Onkho co-founder and accountant in practice Susan Rahman launched her second #taxathon in April 2018. Her target was to get all tax returns done by Christmas. Her outcome was 95% of all tax returns done by 1st December…and NO TAX RETURNS DONE IN DECEMBER. Last year, she had 95% done by Christmas Day so she’s gained 2 more weeks of billable time this year.
There are some uncanny similarities in her results. She had the same number of tax returns to do in January 2020 as she had in January 2019 and in fact, they were mostly the same clients.
Susan took a very structured approach this year, building on the first #taxathon lessons and with a few more changes and tweaks particularly around chasing of clients, she managed to better her results. In fact, she would have been done earlier had she not had a few hiccups along the way including the loss of a team member. Interestingly, she did not replace the team members thereby locking in extra profitability created by her approach. As of writing this article, it’s not clear that Susan will backfill that team member.
Susan serialised here experience in her #taxathon Companion Guide. If you’re interested, you can get the entire series by clicking here.
Now let’s talk about the story of the numbers. To see last year’s results for comparison, click here.
The Journey in Percentages
Highlights from these numbers:
- 50% of tax returns were done by the end of August (same as last year)
- Progress was steady, hitting 70% done by the end of October (a full month before last year)
- 95% done by 1st December with the outstanding 5% or 14 tax returns done i January
The trends suggest that:
- 50% of clients got their papers in just before leaving for their summer holidays (same as last year)
- 90% of clients got their papers in before the end of October (10% up from the same time last year)
The Journey in Numbers
Highlights from these numbers:
- Peak capacity was 57 tax returns in a month (in line with last year)
- The monthly average was c32 (down from last year)
- The bulk of the work was completed in 7 months (down from 9 months last year)
- Spare capacity was physically observed in December (January last year)
The trends suggest that:
- With no change with resources, Susan could easily double the number of tax return clients – worth an addition c£72K to £100K in bottom line profit
- With all the spare capacity in January, Susan could have run some kind of “rush” or “last minute” offer to around 50 new clients – worth an additional c£18K to £25K in bottom line profit
- The gradient of the trend line was the opposite of last year and much shallower showing that the work was more evenly spread over the period
Comparison to the Industry
According to the BBC, HMRC reported that 18% of all tax returns were outstanding just one week before the deadline (see Self-assessment tax deadline looms), whereas Susan had crossed the 95% threshold to beat the industry by December 2018 so there’s no doubt Susan beat the industry…again.
What did Susan do?
You can find out all about Susan’s tactics in her #taxathon Companion Guide. It covers her complete campaign, month by month with experiences, lessons and recommended tactics. To get the full series, sign up here.
