Every tax season leaves accountants feeling the impact of a stressful tax process, wondering what they can improve for the next. The answer is to simplify, streamline and speed up how your practice handles personal tax is a software package that integrates all your compliance needs.
By centralising all your compliance products and introducing simple, standardised workflows personalised to your processes, your practice can increase how efficiently it operates and reduce the stress of meeting the 31st January deadline next year.
#1: Get faster and safer access to data
Integrating your tax and accounts software solutions can reduce the amount of time adding, correcting and using the data. Real-time data can be accessed quickly and securely as you progress through the compliance steps, from accounts production to personal tax. When added to one solution, data can easily flow through to the next, populating all the necessary fields and reducing the need for manual data entry.
All workflows connect seamlessly. Simple changes to data, such as contact details, can be updated once and this will automatically flow through to your clients’ accounts and tax returns. Using an integrated system can help keep data safer. Information held in the system is regularly and automatically backed-up giving you that extra peace of mind.
#2: Future proof your processes
Using integrated software takes the strain out of any compliance changes. Systems and workflows will be automatically updated to comply with any changes in regulation.
Integrating your accounts production and personal tax solutions will become particularly important when Making Tax Digital for Income Tax comes into play over the coming years. While these two functions will often exist in separate teams within your practice, this will change with the introduction of quarterly reporting. The management reports traditionally prepared by an accounts team may need more regular tax department input, meaning the work from both teams could cross over. It will be important to have both teams working with integrated software using the same data.
#3: Reduce the opportunity for error
Introducing consistent workflows throughout your practice means that all your employees will follow the same process, reducing the risk of missing any vital steps. An integrated system can automatically highlight any errors or inconsistencies easily so that they can be amended quickly. Key areas of risk will be highlighted, helping to improve accuracy and reduce the risk of HMRC enquiries.
Survive and thrive through your next tax season
The industry is evolving at a rapid pace and digitalisation is the solution to that changing landscape. The tax return of tomorrow will be a digital file, and the core value that you will be providing as a tax advisor will be validating the data. Tax compliance will become digitalised and maybe that vision of a paperless office for compliance could finally become a reality.
Download this whitepaper to find out how you can navigate this new digital landscape in your next tax season
