Managing your compliance work for business and individual clients can be complicated. However, it starts by having a well thought out work template / process to model the production system that you want. There are many different ways to do this and we'll outline some options below.
First let's show you an example of how this might look using Karbon's best practice compliance templates:
Option #1: Use statutory work start/due dates and dynamic task due dates
Scenario: Want to have fixed work start and due dates and have the internal due dates of the tasks flex with the movement of the work? This scenario keeps the Work dashboard fixed and the My Week dashboard dynamic.
Automate your work templates. Using tasklist automators, add automators after the point where client inquiry is complete or once the work is moved into the production queue for the Preparer. Use the tasklist automator that changes the Due Date for the Tasks to change to X days after the trigger action selected is complete or if the work changes to a specific status. You can have these be a waterfall set of changing dates through the sections of the work template (e.g. triggered on completion of a section) or you can have all the task due dates update based on the completion of a certain point in the tasklist (e.g. triggered on work changing to a specific status).
Note. In this scenario, the work start and due dates won't move and stay fixed to the start of the work and the required completion. However, the underlying tasks will dynamically move later in time as the work is introduced into the production system. You can specify task due dates at the start. However, if doing so, be sure to also include automators that move the task statuses to Ready to Start on the progression of the work to ensure they can be filtered in My Week to show only tasks that can be completed (e.g. Filters for Statuses = Ready to Start, In Progress). Otherwise, don't have any due dates on the tasks provided, and use the tasklist automators to generate them dynamically once the work is placed into production.
Option #2: Use a section and single task to trigger the work into production.
Scenario: I don't want my Preparers to begin work until the information is available to start.
Create a new section. In between the initial inquiry to the client (e.g. individual tax returns) or between the completion of the year-end / annual accounts work (e.g. business tax returns), place a section that has a single task for the Admin or Operations Manager that enables them to "Move the tax work into production with the Preparer" once validation of all collected materials or pre-work is complete.
Add automation to the subsequent section. Use Karbon's tasklist automators to hand-off and signal the work is ready to begin. Do this by adding possibly four automators to the next section that are triggered on the completion of this newly added section. One, move the task status(es) to Ready to Start. Two, move the work status to the next phase (e.g. Prep). Three, change the work assignee to the Preparer (this will auto-notify the change of work to the Preparer and move the work kanban card into their work dashboard). And, four, if needed, change the task due dates to the new deadline date for those tasks.
By doing this method, you create a preliminary review point by which to manage the flow of work into your Preparer's work production system allowing you to manage capacity but perform a quality review on the required pre-work that the client or internal team (e.g. accounting) would need to complete. This preserves the precious time that Preparers and Reviewers have during busy season.
You can also see the Current Task Assignee and Queue Position for each item, helping you understand who has the work now and what’s next in line. For more details, see Set Up and Use FIFO Queues.
Option #3: Use FIFO Queues to manage tax work distribution
Scenario: For larger production systems, FIFO Queues streamline the distribution of work by automatically ordering tasks by entry time. This ensures the oldest items are worked on first, while providing visibility into who has the current task and what’s next.
With FIFO Queues, you can:
Automatically assign work into Queues at key points in your workflow using automators.
Easily view Queue Position, Current Task Assignee, and role in the Work List.
Reallocate work smoothly between Preparers, Reviewers, and other roles.
To set up and use FIFO Queues in your workflow, see Set Up and Use FIFO Queues.
Option #4: Pull-in work automatically
Scenario: Not interested in having all the work be marked as Planned at the beginning of tax season? Here is an effective method to push the work out to its due date and pull in when you ready to start.
Create your Work. Create all your tax work to start and be due on the same date at the end of tax season (e.g. April 15th). By doing this, all your tax work will be in Karbon with a status of “Planned” and the Work Items will sit in the “To Plan” bucket of My Week.
Update your Settings. Go into your Settings > Workflow > Automators Tab and turn on the setting, “When work changes from Planned to In Progress, update its start date”. This will ensure that the Work start date will be updated when you move your Tax work into the status, “In Progress”.
Update your status to get started. When you’re ready to start a particular piece of work—perhaps because your client has provided you with their documentation—go to that work item and update the status to “In Progress”. Alternatively, just complete a Task and Karbon will update the work item to In Progress. This will update the work start date to today’s date.
Note: Due dates. One thing to note is that Task due dates will not get updated when you update the work start date. However, if you’d like to update these, you can do this in bulk from the piece of work. On each Task section, click the options menu (...) and select “Set due dates”.
Option #5: Manage tax extensions with automated workflows
Scenario: If clients require extensions, you can automate extension handling in Karbon. Extension tasks remain hidden until required, deadlines are automatically adjusted, and statuses update as work progresses.
For setup instructions, see Set Up Your Extension Workflow in Karbon.