7 feet of monitors

[Lion EA]

Or, they only send you the odd numbered pages!

[mcbreck]

I do the returns for about a dozen clients while they wait. It's actually very enjoyable and I enjoy talking with them as I do the returns. I could totally see the benefits of going that route but I can't imagine doing a complicated return that way. Most of my clients it is a system of drop off today and pickup in two days.

 

How many people actually pick up / drop off for clients? Most evenings I have a few stops to make on my way home from work. Senior clients LOVE having that service.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I have two clients that insist on coming to see me, usually bearing small gifts, but their returns are very simple.  One client has a very complex return but still wants to visit when it's completed to review.  She does upload documents to the portal.  I get documents (scan to my laptop) at one client couple in assisted living and deliver the returns when completed.  All others are on my time table.  I have a poster wit my office hours - likely  you all have seen it, too, but it's real for me:

Open most days about 9 or 10.  Occasionally as early as 7, but SOME DAYS as late as 12 or 1. We close about 5:30 or 6 and occasionally about 4 or 5, BUT sometimes as late as 11 or 12.  Some days or afternoons, we aren't here at all and lately I've been here all the time EXCEPT when I'm someplace else.

The latter timing was very appropriate when I was training for spring marathons over 12 years.  It was so great to go out for my runs in the middle of the day for a break!

[Abby Normal]

2 hours ago, Lion EA said:

Or, they only send you the odd numbered pages!

My favorite is when the download the PDF of their brokerage 1099 and instead of sending me the PDF they print it out NOT ROTATED to landscape, so it's tiny. That's just stupid.

[jklcpa]

4 hours ago, mcbreck said:

How many people actually pick up / drop off for clients? Most evenings I have a few stops to make on my way home from work. Senior clients LOVE having that service.

I have three senior couples that I do that for, and I've done their work for almost 40 years now and consider them friends too.

[Abby Normal]

These are the monitors I got on sale for 139.99.

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-32mr50cs-b-fhd-monitor

[Randall]

On 12/23/2024 at 2:53 PM, Abby Normal said:

You must have excellent eyesight or really good glasses. I didn't know they still made monitors that small!

I think the 20 inches were horizontal.  I think the way they are labeled is a diagonal  measurement.  So mine are probably 24 inches diagonally.

[Catherine]

On 2/14/2025 at 10:21 AM, Abby Normal said:

These are the monitors I got on sale for 139.99.

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-32mr50cs-b-fhd-monitor

Those look sweet.  I think I have monitor envy.

[FDNY]

These comments are all very enlightening and I can relate to most of them on some level as part of my practice.  I'm always looking to improve efficiency, and I see that all of you have your niche in that area making it easier on yourself and pleasing clients.  I think Abby's 3 monitor setup is something out of Biosphere 2 which makes it professionally suitable for tax preparation with ease.  I do use two monitors which makes it easy when clients send documents that I can easily open and yes, sometimes difficult when they don't set it up properly.  But my most frequent method is the one hand typing (my non dominant hand) and being able to hold a pencil or marker in my dominant hand while turning pages.  I never thought of this until now but maybe it will help to keep dementia at bay. 

[mcb39]

Let's just say that we all do the same job with different methods.  For instance, behold the desk of Elsi who is 101 and doing three returns a day.  Her desk is an orderly mess.  I don't even see a computer, so am assuming that she is still using a typewriter and carbon paper.  Re:  Judy's post regarding the age of tax preparers.