Preparing for Next Tax Season, Part 2: How Accounting Firms Can Drive Operational Change  

In our last blog, we explored how busy season exposes operational strain for accounting firms. But identifying workflow breakdowns is only the first step. Firms that fail to address them before the next busy season risk compounding staffing pressure and internal bottlenecks. 

The weeks immediately after tax season give firms a window to evaluate where workflows broke down while the experience is still fresh. From there, they must decide which operational changes will have the greatest impact on staff workloads, client experience, and their firm’s growth potential.  

Throughout the summer, firms have an opportunity to address the operational habits and workflow breakdowns that created unnecessary pressure during busy season.   

The Link Between Operations, Retention, and Growth 

Routine workflow frustrations are often the symptoms of larger operational gaps, which can affect retention, profitability, and growth in the following ways: 

Staff retention  

Over 300,000 accountants left the profession between 2020 and 2022, with excessive workloads and long hours contributing to attrition. But work volume alone isn’t driving retention challenges.  

In many firms, burnout is amplified by the amount of manual coordination happening behind the scenes.  

Consider that only 52.7% of accounting staff say they were given tools to help them manage workload during busy season. When teams spend time chasing status updates, tracking deadlines manually, and trying to manage workflows across disconnected systems it creates unnecessary pressure during busy periods.   

Firms that improve their systems can reduce avoidable friction year-round — an increasingly important differentiator in the accounting talent market. 

Sustainable growth  

Operational efficiency directly affects whether firms can retain and scale client relationships during peak periods. Disconnected systems create blind spots that slow response times, delay deliverables, and affect service quality. 

For example, if teams manually track deadlines and manage client information across disparate systems, timely client requests can fall through the cracks.  

Firms that standardize how teams track work and communicate updates are often better positioned to spot bottlenecks earlier, manage workloads more consistently, and respond to clients more efficiently during peak periods.  

As firms look to grow and take on more client work, this level of visibility is the foundation for handling increased client demands. 

A Step-By-Step Guide for Implementing Operational Change 

Operational improvements rarely fail because firms lack intent. They fail because implementation is fragmented or poorly prioritized. The following steps can help firms turn post-season insights into sustained improvements before the fall season: 

Step 1: Identify High-Priority Gaps 

• Begin by reviewing the gaps identified during the post-season debrief and prioritize them by business impact. 
• For example, which workflow gaps created the biggest downstream impact on turnaround times or staff capacity? 

Step 2: Evaluate Current Systems 

• Determine whether current systems are helping teams manage work consistently or creating additional coordination behind the scenes. 
• Before adding new tools, identify where work is becoming fragmented and where teams are relying too heavily on manual follow-up to keep projects moving. Operational strain often develops when deadlines, status updates, document requests, and reviews are managed across too many separate systems, spreadsheets, and side conversations.  
• If teams struggle primarily with managing work across disconnected systems, implementing a unified practice management platform may be the best solution to improve visibility. 

Step 3: Build an Implementation Timeline  

• Begin mapping out a realistic implementation timeline that accounts for pilot programs, data migration, and staff training.  
• Leadership alignment early in the process is important because teams are more likely to adopt operational changes when expectations, workflows, and responsibilities are clearly defined upfront.  

Step 4: Pilot Before Expanding 

• Pilot the new platform or workflows with a single team or service line before firm-wide rollout.  
• Testing changes with one team first can help firms identify where communication gaps, inconsistent processes, or manual work still exist before rolling changes out more broadly.  

Step 5: Measure Progress 

• Establish baseline metrics prior to full rollout, such as client turnaround times and staff utilization, to measure the long-term impact of operational changes. 
• Identify signs that teams are spending less time coordinating work manually and more time moving client work forward efficiently during peak periods. 

Prepare Your Firm for Busy Season and Beyond  

To close operational gaps before the fall, firms need an honest assessment of where work became difficult to manage during busy season — whether extension deadlines were tracked across spreadsheets and personal task lists, tax returns sat in review queues without visibility, or staff spent hours following up through email just to understand where work stood. 

Firms that improve year over year are often the ones willing to evaluate these operational challenges while the experience is still fresh. 

Eva Mrazikova

Global Head of Product Marketing

Eva Mrazikova is Global Head of Product Marketing at IRIS, where she leads go-to-market strategy, competitive positioning and product marketing across IRIS’ Accountancy and HCM portfolios in the UK and US.

With more than 20 years’ experience spanning product marketing leadership, commercial strategy and technology transformation, Eva brings a rare blend of strategic vision and hands-on execution to complex, multi-product businesses.

A recognised product marketing leader and qualified accountant, she has spent her career at the forefront of digital transformation, helping organisations navigate the shift from legacy platforms to cloud-based, AI-enabled solutions while driving measurable commercial outcomes through market-led strategy.