When tax season begins, your technology needs to work.
Computers, tax software, document management systems, email, printers, scanners, internet access, and remote access all become more important as workloads increase and deadlines approach.
That’s why the best time to prepare your technology for tax season is before the busy season begins.
A little planning during the rest of the year can help reduce disruptions when your team has the least amount of time to deal with them.
Start With the Problems Your Team Experienced Last Tax Season
One of the best places to start is simply asking your team what frustrated them last year.
Were computers running slowly?
Did anyone have recurring application problems?
Were scanners or printers unreliable?
Was remote access difficult?
Did employees lose time waiting for technology issues to be resolved?
Those experiences can help identify improvements that will have a meaningful impact on the next busy season.
Review Aging Computers
A computer that works adequately during slower months may become much more noticeable when an employee is using it heavily every day.
Before tax season, review:
- Computer age and warranty status
- Performance problems
- Available storage
- Windows support and compatibility
- Requirements for tax and accounting applications
- Computers already scheduled for replacement
If equipment needs to be replaced, completing the work before tax season gives employees time to become comfortable with their new systems.
Review Critical Applications
Accounting & Tax firms often depend on several specialized applications to operate.
Before busy season, verify that critical applications are current, supported, and functioning properly.
This may include:
- Tax preparation software
- Accounting applications
- Payroll systems
- Document management systems
- Client portals
- PDF and scanning applications
- Microsoft 365
- Remote access tools
This is also a good time to identify upcoming software changes that could affect computers, servers, or employee workflows.
Verify Backup and Recovery
Having a backup is important. Knowing that your firm can recover from it is even more important.
Before tax season, understand:
- What information is being backed up
- How frequently backups occur
- Whether Microsoft 365 data is protected
- Whether backups are being monitored
- How critical systems would be recovered
- How long recovery could reasonably take
The goal is to understand what would happen if something went wrong before you’re actually dealing with the problem.
Review Cybersecurity
Busy season doesn’t just increase workloads. Employees may also be working longer hours, moving quickly, communicating with more clients, and processing large amounts of sensitive information.
Before tax season, review important safeguards such as:
- Multifactor authentication (MFA)
- Email and phishing protection
- Endpoint security
- Security updates and patching
- Security awareness training
- User access and permissions
- Vulnerability management
- 24/7 security monitoring
Cybersecurity should be an ongoing process throughout the year, but a pre-season review provides another opportunity to identify issues before workloads increase.
Check Internet and Remote Access
If your firm depends on cloud applications or remote work, internet connectivity becomes critical infrastructure.
Consider whether you have:
- Reliable business internet service
- Appropriate internet performance for your staff
- Secure remote access
- A plan for an extended internet outage
- Reliable connectivity between multiple offices, if applicable
The right contingency plan depends on how dependent your firm is on internet access and how much downtime the business can reasonably tolerate.
Avoid Unnecessary Changes During Busy Season
Not every improvement needs to happen immediately.
Unless there is a security, reliability, or business reason that makes a change necessary, major technology projects are often better completed outside of the busy tax season.
That may include:
- Replacing servers
- Changing IT providers
- Large workstation deployments
- Major network upgrades
- Significant Microsoft 365 changes
- Implementing new business applications
Planning these improvements throughout the year allows your firm to make progress without creating unnecessary disruption during its busiest period.
Build a Plan for the Year
Preparing for tax season shouldn’t begin in December.
Technology planning throughout the year gives your firm time to identify priorities, establish budgets, and complete improvements in a manageable way.
At MicroNet, Technology Business Reviews (TBRs) for Accounting & Tax firms are typically scheduled during mid-Q2, Q3, and Q4, rather than interrupting owners and staff during the busy Q1 tax season.
These conversations aren’t intended to review support tickets. They’re an opportunity to discuss business priorities, technology needs, cybersecurity, lifecycle planning, budgets, and improvements that should be completed before the next busy season.
Enter Tax Season With a Plan
No technology environment can guarantee that something won’t go wrong.
The objective is to identify foreseeable problems, address important risks, and prepare your technology before your team is operating under the pressure of tax season.
You shouldn’t have to become an IT expert to do that. A good Managed IT Services partner should help you understand what needs attention, what can wait, and what should be planned for the future.
Ready to Prepare for the Next Tax Season?
If you’re unsure whether your technology is ready for the next busy season, MicroNet can help review your current environment, identify priorities, and develop a practical plan for improvements before workloads increase.
