As a business owner for more than 30 years, I am a very proactive person. Unexpected problems, expenses and so forth will always happen but will be much easier to deal with if you have procedures in place. A thorough policies and procedures manual will have written procedures for prevention and problem resolution. Here are some issues to think about.
Problem Resolution
As an owner or even a manager, it is important to always know what’s going on and be aware of the day-to-day. It’s also important to know that you cannot possibly take on every problem that occurs in the office. You’ve got to learn to empower your people. This starts with training.
We train our employees in tax preparation, policies & procedures and customer service to prevent operational and customer service problems. Having a written policies & procedures manual enables us to provide consistent quality service and efficiency, even in branch offices.
We also train our employees to “own the problem”. This means that if they answer the phone or client walks in with a problem – it’s now that employee’s problem and they are responsible for seeing it through. This prevents problems from falling through the cracks. There’s also a paper trail – a Problem Resolution form has to be filled out for every issue that arises.
Prevention
We have systems in place to help prevent client problems. First and foremost we have a strict policy requiring every tax return we prepare to be checked by another preparer to minimize errors that could result in damages and the loss of clients. On occasion, we hire secret shoppers to have their returns prepared in our offices and complete a form to report the office procedures that are or are not being followed and the quality of the experience.
Aside from client problems, there also needs to be some consideration and planning for other problems that may occur. To prevent employee theft we have checks and balances for our accounting and limiting signature authority to the owners. Our tax preparers are also required to deposit receipts in the bank daily without fail. This prevents embezzlement and situations where the client does not have the money in their account to cover a check deposited late.
E&O insurance serves to prevent a large claim from a client due to an error from becoming a financial burden. Key man insurance is in place for me as the CEO to enable the company to have adequate money to replace me and offset any short-term problems due to my demise.
To address break-ins or fire, we have a security & fire alarm system with 8 cameras plus monitoring that will dispatch the police or fire deptartment. Our P&C insurance policy has a business interruption rider.
When feasible, our leases include a provision prohibiting the landlord from leasing to a competing tax service in the same center.
Lastly, we have tax preparer employment agreements with enforceable non-compete, confidentiality and non-solicitation provisions to prevent preparers who leave from taking our clients, plus agreement to contract assignment in the event we sell our business.
All of these items are things that you should not only plan for, but also write down in a policies and procedures manual. Want to save time? Purchase our Tax Office Operations Manual!
Related Posts
Why Saying “No Problem” is a Problem