Ensuring Accurate Data: 3 Ways to Avoid Numerical Errors

Tax specialists recognize the danger of reporting incorrect financial information to the IRS: not only does it threaten your reputation as a tax preparer, but it puts your client at risk of penalty, or even worse, a potential audit. In fact, the IRS reports that the biggest mistake tax payers make most frequently is submitting erroneous data, either intentionally or by accident. Even innocent mistakes made by well-intentioned tax preparers don’t go over well with your clients (because regardless of who prepared them, your clients are ultimately responsible for their returns); word of mouth advertising can work against you when you make mistakes. So how do you ensure that your data will be correct this upcoming tax season? Here are three tips to help:

1. Require clients to submit their information early?.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” This should become your mantra during tax season. Mistakes generally happen when you’re rushed to file a return. Require clients to submit their information early. That gives you amble time to see that their returns are accurate. But my clients don’t always do what I tell them to, you say. Give them a deadline. Inform them that if they don’t submit their information by that deadline, you may have to file for an extension. You shouldn’t voice it as a threat, but as a matter of fact. As long as you warn your clients, and make them aware that their bad planning may result in an undesirable consequence, they can take responsibility for filing delays.

1. Check data twice; record once ?.

The IRS claims that numerical errors (miscalculations and typographical mistakes) make up the majority of erroneous returns. It’s easy to incorrectly transfer information from one form to another. Double-checking the returns before submitting them is crucial. You may be a seasoned tax preparer who feels your experience makes that final step unnecessary; unfortunately, even experiences tax preparers make mistakes. The few minutes you spend reviewing a return could save you and your clients more time in the end.

1. Enlist the help of accounting software?.

Universal Accounting Center’s QuickBooks Training Can Help
In learning to optimize QuickBooks software, you’ll not only be able to ensure accurate tax returns, but you can add an additional income stream to your tax practice. You’ll find clients in need of QuickBooks training and help services. You can charge $65 to $95 for your QuickBooks set-up and consultation services. And once your help people get started, who do you think they’ll come to for help? That’s right – YOU! That means you’ll develop a QuickBooks client base that will then come to you when they need tax help.

UAC’s Guide to QuickBooks Pro will teach you how to do the basic transactions, how to reconcile accounts, what the program does with its data, and a basic understanding of fundamental accounting principles. We have also included about 18 hours of bookkeeping instruction and a complete detailed presentation of QuickBooks fundamentals. You may well call it a lifesaver.

Universal Accounting Center ’s self-paced program enables you to complete the parts that interest you and skip over the parts that don’t. Even if you have used the program for years, the program teaches you shortcuts and methods you may not have known. You will be impressed by the simple flow and completeness of our program.

And enroll now and SAVE. You will get the Professional Bookkeeper’s Guide to QuickBooks and the trial version of QuickBooks Pro. For a small amount of money you could improve the accuracy of your tax returns and add an additional income stream to your tax practice.

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