CPA FAQs – How Can I Add Value To My Tax Audits?

With today’s growing and ever-changing regulations and compliance landscape, clients expect their accountants to offer more value-added services in addition to bookkeeping.

This new growth mindset is not limited to CPAs, as accounting firms are also creating ways to add more value. According to SourceMedia Research, 98% of accounting firms are exploring ways to diversify and expand their businesses by offering services in addition to accounting and auditing.

These tax season tips help CPAs and firms add value to their tax audits, meet client requirements, and bring more efficiency.

1. Leverage Technology in Client Communication

You can leverage technology to transform both the practice and value provided to clients. Ever-changing and increasingly complex tax laws present an opportunity for accountants to use intelligent dashboards powered by analytics to advise clients on taking the next step, thereby increasing the firm’s productivity and revenue stream for the practice. Investing in a more accessible and centralized cloud computing system for knowledge management, risk mitigation, and reporting allows you to:

• Use the right technology to automate the audit process.
• Increase visibility across, and standardization of, audit engagements.
• Make knowledge management more accessible and centralized.
• Mitigate risk, while creating an engaged workforce and culture.

Investing in a SaaS-based technology solution and responsive portal not only enables electronic document management, but it also allows your team to interact, engage, and exchange information easily.

2. Client Accounting Services (CAS)

By bundling a variety of capabilities and advisory services with your current array of services, you can spur growth in your firm. CAS includes anything from administrative functions like payroll and bookkeeping, to more consultative services like tax planning, projecting cash flows, or even outsourcing part-time CFO responsibilities. Accounting Today reports that a majority of accounting firms will be offering client accounting services (CAS) – a broader set of services that look to be a win for both the CPA firm and their clients. The easiest way to get started with CAS is to identify cloud-based solutions that automate most or all of the new services like AR/PR, cash flow management, payroll, and others that you wish to provide.

3. Advisory Services and Audit Data Analytics

Clients almost universally recognize their CPA firm as a strategic advisor, and firms have a significant opportunity to leverage this relationship by providing extended services. As a trusted advisor, offering advisory services to tax audits extends a CPA’s value and the ability to serve with a more holistic approach. By moving away from a service provider model to an advisory model, with the help of cloud computing and apps, you can focus on helping clients improve business performance and operate more strategically. Going beyond accounting technical expertise, your CPA firm can add layers of capabilities around strategy, business transformation, IT consulting, and any data analytics needs that the client may have.

Audit Data Analytics (ADAs) allows you to discover and analyze patterns, identify anomalies, and extract other useful information in data related to an audit through analysis, modeling, and visualization. It allows you to gain deeper insights into the client’s business and to turn that insight into higher-value-added services.

Don’t Lose to Your Competitors!

Your business clients are concerned about financial data privacy and security. They often struggle to manage cash flow and many are in significant need of financial guidance.

Fast-growing businesses are an opportunity for your CPA firm to make the transition from providing typical accounting services to offering higher-value advisory accounting services. Partnering with a leading tech-savvy accounting and bookkeeping company like Analytix Solutions under the CPA Partner Program gives you end-to-end solutions that promote sustainable growth and help your firm remain competitive.

What do you think are the best ways to add value to tax audits? Please share your comments.

Next Steps

• Visit Analytix to learn how Analytix can help your business reach its full potential.
• Mail sales@analytix.com or call us at 781.503.9002 for a demo session now
• Read about the latest trends in prior authorization on our blog.
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Written by

Analytix Editorial Team