Our Process
Engaging the firm
Hiring the firm to assist with your tax preparation is easy and straightforward! The best part is that it can all be done from the comfort of your own home. The first step is to contact us by filling out a contact form, calling us, or e-mailing us directly. After our initial contact and identifying the services you require, we will e-mail you a secure engagement letter and proposal. These documents will detail the scope of our work and the pricing of your engagement.
The client will then be required to electronically sign both the proposal, the engagement letter, and the payment form authorization. Upon acceptance of the engagement letter, the client will be required to make a 50% deposit on the total fee for their services. There are multiple acceptable payment methods, including credit card and ACH transfer. These transactions are secure and protected.
Once the engagement letter has been electronically signed and the deposit has been paid, the taxpayer is then considered a client of the firm. The client will be e-mailed acknowledgement of acceptance and further instructions on the process.
If you are looking to set up an advisory call with the firm, there are several options. Feel free to call or e-mail us, or you can sign up for a time using the Calendly service on our contact page https://calendly.com/jdjeunecpa
Performing the Tax Service
After accepting the engagement letter, the client will receive an e-mail instructing them on how to set up their secure firm portal. Once setup is complete, the firm portal will serve as the platform where clients upload their documents in PDF, excel, word, or picture format. Additionally, the client’s secure portal will have an instructions sheet guiding them on all tax documentation required by the firm to prepare their tax returns. The secure portal will also contain a tax organizer to help the client gather tax information in an organized fashion.
After the client uploads their tax documents, our team will prepare your taxes and answer all your questions. Preparing the client’s tax returns requires no action from the client. The only duty of the client is to wait for the product! Upon completion of the tax returns and drafts will be uploaded to the firm portal for a round of discussion and review. Any necessary corrections will be made to the draft and the final version of the tax returns will be uploaded to the portal. At this point, once the client has possession of the product, the firm will charge the remaining fifty percent of the fee.
The client will then review and confirm the final draft of the tax return and sign a form granting permission to the firm to electronically file. The firm will then electronically file the tax returns for both the IRS and State. The client will have the option to set up a direct debit to pay taxes or direct deposit to receive their refund.
When the Federal and state governments each accept the tax returns electronically, e-mails will be sent confirming the successful filings. The e-mails will then be forwarded to the client as proof of filing. This is the end of the process.
Pricing Policy
Fees are based on a flat fee structure. Our firm does not charge on an hourly basis for tax work. The only service charged on an hourly basis is tax advisory and attestation services since the time span can be uncertain. Upon signing the engagement letter, clients are required to pay a fifty percent deposit towards their tax service fees. Once the tax services are complete, or a tax product has been uploaded to the client’s secure firm portal, the remaining fifty percent of the fee will be billed.
The Nature of Busy Season
To put it lightly, busy season is a chaotic environment for a CPA. Busy season results from the fact that tax documentation is not produced and provided to a client until around mid-February or the end of March. Since the typical individual tax deadline on an annual basis is April 15, this leaves a very small period of time (about a month and a half) to complete or extend all client tax returns. In other words, a great deal of work is pushed into a very small time frame. Hundreds of tax returns must be prepared in a period of approximately 45 – 60 days.
There is often a lack of understanding regarding the nature of busy season and new clients are often unfamiliar with the atmosphere. They may not understand why a tax firm is so busy, why it is unable to accept new clients, or why it is taking more than a couple days to complete their tax returns.
To help clients understand the nature of busy season, we recommend having a look at this website. This article should help shed some light on the situation and answer many commonly asked questions about busy season.