Seasonal volume, without the January chaos
A multi-location retail operator wanted to offer tax return preparation through its stores. Store staff could handle customer intake, but there was no preparation capacity behind it and no process for moving a return from a walk-in customer to a filed federal and state return without documents scattering across email and text.
At a glance
- Sector
- Retail + tax services
- Model
- Centralised preparation
- Stages
- 7, individually tracked
- Cycle
- ~6 business days
A multi-location retail operator running seasonal tax services. Published anonymously — client names and figures are only shared with written permission.
What wasn't working
- No preparation capacity behind a customer-facing intake
- Sensitive documents at risk of arriving by email, text or consumer file sharing
- No visibility into where any individual return had stalled
- Missing or invalid documents discovered late, at preparation rather than intake
- Seasonal volume that had to scale up and back down without permanent hiring
The system we built and run
Centralised the preparation
Stores handle registration and customer contact; a central team prepares every return to one standard, so quality doesn't vary by location.
Made intake portal-only
ID, SSN or ITIN, W-2s and 1099s are collected exclusively through a secured client portal. No email, no text, no third-party file sharing.
Put a review gate before preparation
Documents are checked for missing, mismatched or invalid items and chased before a preparer starts, which is what stops a return stalling mid-preparation.
Tracked all seven stages
Registration, document review, preparation, client approval, e-signature, e-filing and post-filing each have a status, so any return's position is a lookup rather than a phone call.
Kept signatures electronic
Signature forms and consents are signed electronically, removing the print-sign-scan round trip that strands returns for days.
The difference it made
Described as capability rather than invented percentages — we publish client metrics only when the client has agreed to them.
A predictable cycle
Roughly six business days from registration to filed return — same-day registration and collection, three days in preparation, one day out for signature, one to file.
Client data stayed in one controlled channel
Portal-only intake with role-based access, encryption in transit and at rest, and full audit logs, rather than sensitive documents living in inboxes.
Capacity that flexes with the season
Preparation scales for peak and scales back afterwards, without carrying year-round headcount for a seasonal service.
Bottlenecks are visible
Because every stage is tracked, a return waiting on a document or a signature is identifiable immediately instead of surfacing at the deadline.
What it runs on
- Professional tax software
- Secure client portal
- Electronic signature
- Operations tracking dashboard
The foundations are the same across every build — see how the platform works.
Leave the accounting to us
Your first month is free, onboarding takes as little as 24 hours, and rates start at $10/hour. No lock-in.