Filing season is loud, and then it stops. If every dollar you make arrives between late January and mid April, you are not running a practice. You are working a very intense seasonal job that happens to have your name on it.
The preparers who last do something different with the eight quiet months, and it is mostly unglamorous.
What the quiet months are actually for
- Year-round work that does not depend on filing deadlines, like bookkeeping and clean-up projects.
- Planning conversations with the clients who were rushed in March.
- Finishing your continuing education before it becomes an emergency.
- Fixing the systems that broke on you, while you still remember what broke.
Money, plainly
- Set aside a fixed share of every season deposit before you spend any of it.
- Know your monthly number, and know how many months of it you are holding.
- Put your estimated tax payments on the calendar the same day you set your budget.
- Separate the business account from the personal one, permanently.
You cannot budget a season you have not measured. Start by writing down what last season actually brought in.
None of this is exciting. It is just the difference between a preparer who is still here in five years and one who is not.