Are you going through the motions every tax season? If you’re not tracking the right metrics and making 
improvements to grow your business each year then yes, you are just going through the motions. Looking at your bottom line is important, but your bottom line is only going to tell you whether or not you made money. It won’t tell you how effective your marketing has been, what types of returns you did this season, or what parts of the season were the busiest so you can prepare for next season.
There are reports that your tax software will run automatically for you, but these reports don’t track everything. Now is the time to start preparing for next season so, now is a great time to make sure you’re tracking the right metrics.
Business Metrics
These metrics are going to tell you more about your day to day operations during tax season. Tracking these will help you pinpoint staffing issues, inefficiencies, and other items related to day to day operations.
- Tax returns prepared by day, week, and month, by tax preparer and office location.
- Tax preparation fees associated with all tax returns prepared.
- Average charge (fee) for tax returns prepared by tax preparer.
- Comparisons of this year to last year for each of the above.
- Types of tax returns prepared (e.g., Form 1040 Individual and associated schedules and statements), Form 1120 Corporation, Form 1165 Partnership, etc…
Client Retention Metrics
Gaining new clients is much more costly than retaining the ones you have. It’s important to track client satisfaction and retention scores to ensure that you are doing all you can to keep those clients. Here are some metrics to track.
- Prior client retention rates by tax preparer (this is the most important measure of client satisfaction).
- Client Survey results, especially, Net Promoter Score (what percentage of clients will recommend your services to others).
- Testimonials from clients.
Marketing Metrics
How do you know what’s working if you don’t track your marketing metrics? Here are some important metrics to consider tracking.
- Sources of all new clients.
- Returns and revenue realized from all marketing promotions (special offers, coupons, etc.).
- Clicks to the website by month.
- Sources of referrals to the website (e.g. from social media, Google, etc.).
- Number of social media fans and followers by month.
- Social media engagement rates by channel by month.
- Social media, Google or other online ad ROI.
- Number of promotions redeemed (e.g. from post cards, direct mail, digital, etc.).
- Email newsletter open rate and click rates.
Tracking these metrics will help give you a better picture of how your business is running and what you can do to improve. Make sure you review these metrics before you plan for next tax season.
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