How Accountancy Firms Can Get a Grip on Peak Workloads During Tax Return Season

Why is the tax return season so challenging every year?

For many accountancy firms, the tax return season feels like a sprint that lasts for months. Not only because there is a lot of work, but mainly because many different activities come together at the same time.

Think of:

• Income tax;
• Corporation tax;
• VAT returns;
• Annual accounts;
• Regular client queries;
• Advisory work that continues as usual in the meantime.

In an ideal world, clients submit their documents exactly on time, files progress as expected and everyone is available when needed.

But during the tax return season, the reality is often different. A client submits documents late, a file takes more time than expected, an urgent query comes in or a team member is unexpectedly absent.

The problem, therefore, is not that planning changes. The problem arises when your planning cannot easily adapt to those changes.

Especially during peak periods, you need planning that is flexible enough to quickly move and redistribute work, while immediately showing what a change means for the rest of your planning.

This prevents every change from becoming a new puzzle and allows you to make adjustments before deadlines or team members come under pressure.

The pressure therefore does not arise solely from the volume of work. A lack of up-to-date insight into the consequences of changes plays at least as significant a role.

The biggest pitfall: planning based on gut feeling

At many accountancy firms, a large part of the planning exists in the head of a single planner, team leader or experienced team member.

For example, that person knows:

• Which client can wait a little longer;
• Which team member has experience with a specific file;
• Which deadline requires attention first;
• Where there may still be some capacity available.

This can work well as long as a firm is small and the amount of work remains manageable. But as soon as the number of clients grows, teams become larger or work is divided across multiple departments, this way of planning becomes vulnerable.

The consequences are often familiar:

• Planners spend every day moving work around;
• A lot of coordination takes place via Teams, WhatsApp or email;
• Multiple versions of the same planning exist;
• Team members do not always know what takes priority.

This not only affects the planning itself, but also the organisation.

Deadlines come under pressure

When the consequences of changes are not immediately visible, the risk of delays and missed deadlines increases.

The risk of errors increases

Manual data entry, separate files and duplicate actions increase the risk of human error.

More internal coordination is required

Colleagues spend a lot of time searching, asking questions and checking whether information is still up to date.

The workload increases further

Time lost to research and manual planning cannot be spent on substantive work or client advice.

Clients notice the consequences

When clients are asked again for documents they have already provided, it can raise doubts about how well internal processes are organised.

As a result, valuable time is lost on planning and coordination, when that time is precisely what is needed for clients.

Why insight into capacity is more important than a full planning

During the tax return season, the focus is often on one central question:

Who still has time?

But available hours only tell part of the story. Realistic planning also takes into account:

• Expertise and experience;
• Specialisms;
• Ongoing files;
• Statutory deadlines;
• Dependencies between activities;
• Expected turnaround times;
• Sickness, leave and other absences;
• The complexity of a file.

A team member may still have capacity on paper, but that does not automatically mean they have the right knowledge or experience for a specific assignment.

By making capacity visible, you can therefore see not only who is available. You can also see where bottlenecks are developing, which team members are at risk of becoming overloaded and which deadlines are at risk.

This allows you to redistribute work or adjust priorities earlier, before a problem arises.

Capacity planning helps accountancy firms distribute work more evenly, prevent overload and manage deadlines more effectively.

Why Excel increasingly falls short during the tax return season

For many accountancy firms, Excel has been a familiar planning tool for years.

For smaller firms, it can still work well. But as the organisation grows or planning becomes more complex, the limitations become more apparent.

Many firms will recognise situations such as:

• Multiple versions of the same planning;
• Manually moving work around;
• No real-time insight into workloads;
• Reliance on a single planner;
• Limited options for monitoring progress;
• Recurring work that has to be entered again every year.

Excel mainly shows what has been planned.

It is less effective at showing what happens when a client submits documents late, a team member is absent, a file takes more time or priorities change.

Especially during the tax return season, it is important that planning can adapt to day-to-day reality.

More and more accountancy firms are using planning software such as vPlan for this. Instead of separate Excel files, planners gain real-time insight into capacity, workloads and the progress of work. This makes it easier to make timely adjustments and manage peak workloads more effectively.

Planning is more than just allocating work

A common mistake is to view planning as a separate activity. In reality, planning is part of the overall workflow. A tax return assignment, for example, goes through several stages:

1. The client submits documents.
2. The assignment is created.
3. The work is planned.
4. The tax return is prepared.
5. The tax return is reviewed.
6. The tax return is submitted.
7. The client receives feedback.

These stages depend on one another. When documents are missing, a team member cannot proceed. When preparation takes longer than expected, the review is also delayed.

When the review takes place later, the final deadline may come under pressure.

If planning is separate from client and project information, team members have to enter data multiple times or keep track of it manually. This takes time and increases the risk of errors.

Good planning therefore connects the assignment, the work, capacity and progress.

Preparing recurring work efficiently

A large proportion of the work during the tax return season recurs every year.

Yet many firms rebuild much of their planning from scratch each year. This takes unnecessary time and increases the risk of work being planned too late or incompletely.

By planning recurring work well in advance, you benefit from:

• Less manual planning;
• A better distribution of work;
• Greater predictability;
• More insight into future capacity issues;
• Less risk of recurring tasks being forgotten.

This allows the planner to focus on exceptions and unexpected situations, rather than rebuilding the same basic planning every year.

Do not plan team members to full capacity

During busy periods, it may seem logical to plan every available hour.

However, in practice, this often has the opposite effect.

There are almost always unexpected situations, such as:

• Urgent requests;
• Clients submitting documents later;
• Sickness or leave;
• Additional advisory queries;
• Files that require more time than expected;
• Changes in priorities.

When team members are already planned to full capacity, there is no room left to accommodate these changes.

Good planning therefore deliberately leaves some capacity available.

Not because team members have nothing to do, but because flexibility is essential for meeting deadlines and continuing to deliver high-quality work.

How do you prepare for the tax return season?

Good preparation starts well before the first peak.

1. Map out all recurring work

Identify which tax returns, annual accounts and other activities recur every year.

2. Make capacity visible in advance

Review how much capacity is available for each team and team member, taking into account leave, training and other work.

3. Plan complex files early

Files with many dependencies or requiring specific expertise deserve early attention.

4. Define priorities

Make it clear which deadlines are fixed, which work can be moved and which clients require extra attention.

5. Leave room for unexpected work

Do not plan all available capacity to the full. Reserve capacity for delays and urgent requests.

6. Monitor progress regularly

Check not only whether work has been planned, but also whether it is actually progressing according to plan.

7. Make timely adjustments

Do not wait until a deadline is about to be missed. Use up-to-date information to move or redistribute work earlier.

How do you stay in control during the tax return season?

To stay in control of planning during the tax return season, it is important to:

• have insight into the total workload;
• look ahead at available capacity;
• allocate work based on priority and expertise;
• plan recurring work well in advance;
• avoid planning team members to full capacity;
• regularly monitor progress and workloads;
• make adjustments quickly when circumstances change.

Conclusion

The tax return season will always be a busy period.

But being busy does not automatically have to mean that planners are constantly fighting fires or that team members are routinely overloaded.

By gaining insight into capacity, making planning part of the overall workflow and organising recurring work efficiently, accountancy firms can create a calmer working environment.

Not only during the tax return season, but throughout the year.

Ultimately, good planning is not about planning team members to maximum capacity. It is about making the right choices at the right time.