Question

Client work deadline management and reporting in Karbon - best practices?

  • 6 September 2022
  • 10 replies
  • 201 views

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Hi everyone, I’ve tried to search the Community but can’t find an answer for this.

How do you make sure that you are not missing compliance deadlines for clients, and have good line of sight on them at least 30 days in advance? 

For example, do you set a protocol that for personal tax repeating work items, the work due date is always set at 15 days before the personal tax deadline for all clients? And similarly for sales tax, corporate tax, payroll, etc.? 

We haven’t really set such a protocol and found that different team members set different due dates for compliance-related work items (either a few days before the due date or after, if there are follow-up tasks to do such as confirming a Notice of Assessment is available from tax authorities after filing).

This makes it difficult to quickly see the ‘true deadline’ for each compliance work item, and across all work items to identify risks/issues early.

Would love your thoughts on this - how have you managed to document and monitor deadlines particularly around compliance work?

 


10 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +10

Good morning @amlbmo !  

Here is how we manage all compliance work:

  • One person is in charge of coordinating the work creation and repeat schedules for compliance work - this prevents the variation in due dates when multiple people are creating work
  • All compliance work is set with the government mandated due date.  If the work is extended we move it to the government extended due date
  • We then create and monitor work views by the Work Type - that way we can isolate work by the due date for the type.  Ex:  1040 tax returns - work type = 1040, due date = custom range 1/1/2022 - 12/31/2022 - we do this to make sure we catch work on extension and also on the off chance someone has created work outside our protocols and put an incorrect due date.  We then filter by the Client Owner so that each CPA has a clear view of their work and deadlines
  • We do have follow up type task that are done after the work is completed.  For us, what has worked best is creating sub-statuses under the Complete parent status and not changing the due date of the work.  This keeps the due date pure, and also helps us know when work was completed for the deadline.  We then monitor the follow up steps using filters on work status.

Thanks for the questions!  Interested to hear what others do!

Kylene

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Hi @amlbmo 

We follow the almost the same protocols as @kylenecarse - I have found having dashboards by Work Type and a date range for the due date to be incredibly useful.   

 

When you want to give a line of sight set up the columns by Due Date

So you see 

 

I have also found having one person in charge of the dates to be best practice but best practice doesn’t always happen.  We do have a role that is responsible for checking in on due dates to mitigate impact of moving dates and we talk about the process a lot.

V

 

 

 

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Good morning @amlbmo !  

Here is how we manage all compliance work:

  • One person is in charge of coordinating the work creation and repeat schedules for compliance work - this prevents the variation in due dates when multiple people are creating work
  • All compliance work is set with the government mandated due date.  If the work is extended we move it to the government extended due date
  • We then create and monitor work views by the Work Type - that way we can isolate work by the due date for the type.  Ex:  1040 tax returns - work type = 1040, due date = custom range 1/1/2022 - 12/31/2022 - we do this to make sure we catch work on extension and also on the off chance someone has created work outside our protocols and put an incorrect due date.  We then filter by the Client Owner so that each CPA has a clear view of their work and deadlines
  • We do have follow up type task that are done after the work is completed.  For us, what has worked best is creating sub-statuses under the Complete parent status and not changing the due date of the work.  This keeps the due date pure, and also helps us know when work was completed for the deadline.  We then monitor the follow up steps using filters on work status.

Thanks for the questions!  Interested to hear what others do!

Kylene

Thanks so much for this Kylene, especially the insight around the Karbon due date matching the government mandated due date, and how to handle follow-up tasks. I’ll be digging into this and testing with our team next week so may have more questions at that time. Cheers!

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Hi @amlbmo 

We follow the almost the same protocols as @kylenecarse - I have found having dashboards by Work Type and a date range for the due date to be incredibly useful.   

 

When you want to give a line of sight set up the columns by Due Date

So you see 

 

I have also found having one person in charge of the dates to be best practice but best practice doesn’t always happen.  We do have a role that is responsible for checking in on due dates to mitigate impact of moving dates and we talk about the process a lot.

V

 

 

 

As usual, you are awesome Victoria (haven’t met you yet but I know we’ll get along great 😊 ). Appreciate seeing the dashboard view you prefer to keep the dates in front of you. I’m going to look deeper into this next week and revert with what we decide on. Cheers.

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

We have been experimenting with using TAKT and lean cells to plan out and get compliance work done by deadlines.

TAKT = time available / number of work items-- this will tell you how often you need to spit out a sales tax return. If you have 15 returns and 150 working hours, then you need to complete a return every 10 hours to stay on track. This is used for measuring. Actual work is completed a little less evenly in lean cells.

Lean cell = An admin, preparers, and a reviewer all on the same video call. If we have 15 sales tax returns and we know it takes, on average, 30 minutes of prep,15 minutes of review, and 10 minutes of admin for processing, then we know we have 450 minutes of prep, 225 minutes of review, and 150 minutes of admin. We smooth things out by having two preparers and one reviewer giving us a complete working time of 225 minutes + stoppage and breaks… roughly four hours.

By doing the work in a lean cell, we complete all the sales tax returns in one 4-hour sitting.

We have different lean cells for different kinds of repetitive compliance work like payroll and 1040s.

We plan to experiment with combining two lean cells together, but the math on that gets more complicated than I wish to put here, lol.

I don’t know if that helps at all. 😀

Userlevel 3
Badge +3

We have been experimenting with using TAKT and lean cells to plan out and get compliance work done by deadlines.

