WITAXLADY Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 I stopped taking night clients last year and it is soooonice... I have a prior 911 dispatcher answering phones for the season - no one gets by her - drop box baby! or 9-5 M-F 3 Quote
Possi Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 I start early, so by 5pm, there is nothing much nice about me. If I took clients in the evenings, I'd be arrested by my own son, for murder. I think we should all get Medals of Honor when we get through a season without killin' somethin'! 6 Quote
BLACK BART Posted March 21, 2019 Author Report Posted March 21, 2019 3 hours ago, Possi said: I start early, so by 5pm, there is nothing much nice about me... I'm the same way - didn't mean it like it sounded. Some days I'm shell-shocked by five (closing time) after dealing with clients all day, but am a night person and can recoup after supper and two hours rest. I don't take any clients after five but can get a lot of work done between seven and midnight (or later) with nobody to interrupt. By late clients I meant I'm still getting some heavy-duty cases to work. The quick-refund-big-box franchise down the street now has an empty parking lot and is looking out the door hungrily 'cause their clientele has already come and gone. 6 Quote
Roberts Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 I'm out of the office by 5:30 at the very latest. Any work after that is done at home. The CPA upstairs comes to work at 10am all year and goes home around 9pm three nights per week. 1 Quote
Lion EA Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 I can get a lot of work done after dinner when the phone's not ringing and clients aren't expecting an immediate reply to their email and when hubby stops walking in my office, sitting down, and trying to show me some video or something that could wait until dinner! So, I end up working very, very late. I take few face-to-face appointments, but make them in the afternoon. 4 Quote
jasdlm Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 I wait eagerly every weekday for the door to close after my last employee leaves. I have an amazing team, but I need quiet and no interruptions to just slog through returns. I, like Lion, take very few appointments. I don't have the patience anymore for individuals to hand me one document at a time after staring at it for several minutes trying to tell me what it is. The appointments I do take have to be before 15 March. I make a few exceptions, but a very few. With the late 1099-div forms this year, I'm only half-way through the returns I need to complete, and I'm starting to panic a bit. On March 23rd, I always take an official 'count' of what's waiting in the queue and how many returns I have to do per day to meet deadline. Aaargh! Why do we do this to ourselves. This is a crazy profession! 4 Quote
Lee B Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 I was at a CPE Class about 10 years ago talking to another EA. He had a Murphy bed and a shower in his office, worked 14 hour days all through tax season said that he did 800 tax returns by himself. The only help he had was his wife who did copying and assembly stuff 3 days a week. He worked a few less hours on Saturday and Sunday, which were the only nights he went home and slept in his own bed. He said he made enough money to take most of the remaining months of the year off. Thirty years ago I could have worked that many hours, those days are now far in the distant past. 4 Quote
jklcpa Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 I'm starting to panic more than a little. I got the flu in late Feb and was so sick for a full two weeks that I couldn't work and then was finally able to work enough to meet the March 15th filing deadline because I had the accounting or bookkeeping in good enough shape to complete those. It's taken a full month to recover completely, and now though I'm in a real hole with the individual returns. How ever many I finish in a day, it seems I'm getting double that many in. 1 4 Quote
Abby Normal Posted March 21, 2019 Report Posted March 21, 2019 7 minutes ago, jklcpa said: I'm starting to panic more than a little. I got the flu in late Feb and was so sick for a full two weeks that I couldn't work and then was finally able to work enough to meet the March 15th filing deadline because I had the accounting or bookkeeping in good enough shape to complete those. It's taken a full month to recover completely, and now though I'm in a real hole with the individual returns. How ever many I finish in a day, it seems I'm getting double that many in. Me too. I came in most days but only got 1 or 2 returns done each day. You can't make that time up! 3 1 Quote
joanmcq Posted March 22, 2019 Report Posted March 22, 2019 I'm with Lion, I see very few people. So far this year so far, all of 2 clients, both new, local ones. Appointment time, 4pm, which is when I'm pretty much guaranteed to be awake. I've talked to a few on the phone, but everything is mostly email. 2 Quote
Cathy Posted March 22, 2019 Report Posted March 22, 2019 I'm sincere when I say this, there isn't any way possible 800 returns can be prepared by one person (even with a little bit of help from his wife).....no way in hell. cbslee, if you ever see him again, tell him you barely broke 1,000 this season...1,002 as a matter of fact! What's another couple of hundred returns...child's play. If I could do 800 returns in one season, I would hope I could make it not working the rest of the year....$200,000 should get me through with $$$$ to spare, pay taxes, and buy a really cool pair of to have on when I go visit the other work horse that prepared 800 returns. 800 returns with the new forms, idiotic scheme for the forms, a 300 page rules and regulations issued 1-30-19 or thereabouts....you really can't blame IRS as they only had a year to get that accomplished! 800 returns....no chance in......fill in the blank. Take care all, Cathy 3 Quote
Possi Posted March 22, 2019 Report Posted March 22, 2019 On 3/21/2019 at 10:32 AM, BLACK BART said: I'm the same way - didn't mean it like it sounded. Some days I'm shell-shocked by five (closing time) after dealing with clients all day, but am a night person and can recoup after supper and two hours rest. I don't take any clients after five but can get a lot of work done between seven and midnight (or later) with nobody to interrupt. By late clients I meant I'm still getting some heavy-duty cases to work. The quick-refund-big-box franchise down the street now has an empty parking lot and is looking out the door hungrily 'cause their clientele has already come and gone. I still have a lot of those heavy-duty cases coming in.... I sure hope I'm not strapped with a ton of extensions. Normally, I like them because they keep me busy. But I have a 2 year old grandson to visit now! And I'm not getting any younger. 2 Quote
Jack from Ohio Posted March 22, 2019 Report Posted March 22, 2019 1 hour ago, Possi said: I still have a lot of those heavy-duty cases coming in.... I sure hope I'm not strapped with a ton of extensions. Normally, I like them because they keep me busy. But I have a 2 year old grandson to visit now! And I'm not getting any younger. Grandsons trump everything else!! My grandson turns 5, on April 25. 5 Quote
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