September 15 Is Coming. Call Your Clients.

As I’m writing this, today is August 31, and tomorrow, September 1, I know one appointment that is always kept. Hal walks into my office to go over our books.

I keep our books. In fact, he doesn't even log into QBO. "I'm too old to learn something new." By the way, he's been saying this since I met him.

He's the tax preparer. I look at how we're doing, what's changed, and what the numbers are telling us. Then he takes that information and figures out what it means for our estimated tax payment. Do we keep it the same? Or add more?

I don't do his job. He doesn't do mine. But he can't do his job until I've done mine.

We've done this four times a year for the 24 years we've been together. Of course we remember. We're accountants. But our clients? They're running their lives and running their businesses. They're taking kids to soccer, figuring out what's for dinner, dealing with an employee who called out, and wondering why there's always more month than money.

Then we add one more thing to their list. We send them financial statements every month, hope they read them, then we say, "Next!"

Why the check-in matters

For many clients, the next time they even think about, "How did I do?" is when Intuit starts running TurboTax commercials during the Super Bowl. Talk about taking the air out of the balloon. Who wants to think about taxes during the Super Bowl? By then, the year is over. Whatever happened, happened.

September gives us an opportunity to change that. Instead of just sending the financial statements this month, stop. If this were your business, what would you want to know? What would you want to talk about?

Now turn it around. If your client asked you those same questions, what could you tell them? What have you noticed about their business that they may not have noticed themselves?

Taxes are the scorecard

We accountants have a funny relationship with profit. We spend a lot of time helping people make money. Then, sometime around tax season, we start acting like profit is a disease. "You made money. There may be taxes."

Of course there are. Taxes are a scorecard of success.

I've always had a fairly simple tax-reduction strategy: quit working. I know an empty corner at Nova and Dunlawton where you can hold a sign. I don't think many clients will like that strategy.

For years, our profession has marketed tax savings as one of our measures of value. Intuit has even advised tax professionals to "use tax savings instead of tax preparation as your value proposition." Look at accounting firm websites, and you'll see the same promises: reduce your tax bill, minimize your taxes, keep more of what you earn.

No wonder clients think paying less tax is always the goal. How many clients think they pay us just to get their books ready for tax season? Do they know what else we can do for them? If they don't, whose fault is that?

Instead of asking, "How can we reduce your taxes?" what if we asked, "How can we increase your income?"

But I'm "just" the bookkeeper

First, get the word "just" out of your vocabulary. If I were your mom, I'd wash your mouth out with soap! You're not "just" the bookkeeper. You are the perfect person to start this conversation. You're a wizard, Harry Potter!

You work with your client every week or every month. I'm not suggesting you add tax prep to your resume. Your job is to help them understand how they're doing while the year is still happening. If they're making more money or something has changed, they should know that now.

Then when they sit across from their tax preparer and hear, "You made more money this year, so you may owe more in taxes," it isn't a surprise. They understand where the tax bill came from. That's a very different conversation from finding out in March that they owe $30,000 and immediately asking, "How do I get out of paying this?"

You are not calculating their 2026 tax liability or giving tax advice. You are helping them understand their business. What do you see? Ask, "Do you know why?" You don't have to know the answer. That's the point. You notice. You ask. You listen. When something belongs with the tax professional, that's where it goes.

This may be a different kind of conversation than you're used to having. You don't have to walk into it cold. Let AI help you prepare. Give it the financial information using appropriate privacy and security safeguards and ask, "What am I missing? What questions do these numbers raise? What should I ask my client before I draw any conclusions?"

AI may notice something you didn't. Great. Don't use AI to avoid the client conversation. Use AI for a better one.

We said this is what we wanted

For years, accountants have said we want technology to handle repetitive work so we can spend less time producing the numbers and more time helping clients understand them. Well, here we are.

AI can categorize transactions, help reconcile accounts, produce reports, analyze financial statements and identify trends. Let it. Then call your client.

I know. Your finger may hover over the phone. Your palms may sweat. Is my deodorant working? Who am I to call a client and start talking about their business? What if they ask me something I don't know? What if I sound stupid?

Call anyway. Tell Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, "I've never had this kind of conversation with a client before. I'm nervous. Help me open the call." Ask it to role-play the client with you. AI is amazing at this. Then make the call.

Knowing that gross margin dropped four percentage points isn't where your value ends. That's where the conversation starts. Why did it drop? Did pricing change? Did costs increase? Does the client even know it's happening?

You aren't there to prove you know more about their business than they do. You're there to help them see something they might not have noticed and think about what it means.

Try it with one client

If this isn't currently part of your service, I'm not suggesting you give away hours of work. Try it with one client.

Do a year-to-date review. Call them. Show them what you noticed and ask a few questions. You aren't unveiling your firm's new MORE Methodology (Money, Opportunities, Results & Earnings). You're asking about their business. Although now that I've named it, someone will probably charge $4,997 for a certification.

At the end, ask, "Would it be useful if we did this every quarter?" If they say yes, now you have something to price. More importantly, the client has experienced the value instead of listening to you explain why you're valuable.

That distinction will matter more as AI does more of the work we've traditionally charged clients to do. A client may eventually wonder, "Why do I need you if AI can do the work?" Don't wait for them to ask.

September 15 gives you a reason to get in front of them now. Look at the numbers. Use AI to help you prepare. Then have the conversation we've been saying we wanted more time to have.

The machines can do more of the accounting. Good. You've got a client to call.