I sat down to a copy of CaseWare working papers and with a few instructions about where the files were located on the network, was able to open up this year’s electronic file, import client data from QuickBooks , fix all of the client posting errors, review the financial statement, and then export my data into Lacerte. (And BTW, who came up that the idea to have a new schedule M-3? What a pain in the neck that is. M-1 is my friend, M-3, I’m not so sure.) I did a lot of work on QuickBooks supporting schedules using my tool of choice, Microsoft Excel, and CaseWare’s connector let me plug in values from the trial balance into my worksheet so I was always in synch.   

I want to be clear, I am not taking anything away from the reams of smart tax professionals out there. I admire, respect, and in fact hire many of you to do real tax work. I was operating at the level of a first-year staff preparer. I was highly dependent on having a skilled reviewer and access to others for questions about intricacies of tax law. I was also fortunate to have been following people who had taken the time to set up the working papers properly so they were easy to follow. They used mapping to connect accounts to financials and the tax return, created templates  and had already rolled the data forward so I was ready to get started.

But what I realized is that today’s tools have come a long way from earlier tax preparation products and manual working papers. In the old days, we used a separate Trial Balance tool to import data from our client’s accounting packages, made adjustments and then created those manual working paper files. Thankfully, today’s tools are far better integrated and designed with accountants in mind.

Thanks to technology, I managed to stay out of the doghouse for most of tax season. I am confident that a few young pups are in a similar position of gratitude.

Geni Whitehouse CPA.CITP, CSPM

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Geni Whitehouse, CPA.CITP, CSPM is the Founder of Even a Nerd Can Be Heard, an organization focused on communication skills for smart people.  With past roles ranging from partner in a CPA firm to leader of the technology practice in a firm, she has a wide range of experiences to share.  She is a former software company executive and industry analyst and a two-time graduate of the Jeff Justice Comedy Workshoppe. She is passionate about finding interesting ways to talk about what some might consider boring subjects and has discovered that there is no shortage of material. She is the author of How to Make a Boring Subject Interesting : 52 ways even a nerd can be heard.