is failing.  And, I'm waiting on the techie.  Doing some work on my much slower laptop (and I miss my three monitors).  And, continuing to prepare returns my desktop and backing up often as Windows keeps shutting down.  I was hoping to nurse it through a couple more weeks, but not to be.  So I got one out the door Saturday, took Easter off, and now am just adding to the stack of almost finished returns.  (Wish I hadn't taken Easter off, as computer was still behaving before church.)  In the meantime, I'm starting to get the calls about people leaving for spring break by Friday or Saturday and will their returns be ready.  No.  So, they call back to ask how much they'll owe.  Um, if I knew....  I think I'll just say $7,000 federal and $2,000 state and hang up!  I'm stopping taking calls, and will return via email each night.  It'll save me enough time over the weeks to prepare another couple of returns.

My prior techie quit without letting me know (a feud with my son or something I was unaware of) so I have a new guy who's the IC Dell sent to install the new hard drive, and he seems to be one that can clone my old hard drive before it dies to the new drive.  Hope he can get me back online, too.