If managers can see who has what returns, how long they have had them and what kind of information is left open, then managers have a greater ability to produce quality, measure quantity and reward staff members, or not, for their work. This, of course, goes beyond tax because it affects all professional work in accounting firm that can be monitored and measured.
Since software is converging, workflow and reporting applications are all going to put more power into the hands of managers. Returns can be distributed more evenly and redistributed if necessary. Who’s been bad or good is going to be easier to ascertain since the system tracks how long it takes preparers to do their job, and how well.
Firms should be able to link this to their time and billing/practice management applications and have the hours spent on the returns, or other work, captured more efficiently.
This should also make it easier to change compensation plans for the naughty and nice both and it should make it easier to defend compensation plans because performance can be measured more accurately since the workflow can be tracked. The ways things are going, firms may be measuring how accountants in the
