clients early in the process and communicate how we will operate," he said. "The days where clients could come in on April 14, drop their stuff off, and expect a tax return to be done by April 15 are long gone. We did that for many years and only recently started to push back on clients to say we don't work that way and need a four-week timeline to do the tax return well."

Clients need to understand the timing and process flows. "Up until a couple of years ago, certain clients had inertia and brought us their information last minute, so we went through the same lateness and rush every year just to provide the best client service," Lagarde said. "This puts too much pressure on staff, and they should not have to work 80 hours a week to meet deadlines. We had to train our clients about our rules of engagement, set deadlines for submitting information, spread the work out so the tax season is not so compressed, and work as a team with clients so they get the best service." Lagarde notes that it has been a long and challenging process, but clients are responding.
"Sometimes it's a negative response and they decide to go somewhere else, but others understand the issues and staffing challenges in our industry require us to act differently and that they also have to act differently."