During the summer, many accountants see a decline in their workload. Once tax season is over and late filings are taken care of, things tend to slow down. This gives accountants a unique opportunity to rest and recuperate, as well as focus on any long-term or pressing tasks that are clogging up their to-do lists.
If you’re an accountant who’s experiencing this lull for the first time, don't worry. Being unsure of the best way to fill your summer is a challenge most accountants face at one time or another. After all, once your tasks are complete, there’s no set list of things you could and should be doing.
In this article, we’ll dive into how accountants can manage their summer shifts and make the most of any extra time they have. We’ll also explore specific tasks you might like to fill your time with. Finally, we’ll take a look at why the summer months can be one of the best times for accountants to hone their craft and strengthen relationships with clients.
How to Manage Your Time As An Accountant
More time on our hands means more work gets done, right? Not necessarily. When things are hectic, accountants are far better at managing their time and staying on top of deadlines. However, in the summer months, when tasks are optional and planning isn’t as important, many accountants fall into the trap of procrastination or taking on conflicting tasks at the same time. Let’s take a look at some ways accountants can effectively time manage during slower periods:
Set Your Schedule - To avoid confusion and wasted time, choose a day at the start of the week or a month when you’ll set your schedule. Decide what tasks you need or want to do, how long you’ll take to do them, and when you expect to finish them. Your schedule can be as rigid or as flexible as you need to stay motivated.
Time Blocking and Timeboxing - Two ways accountants like to manage their time are time blocking and timeboxing. Time blocking is a flexible option that involves setting out blocks of time for a specific area of work, such as admin, data entry, meetings, analysis, reporting, etc. During these blocks, you can complete any relevant tasks. This is a great option for those who prefer not to commit themselves to a specific task but still like to keep a routine. Timeboxing, on the other hand, involves capping the amount of time you can spend on any one area per day. This improves productivity and ensures you take regular breaks, avoiding burnout.
Communicate and Collaborate - With more time on your hands, you may find yourself in unnecessarily lengthy meetings or spending longer than needed on certain tasks. By communicating with your colleagues and sharing skills, you can maximize your time through delegation, empower other team members who may be better suited to a certain duty, and share resources to strengthen your firm as a whole.
Avoid Multi-Tasking - Sometimes, working on the same task for an extended period can be de-motivating. However, switching back and forth between that task and another unrelated assignment will distract you, up the chance of errors, and stop you from producing your best work. Instead, it can be much more helpful to put that task out of your mind completely for now and return to it with a fresh perspective and renewed motivation at a later date.
It’s important to find out what time-management techniques work best for you. There’s little point in spending time on a to-do list every month if it just gets pushed to the bottom of your paper pile. Thankfully, during the slower summer months, you can try out a few organizational methods, and measure your motivation and productivity with each.
How to Spend the Summer Months as an Accountant
Now that you know how to manage your time, let’s take a look at some of the things you can fill your schedule with. While you may have specific tasks you need to complete, there are a variety of ways to fill your downtime too. These include:
- Prepare For Next Year’s Tax Season
It’s never too early to start getting things prepared for next spring. It’s a good idea to review your current clients’ files, refine your bookkeeping system, gather necessary documentation, and set expectations with your clients. Getting a handle on these tasks now can free up crucial time as things start to get busy again, and prepare clients who tend to procrastinate once tax season begins to loom. As well as allowing you to prepare your existing clients effectively, improved time management means you can take on and prepare new clients.
- Check-in and Consult with Clients
The slower summer months provide the perfect opportunity to strengthen your client relationships and provide impeccable service. You can review their finances, set goals, and provide in-depth advice at regular meetings. This will allow you to better understand their expectations and needs, and explain your processes to them. Keep a variety of communication channels open so they can reach out to you should they need it. This hands-on approach to clients leads to positive reviews and more business in the future.
- Research, Training, and Development
Accounting is an industry that’s constantly changing. If it’s not regulations being updated, paperwork layouts being altered or extra documents added to your workload, it’s new software to get to grips with or internal policy changes. Slow periods are the perfect opportunity to get up to date with prospective changes while expanding your general knowledge and core skills. Why not take a webinar, attend a training program, or even host a workshop at your practice? This can also help you strengthen collaboration with your colleagues and share skills, increasing your value as a team.
- Networking and Business Development
Staying engaged with professional networks brings a variety of benefits to accountants and their firms. Attending industry conferences, joining professional associations, and taking part in networking events will help you gain new contacts. With an expanding circle of key individuals, you can position yourself and your practice for future opportunities and advantageous partnerships. Not to mention, networking helps to get your firm’s name out there through word-of-mouth recommendations and industry marketing.
- Take A Well-Deserved Break
What are the summer months for if not to rest and relax? Increased downtime during the summer can help you recover from the non-stop focus needed during tax season. However, it also means you’ll be better able to schedule much-needed breaks into your daily routine. Whether you pursue hobbies, strengthen colleague relationships, refresh workplace culture, or simply take a vacation, allocating ample time to take a break will rejuvenate your passion for your work and up your motivation.
- Address Backlogged Tasks
During busy periods, tasks build up but may not be dealt with immediately, especially if they’re unrelated to your current work. If there’s a certain duty you’ve been putting off for a while, the summer months provide the perfect opportunity to get on top of it. General administration usually gets pushed to the bottom of the pile, so take this time to organize your workflow and complete more mundane tasks. By decluttering your to-do list now, you can strategize for the future and build a foundation for increased efficiency when things pick up again.
- Explore Automation and Technology
Introducing a new system in the middle of tax season is a definite no-go. However, once things have slowed down, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to try out some ways to streamline your tasks. Technology such as cloud accounting, machine learning software, and payroll automation programs will free up even more of your time and improve the accounting process for clients, too. But, these things take time to implement and perfect. Use the slower summer months to assess your current systems, find out what you need from automation software, research relevant programs, and discuss which ones will benefit your practice as a whole. This way, you’ll be able to focus on strategic tasks and get to grips with new programs before things get busy again.
In Conclusion…
The slower summer months may leave accountants unsure of how to fill their time. However, this downtime is a unique opportunity to reassess your priorities, hone your skills, streamline your systems, and take a break after the hectic workload of tax season.
Knowing how to manage your time as an accountant during the summer will ensure you maximize your productivity. Create a schedule at regular intervals to avoid procrastination and multi-tasking that may slow you down. Or, if you prefer more flexibility, use time blocking and boxing to give yourself an idea of what you’ll be working on.
When it comes to how you spend your time, you can strengthen client relationships and get them prepared for the next tax season, invest in your professional development through research and education, and create new opportunities for your firm through networking and exploring potential accounting software.
By utilizing the summer months, you can enhance your skills and productivity and position yourself for future success. Don’t be intimidated by the summer slowdown. Make the most of this time in your calendar to be the best at what you do.
Sources
- https://www.glasscubes.com/time-management-in-accounting/
- https://minutedock.com/academy/time-management-tips-for-accountants
- https://clockify.me/timeboxing
- https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/how-accountants-can-prepare-for-the-next-tax-season-now
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-things-accountants-should-do-make-most-quiet-summer-whittam
- https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/7-ways-to-take-advantage-of-a-summer-slow-down-in-your-accounting-business
- https://bridgepointconsulting.com/4-finance-accounting-projects-to-tackle-over-summer/
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