Accountants

Ready to boss tax season? Here are the accounting features you need in your back pocket

Bookkeepers and accountants know all too well how stressful year-end can be. It’s a busy time for you, and it can be a little daunting for clients, but don’t worry. There’s a way to turn that turbulence into opportunity. Laying the groundwork for tax season Before you jump into your software, there is some housekeeping […]

Taimoor Tariq

March 15, 2022 5 min read

Bookkeepers and accountants know all too well how stressful year-end can be. It’s a busy time for you, and it can be a little daunting for clients, but don’t worry. There’s a way to turn that turbulence into opportunity.

Laying the groundwork for tax season

Before you jump into your software, there is some housekeeping you can do to make everything run more smoothly from the get-go.

Make a list, then go do it

First, put together a checklist of the work you need to do for each client. That way, the work you do for them every month becomes an easy-to-follow client workflow, which frees up time and makes things more straightforward during tax season.

Get ahead of the game

The value you bring your clients is still fresh in their minds this time of the year. Why not review your engagement letters, and secure future work by getting them to re-sign for next year? This’ll give both sides peace of mind.

Talk about the tech

This is also the perfect time to talk to your clients about what’s new in tech and how it can streamline things further next year. Take cloud accounting software and the likes of AutoEntry, for example. This tech combo can help you lighten the load when requests come flying in at those extra busy times of the year. Your client gets real-time access to their accounts, which means they can get the information they need whenever they need it, and you can stay focused on getting year end done.

Using cloud accounting software to boss your busiest season

Let’s take a closer look at the exact Sage Accounting tools and features that you need to breeze through year end. From automating data entry to free up time spent on tedious tasks to processing tax and compliance at lightning speed, we’ve got you covered.

Managing banking more efficiently

Now, it doesn’t matter if your account is linked to a bank feed or not—you can import current and historic data easily either way. This handy detail means you can import huge quantities of banking transactional data quickly. Accountants and bookkeepers also have the power to delete transactions before importing into the bank account. This helps to avoid duplications or errors, which can turn into a bit of a time sinkhole if you’re not careful. Using AutoEntry? A new “Export to Sage” function is your best friend here. This allows you to import client bank statements directly into Sage Accounting, cutting out that tedious manual import process. Win.

Managing bank rules for multiple accounts

Whether you’re a business user or an accountant, you want flexibility for your finances. You need to be able to easily access and manage the data that moves in and out of multiple bank accounts. Good news: users can copy bank rules across accounts instead of manually inputting rules for each account they manage. Another time-saving feature, this gives users more control making sure that transactions which might feature in either account can be caught as they happen.

Importing journal entries

Journal entries have always been the go-to way to get information into an accounting program. The latest accounting software comes with the power to import journal those entries. This helps you automate and supercharge the regular posting users need to make. On top of that, you can say goodbye to manually entering each one separately, and a big hello to one-click journal uploads that free up time to do more of what you love. This clever feature also gives you the flexibility to import transaction data from other complementary programs you might be using, and spread your yearly expenses to reflect applicable months more fairly.

Multi-currency banking

It’s becoming more popular for small businesses to keep foreign currency accounts in the countries they trade in. This is, of course, to avoid sky-high transfer rates and fees that cut into the bottom line. Accountants and bookkeepers can now create multi-currency invoices and set up a new bank account in another currency. Translation: accountants can manage a client’s business across multiple countries easily, using a clear, centralised view of all the relevant bank accounts in the right currencies. Customers can also record individual payments made to the corresponding country account, and tweak the rates for a specific date when necessary.

Let’s talk integrations: TaxCycle and Zapier

Tax return software has become a must-have, and choosing the right one could make all the difference for your practice at crunch time. Take Sage’s one-step integration with TaxCycle, for example. This allows you to link TaxCycle with Sage Accounting, so you’re free to seamlessly import GIFI information into corporate and partnership returns. Zapier is another tool for accountancy and bookkeeping firms that spend hours onboarding customers, engaging with them, invoicing, collecting payments, doing the accounts, and so on. This tool provides a fast, cost effective way of finding and implementing automation to streamline processes across your practice, so you can focus on more important things, like how to build a more profitable relationship with your clients and scale. Zapier + Sage Accounting gives you the connectivity across 4000+ apps to reduce manual tasks, giving you better control and hours to spend on building effective client relationships

What’s next for accountants and bookkeepers?

Every accountant and bookkeeper out there needs to figure out a strategy that works for them when it comes to handling the workflow of their busiest season. But one thing is true for all; investing in the right tools is something that can streamline processes and free up your most precious resource—time. Want to take a deep dive into these shiny new features? Watch this webinar now.

Subscribe to the Sage Advice Newsletter

Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.

Ready to boss tax season? Here are the accounting features you need in your back pocket