Pre-Mortem for Busy Season: Plan Your Tax Firm’s Win
If you only run post-mortems after March/April, you’re learning when it’s most expensive. A pre-mortem flips the script: you assume your season failed, list the reasons why, and fix them now. For small tax firms (2–15 people), that means fewer fire drills, cleaner handoffs, and more reviewing—not retyping.
Below is a 60-minute workshop you can run this week, plus a ready-to-use checklist and FAQs.
Why a pre-mortem beats a post-mortem
Loss aversion: every extra click, status check, or misplaced document is billable time you never recover.
Before → After contrast: go from scattered steps and unclear owners to a short, visible workflow with explicit review gates.
FOMO (realistic): busy season is getting faster and more instrumented—teams that prepare now pull ahead.
The 60-Minute Pre-Mortem Workshop (agenda)
0–10 min — “It failed. Why?” (silent write-down)
Prompt your team: Assume this busy season collapsed. What went wrong? Everyone writes 5–7 reasons. No debate yet.
10–25 min — Cluster by theme
Sort reasons into five buckets:
People (ownership, capacity, skills)
Process (intake steps, review gates, SLAs)
Data (missing docs; version drift)
Client experience (confusing requests, unclear expectations)
Tools (too many clicks, scattered locations, duplicate entry)
25–45 min — Prioritize top 10 risks
Score each risk on impact × likelihood; pick the ten you’ll address this week.
45–60 min — Assign owners + first fixes
For each risk, assign a DRI (directly responsible individual), a 7-day minimum viable fix, and a simple “always-on” check so the issue can’t hide.
Common failure modes (and quick, tool-agnostic first fixes)
Re-entry and copy-paste everywhere.
First fix: shorten intake to the essentials; standardize naming and a single checklist so information is captured once and reused.Version drift between workpapers and returns.
First fix: publish “push vs. pull” rules (what source wins); add a daily “version sanity check” during stand-up.Clients stall because requests are unclear.
First fix: replace open-ended asks with a 1-page, example-based request (exact docs, formats, and due dates). Keep it mobile-readable.Bottlenecked reviews.
First fix: define two explicit review gates (“ready for review” and “ready to file”) and time-box each gate with a visible SLA.No audit trail during crunch.
First fix: use a single source of truth for status (even a shared sheet works); log who changed what and when.
Add “always-on” checks (no special tools required)
Missing-doc flags: maintain a visible list of returns blocked by specific items; review it daily.
Work-in-progress (WIP) aging: anything untouched for >48 hours escalates to the DRI.
Gate compliance: a return can’t move forward without the checklist items marked “done”.
Daily sync note: 2–3 lines capturing known risks, decisions, and ownership changes.
Example: a 3-return day goes sideways (and the pre-mortem fix)
What failed: Staff waits on bank statements; signatures get chased last-minute; a partner retypes figures from email into the workpaper.
7-day pre-mortem fixes:
Intake template that lists the exact statements needed before prep starts.
A scheduled “signature-chase window” each afternoon, with clear owner and deadline.
A single worksheet where numbers are entered once and referenced everywhere else.
10-Point Pre-Mortem Checklist (save this)
FAQ
Do I need new software to run this?
No. You can start with a shared doc, a checklist, and a daily stand-up. Specialized tools can help later, but process clarity comes first.
How long does the initial setup take?
Usually minutes. Schedule the workshop, pick your ten fixes, and publish the checklist and SLAs the same day.
What if clients ignore requests?
Make requests ultra-specific (named files, formats, examples). Send them at predictable times and confirm a single point of contact per client.
How do we keep momentum?
Hold a 10-minute daily stand-up focused on the top-10 risk list, WIP aging, and any blockers.