Win the Self Assessment game – for good

Congratulations – you did it! You made it to February, and you deserve a well-earned break. While you’ve got your feet up, now’s a great time to review your processes, so that next year’s January isn’t quite so taxing on your firm.

This year, 861,065 tax returns were filed on deadline day, with 36,767 filed in the last hour – talk about a last-minute panic. This busy season hamster wheel of totting up figures and chasing records into the final hour is an accepted part of an accountant’s January slog. But what if it could be a little more… relaxing?

Change starts from within. When you transform your internal processes, there’s a ripple effect. When your team aren’t overwhelmed, they can power through their workload efficiently, improving client service too. And what better way to attract new business than with referrals from a bunch of super impressed clients?

We’ve been chatting with accountants over the years and believe it or not, some of them are actually… well… relaxed come January.  These are everyday firms, just like you, who are slaying their Self Assessment before busy season even starts. So how exactly do they do it?

They listen to their team

Your staff’s suggestions should be at the top of your Self Assessment to-do list. Remember, they’re the ones with their boots on the ground doing the work and chasing up clients. Set aside some time for an informal chat and a cuppa. Ask them what would do differently and why. Which clients are taking up all their time? What tasks could they delegate? Are they spread too thin? Are there any tools they’d recommend and why? This insight goes beyond just numbers and spreadsheets. It promotes a healthier working environment, where your team feel empowered, which proves its weight in gold in more stressful periods. 

They file submissions before busy season starts

We can all relate to the mad scramble that comes with busy season. Bags of receipts and stacks of paperwork dumped on your desk just days before the deadline? Horror movie stuff… and standard practice these days. When clients know the deadline is January 31st, don’t expect them to send anything over until just beforehand.

How can we approach this behaviour? The key is to get ahead of the game. Set an earlier deadline date with a clear roadmap on how to get there. What dates suit best? It really depends on your firm, but a few firms we’ve been chatting to set deadlines for September and October. You then need to communicate this clearly to your clients. That way they can get their ducks in a row as soon as possible. Communicate with confidence and clarity, explaining what the new deadline is and why you’re changing it – plus how it benefits them.

They’ve got a taxalicious tech stack

While deadlines and communication are crucial for a smoother Self Assessment period, it’s worth having a decent tech stack to get you there. Here at Bright, we’ve got a range of solutions to help out.

• Communicate with ease

Set expectations from the get-go by sending a bulk email to your clients with the new deadlines. When you send any emails or texts to clients, Bright’s practice management software, AccountancyManager, keeps an audit trail on the client timeline. This means you can see exactly who’s opened and seen them. 

• Delegate tasks and have total visibility

AccountancyManager sits at the heart of your firm, where you can make custom workflows, breaking tasks down into smaller subtasks to assign them to team members. Get staff to use our timer and you can see how long they’re spending on each task. This makes sure everyone’s carrying the workload evenly throughout busy season – and you can keep an eye on progress.

• File returns quickly

No need to use HMRC’s submission system – file tax returns straight from within Bright’s tax solution, BTCSoftware. This includes SA100, SA302, SA800 and SA900 tax returns. We’ll notify you when the deadline’s approaching, and our integration with HMRC lets individual tax return data pop into the system for you too, saving you a whole lot of heartbreak and time as the deadline approaches.

• Take the pain out of payroll

While Self Assessment is the busiest time of the year, you can’t push payroll to the side either. Getting payslips finalised each pay period can seem like a never-ending task on top of client tax returns. Bright’s payroll software, BrightPay, can help your clients get more out of payroll, while easing your admin to push through those Self Assessment tasks. We can automatically distribute payslips to an employee app, let clients enter updated payroll data themselves, and integrate with accounting software, pension providers, and direct payment platforms. Essentially, the less time you have to spend on payroll, the more time you can dedicate to tax returns. 

By setting earlier deadlines, communicating with your staff and using efficient software, you’ll see a tangible, positive impact on your next busy season. Here at Bright, we’re on a mission to make a happy and efficient working life a reality for accountants through reliable software and amazing support. Our Self Assessment features are the icing on the cake. 

Book a demo of our multi-award-winning solutions today.