Tax Return Preparation

Everyone has their own way of filing documents. You know where your documents are because you know how to look for them. With ArkWorks, you don’t change the organization of your filing system, just where it is stored. Instead of storing loose sheets of paper in a filing cabinet drawer, store an image of the page in a virtual drawer in our electronic filing cabinet. Reproduce your existing file structure using ArkWorks. You can predefine the structure of each drawer and then modify the drawers as needed. ArkWorks also offers predefined cabinet structures for those needing help moving to the paperless office world.

If you already have an organized file structure located on your network or local hard drive, ArkWorks allows you to import an existing Windows directory. This will create the drawer and folder structure right within ArkWorks, eliminating the hassle of refiling your documents.

It’s easy to see why ArkWorks is the premier document management software.

As part of our summer marketing campaign, TaxWorks is searching for America’s greatest tax heroes. You can put your knowledge and experience to the test in the Tax Hero Challenge. Here’s how it works—every two months starting now, we will release a client profile on the Tax Hero Challenge website. The top five accountants who generate the biggest, legal refund will win an Apple iPod® touch.

All participants will receive a Tax Hero t-shirt (as seen below) until we run out of t-shirts. If you think your tax skills are up to par, and you’re up to the challenge, visit www.TaxHeroChallenge.com for more information and contest rules.

TaxWorks is a robust, affordable, easy-to-use professional tax program. The TaxWorks package includes the Federal 1040, 1041, 1065, 1120, and 1120S systems, and all states; 706, including Florida, Utah, and New York; 709; 990, including California and New York; and 5500.Just some of the features offered in TaxWorks include:

- FREE Electronic Filing
- Asset Manager
- Accounting/Write-Up Bridge
- Customer Letters
- Audits
- Self Help Tools
- Toll Free Support
- Conversions

The CPA Technology Advisor wrote a review about ArkWorks paperless office software. The review went live on their Web site in August of 2007.

Click HERE to read what they have to say.

ArkWorks is a digital, state-of-the-art paperless office software designed for professional offices. ArkWorks dramatically reduces filing and retrieval time as well as office expenses. Instead of filing and retrieving paper documents from multiple file cabinets, ArkWorks lets you file, search, and retrieve documents from your computer – all within a matter of seconds. Imagine your office with no more clutter, misplaced documents or labor-intensive filing of documents. Let ArkWorks search through cabinets, drawers, and folders to find your documents.

See www.arkworkspro.com

At a time when many consumers turn to the Internet to find products and services, it’s vital to have a presence on the Web. Otherwise, many potential customers may overlook you, simply because they can’t find you. Through the Internet, you can attract future clients in your area, and communicate with your current clients. Here is an overview of five simple tactics to market your tax preparation service on the Web:

1)      Create a functional website

According to the Yahoo Small Business survey, 70% of small businesses had a website by the end of 2004-we can only assume current numbers are even higher. Building a website is the first step to developing an online presence. There are books written on building websites and firms that can help you design and optimize your site.

Without going into too much detail, your site should reflect your practice. It should be clean, professional and informative; and make sure your contact information is apparent.   

2)      Register with online directories

If you go to the Google search engine and enter “Kaysville Utah Tax Preparation,” the first thing that appears in the results is the Local business results for tax preparation near Kaysville,UT. This is Google’s online directory of businesses. Registration in this directory is free. Following the Google directory is a number of other online directories that list tax preparation firms. Conduct a similar search for your area and see which directories come up. Then go through the steps to enlist in these directories.

3)      Create an email marketing campaign

An email marketing campaign will mainly target your current clients. This may be something you can implement in the future if you don’t have a list of your clients’ emails. Through an  email campaign, you can inform your clients of special offers, promote your website or blog, or send a semiannual newsletter with tax tips and information. A newsletter is an excellent way to stay in touch with clients throughout the year and encourage them to come back the following tax season.

4)      Build a purposeful blog

A web log, or blog for short, is one of the newest forms of communicating online. Blogs began as online journals where people could share their ideas, thoughts, stories, photos and videos. Only recently have corporations recognized the value of a blog to connect to their customers.

A major advantage to a blog is you can find free software and services that will host the blog. A CPA or tax preparer could use a blog to share insights and opinions on tax law or other tax related topics. I found one CPAs blog where he shares jokes and comics about taxes and tax preparation. Though blogs are casual in feel, remember you are still representing your practice, so it should be done tastefully.

5)      Use paid listings through search engines when cost effective

MSN, Google, Yahoo and other search engines offer paid listings as a form of advertising. Paid listings, also known as sponsored links, usually appear at the top and at the right of search results. Companies pay to have their links appear on the search results page in these areas. This type of Internet marketing can be effective-especially when you are first creating your online presence. I recommend you hire an Internet marketing firm to manage and track your paid listings account. Your ads should focus on the demographic in your area to avoid spending a lot of money on ineffective advertising.

If done correctly, online marketing is a fruitful strategy to increase your client base and well worth the time and money spent.