Client Packets

[drdino]

I know this has been discussed before but what do you mail to clients before the tax season starts and when do you mail it. Do you use the engagement letters that are provided with your software programs or tailor your own? Thanks...

[Jiggers]

Year-end mailing

I know this has been discussed before but what do you mail to clients before the tax season starts and when do you mail it. Do you use the engagement letters that are provided with your software programs or tailor your own? Thanks...

I mail my year-end letter and client check-list between Christmas and New years.

Besides the year-end letter and client check-list (things to bring in for their Schedule C,E,& F returns mainly), I mail my own engagement letter and for those that have vehicle expenses, my mileage form that requires them to provide their total mileage and business mileage. I also include a questionaire asking those required questions that most software produce, just modified for my business.

[JohnH]

I mail the client letter (just a year-end tax update), along with a single-page checklist for everything I need to have them get together (I don't use a mult-page organizer). I also include an extra copy of the checklist for them to pass along to friends & relatives, and I include a couple of mailing labels to encourage them to mail their info back to me since my main goal is to keep my clients out of my office during tax season.

I also email the info above to everyone for whom I have an email address (about half my clients). This gets us off on the right foot, because if they have tax questions they will tend to reply to the email rather than call me. This works into my plan as well, btecause next to keeping them out of my office my next best step is to keep them off my telephone.

Don't get me wrong - I really like most of my clients. I enjoy interacting with them - but not during tax season.

[drdino]

John

Do you do most of your returns by 'dropoff' method? What about initial returns? Mostly by mail or do they come to you with their information. Sorry for all the questions....Dean

[JohnH]

About 3/4 of my clients deliver their info to me to me via US mail or dropoff. I have a large mail slot in my office door that many of them use, so oftentimes I come into the office in the morning to find several clients' info waiting for me. I will email them (or call if I must) and let them know I got the info and approx when I expect to have it back to them.

I don't efile, so this system works fine for me because when I complete the return I just mail it back to them for signature & filing, usually with an email or phone call to let them know it's on the way.

New clients are a different matter. Lots depends upon how I acquired the client and what I may already know about them if they are a referral. I have a number of clients I've never met, because I was satisfied that we covered everything in the phone interview and the review of the prior 2-3 year's tax returns. Others I wouldn't think of preparing the first time without a sit-down. It's a matter of judgement and common sense.

I see a many posts about "policies" that people have concerning things like this. In most cases I think policies tend to make us do the right thing at the wrong time and the wrong thing at the right time, so most policies only serve to provide adminstrative cover for stupid behavior. My policy is to trust my instincts and make rational decisions about matters like this based on my experience & judgement.

[drdino]

Thanks. I was wondering how this worked with e-file. Would seem like a lot of mailing.

[JohnH]

Probably would work in much the same way.

I'd email the signature form to the client as a password protected attachment that they could download, sign, and fax it back to me. (I suppose they could scan & email it back to me, but I'd be a little concerned about document security if they didn't have the capability to password protect it themselves).

For those who don't use email (or fax) there would be a bit of US mail going back & forth, so it seems it would be just as easy for them to sign & mail a paper return on to the IRS. With direct deposit of refunds, paper returns only lose about 1 week of total time over efiling anyhow.

These are some of the reasons I don't efile, though not the main ones..

[drdino]

Again, thank you for your response.