Recruiting tax preparers is nobody’s favorite part of running a tax business. However with 2023’s tax season slowly but surely approaching, now is the time to start recruiting and training new tax preparers for your business. In this article we will show you the qualities and skills to look for in your new team members as well as give advice on their training and onboarding.
Find Prepares With Communication Skills
Tax preparation is a customer service based industry. An ideal preparer will not only be able to file their client’s taxes but also effectively communicate with them every step of the way. It’s important to remember that people skills are a character trait and tax preparation is a skill. In other words, hire someone with good people and communication skills and then train them to be a tax preparer!
Offer Training before You Hire
One or two interviews and a resume won’t give you all the information about a candidate you need to know if this individual will be an effective team member. If your tax business offers training courses to those interested in becoming tax preparers you will be able to get a better feel for an individual’s work ethic, skills, and personality.
Prepare Team Members Through Mock Clients
As a customer service based profession it is vitally important for your tax preparers to have the skill of listening to their clients as well as communicate with them. The first impression a client gets of your tax business can determine their experience with you moving forward. Tax preparers that have been in the industry for years have developed this listening skill and can easily determine their client’s needs from a couple conversations. However new preparers will struggle with this. You can mitigate this struggle through practice sessions, roleplaying as a client and using your experience to present different scenarios they may come across as a tax preparer. By doing this you can feel confident in your team and their ability to deal with any problem that may arise in the business.
Train Your Tax Preparers Your Way
You’ve been in the tax preparation business for a few years now. So when it comes to training your new tax preparers you can impart to them your years of experience in order to make sure they are ready to work. When you train your prepares yourself you can have confidence in them and their understanding of tax codes and laws. Hiring and training tax preparers from the ground up ensures that you have the best possible people for the job because you made them the best possible people for the job!
We want to make training easy for you so check out Swift FP and our free training resources including informative videos and mock tax returns for them to file.
Use Software Tools
Training and hiring the right people for the job will set your tax preparation business up for success, but having the right kind of software will ensure your team’s readiness. Tax preparation software and practice management software will keep your team organized and on task throughout the tax season.
We recommend SFP Works for your tax preparation software. SFP Works is very competitively priced and has unlimited E-filing for state and federal! Find out more on our website or request a free demo where we go into all the features that make SFP Works the new standard for professional tax software.
For the business side of tax preparation we have SeQwens, a simple practice management software for tax professionals. SeQwens organizes and automates the business side of your operation allowing you and your team more time to focus on the projects that earn you money.