TAKT = time available / number of work items-- this will tell you how often you need to spit out a sales tax return. If you have 15 returns and 150 working hours, then you need to complete a return every 10 hours to stay on track. This is used for measuring. Actual work is completed a little less evenly in lean cells.

Lean cell = An admin, preparers, and a reviewer all on the same video call. If we have 15 sales tax returns and we know it takes, on average, 30 minutes of prep,15 minutes of review, and 10 minutes of admin for processing, then we know we have 450 minutes of prep, 225 minutes of review, and 150 minutes of admin. We smooth things out by having two preparers and one reviewer giving us a complete working time of 225 minutes + stoppage and breaks… roughly four hours.

By doing the work in a lean cell, we complete all the sales tax returns in one 4-hour sitting.

We have different lean cells for different kinds of repetitive compliance work like payroll and 1040s.

We plan to experiment with combining two lean cells together, but the math on that gets more complicated than I wish to put here, lol.

I don’t know if that helps at all. 😀

Really interesting Max, thanks for sharing. Just wondering, how do you account for time “waiting for client” and other such breakages in the workflow? Also, how have you found the team’s responsiveness to that type of working style? Seems most accountants prefer - and are most comfortable with - the independent work when they have the time to do it, and then hand-off to their manager for review.

p.s. you are definitely an LSS aficionado :) In my last ‘job’, I led a Continuous Improvement & Innovation function and the black belts on our team taught me all I know about lean...so many simple but powerful concepts that changed how I think about work.

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

HI @amlbmo, Another thing you can do that is very helpful is to add information in your templates that tells anyone who is creating a piece of work using that template exactly what information to use.  Please see snip of our 1099 details template.

When you create a work item using this template, this information is in the details section at the bottom.  You are then able to see exactly what dates to use for the start and end, what kind of repeat is needed, the naming convention for that type of work, etc.  This has worked well at our firm to keep all due dates consistent.

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

We have been experimenting with using TAKT and lean cells to plan out and get compliance work done by deadlines.

TAKT = time available / number of work items-- this will tell you how often you need to spit out a sales tax return. If you have 15 returns and 150 working hours, then you need to complete a return every 10 hours to stay on track. This is used for measuring. Actual work is completed a little less evenly in lean cells.

Lean cell = An admin, preparers, and a reviewer all on the same video call. If we have 15 sales tax returns and we know it takes, on average, 30 minutes of prep,15 minutes of review, and 10 minutes of admin for processing, then we know we have 450 minutes of prep, 225 minutes of review, and 150 minutes of admin. We smooth things out by having two preparers and one reviewer giving us a complete working time of 225 minutes + stoppage and breaks… roughly four hours.

By doing the work in a lean cell, we complete all the sales tax returns in one 4-hour sitting.

We have different lean cells for different kinds of repetitive compliance work like payroll and 1040s.

We plan to experiment with combining two lean cells together, but the math on that gets more complicated than I wish to put here, lol.

I don’t know if that helps at all. 😀

...how do you account for time “waiting for client” and other such breakages in the workflow?

Single piece flow only works well with a stable. We saw a backlog in “waiting for client info” at the start of work items and “waiting for client answers” in the middle of the process, which broke the single piece flow system I described above.

We needed to overcome that issue before it would work, so we spent a lot of resources making experimenting with different ways to get all the right documents and information up front from our clients before starting the work. Unless it was apparent we had all the documents, we scheduled a phone call with the clients to review their documents, ask clarifying questions, and immediately request and receive any missing information before the work passes to the accountants.

This virtually eliminated mid-work breakages. We were also able to give a pretty accurate timeframe to the client for work completion.

Also, how have you found the team’s responsiveness to that type of working style? Seems most accountants prefer - and are most comfortable with - the independent work when they have the time to do it, and then hand-off to their manager for review.

Our CPAs are often working on a single project for multiple days, so the single-piece-flow system doesn’t work well for their type of work. We are still experimenting with different ways to handle the big projects they produce.

All the staff who do the standardized repetitive work come from our bookkeeping department and work remotely, so the group work setting has been adopted with excitement, both for the immediate feedback staff get on their work, and from the satisfaction of seeing the work completed in one sitting, but most of all from the collaborative, real-time interactions they get for longer periods on the video call.

p.s. you are definitely an LSS aficionado :) In my last ‘job’, I led a Continuous Improvement & Innovation function and the black belts on our team taught me all I know about lean...so many simple but powerful concepts that changed how I think about work.

😀 I tell people it’s like a religion. It’s a way of thinking and learning that never stops, and once you see what’s possible, it’s hard to be patient and wait for others to catch the fire, lol.

Userlevel 3
Badge

Not sure if this is in the string, or helpful, but we’ve started adding the date placeholders to the work items to ensure the correct date is shown.

This is mainly as its only the work item heading that is shown on the client portal and for Monthly work this is awesome and we always have crossovers and it give the client a better UX when navigating inside the portal.

Hope this is useful

P

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Not sure if this is in the string, or helpful, but we’ve started adding the date placeholders to the work items to ensure the correct date is shown.

This is mainly as its only the work item heading that is shown on the client portal and for Monthly work this is awesome and we always have crossovers and it give the client a better UX when navigating inside the portal.

Hope this is useful

P

Hi @Paul Clarke YES!  Date placeholders are a key piece to give a clear picture not only in the portal but the day to day.  This is especially important when the work covers one period but has a start and due date in the following month.  With the new client portal it will important to include the Year in those date placeholders if that is not your usual practice - remember that 100 items remain visible at any given time, this could cover several years.

Great point.

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