Dreading Tax Season? Here’s the Key to Hitting Deadlines

Tax season is usually filled with stressful work days and sleepless nights. But as the pandemic lingers, it’s making the 2023 tax season more complicated.

For many teams, this means hoping to endure more pressure and longer days. But some teams figured out a way to get everything done accurately and on time—and still have work/life balance.

What makes this tax season different

Along with the usual struggle with managing burnout and keeping updated with the latest tax codes, accounting professionals and leaders are also wrestling with new concerns such as:

• How will team members cope with returning back to the office amid ongoing pandemic fears?
• How will the IRS backlog from 2021 affect this year’s returns?
• If the Building Back Better Act passes last-minute, how can the team pivot fast enough to remain compliant with the new tax code changes?
  

In the best of times, handling a typical filing season may feel like trying to put out a raging house fire one cup of water at a time. It simply may be too much work for any team to handle without burning them out.

Some teams are fortunate enough to get seasonal help. But finding your own talent in a tight labor market, squeezed further by The Great Resignation, is taking more time and effort than many leaders can afford.

You could ask staffing agencies for help, but they’re struggling to fill job orders too. It’s not surprising, as they’re visiting the same overutilized talent pools businesses go to.

But there’s still hope.

Small to large businesses are proving you can access all of the highly skilled finance and accounting professionals you need, when you need them.

You just have to rethink how you work. This is where Upwork, the world’s work marketplace, can help.

An updated approach to work

The world is full of highly skilled finance and accounting professionals, but most of them may not be working in your neighborhood. However, they can still work with you—if you’re open to working with them remotely.

By being open to remote work, you immediately increase your talent pool from your city, to the entire country, and as far out as the globe.

That’s a lot of financial specialists available to help you. And finding them is easier than you may think.

Connecting you with this global talent pool of professionals is what we do at Upwork, the world’s largest work marketplace.

When you visit Upwork, you’ll immediately notice it’s abundant with experienced tax and accounting professionals who are accustomed to jumping into a project and getting right to work.

These are highly experienced professionals who love what they do so much, they didn’t just make it their job, they started a business.

And they joined Upwork to make it easier for you to find them.

Because it’s their business, you may find that independent professionals actively keep their skills updated more than some employees. So, you can work with specialists who know the latest tax codes and requirements for getting work done right.

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Find the ideal talent within 3 days

We intentionally designed the platform to help quickly connect the ideal talent with the ideal clients. Hiring and working with independent professionals through Upwork is like a typical engagement process, except you’re in control the entire time and it’s a whole lot faster.

Instead of taking weeks of back and forth, you can find someone within three days on average.

This means within three days, you can engage a:

• Tax Consultant for help with maintaining tax compliance and determining audit risk, preparing and reviewing tax returns, and creating financial plans.
• Bookkeeper for help with cleaning up accounts, researching and gathering documents, preparing budgets, processing transactions, entering data, assisting with audits and tax compliance.
• Accountant for help with preparing tax forms, providing tax planning advice, identifying all deductions and credits, and ensuring you’re compliant with the latest tax codes.
• Financial Analyst for help creating financial reports, analyzing data, creating financial schedules, reviewing costs, and preparing monthly financial statements.
• Interim CFO for help navigating the business through a financial change, aid in systems implementation/integration, and guide the business through a merger/acquisition.
• Fractional CFO for consulting businesses during a growth stage, setting up accounting systems that can scale with the business, analyzing financial performance, building cash-flow models, and advising on capital-market investments.

Or start a project the same day

If you rather not post a job and interview talent, you can browse financial consulting services on Project Catalog. There, you’ll find the most popular financial projects offered at set prices such as:

• Get a financial model or financial plan, starting at $200
• Have your taxes prepared by a CPA, starting at $149
• Update your bookkeeping and get financial statements, starting at $125
• Ask tax questions during a consultation with a CPA, starting at $105
• Get valuation modeling and reporting, starting at $300
  

You can start taking work off your plate in three quick steps:

1. Enter the type of work you want, such as “prepare financial statements”
2. Review a few of the project offerings in your search results
3. Click the one you want

That’s it! Now you can move on to other things knowing that the independent specialist is getting the project done.

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Tax season doesn’t have to be a grind

Tax season can be so much easier when you rethink how you work. The experienced professionals you need are available to help right now. And Upwork makes it easier for you to connect with them.

This filing season, let independent financial professionals lift some of the burden off your team’s shoulders, so your team can spend more time on other priorities. Just as important, they can also avoid burning out as they’ll have more time with loved ones, can sleep a few more hours, and drink a little less coffee.