Get through tax season with a clear view of your team's capacity
From January to April, every hour counts. Insights shows how preparers, reviewers and admin staff spend the workday across your tax software, QuickBooks, Excel and client portals, so you can rebalance the workload before deadlines pile up.
What firm owners told us about busy season
We built Insights by listening to our clients, and accounting firms were some of the first to ask for it.
The tax season crunch
Workloads triple, overtime climbs, and it's hard to tell who is buried and who could take two more returns.
Billable versus non-billable
Hours spent chasing documents, on hold with agencies or fixing portal logins rarely make it onto an invoice.
Review bottlenecks
Returns stack up waiting for review. Without data, you can't see whether the problem is volume or time.
Portal overload
Client portals, e-file systems, bank sites, payroll sites. Your team bounces between a dozen tabs to finish one engagement.
Seasonal staff
Temporary preparers join for a few months. You need to see how they ramp up without paying for them all year.
Sensitive client data
Tax returns hold Social Security numbers and bank details. A careless file copy is a real risk to the firm.
See who is buried and who has room
The productivity by user report and daily work metrics show work time, screen time and productive time for every preparer and reviewer. Compare the team week over week as the deadline gets closer.
- Productive hours per person per day
- Team filters for preparers, reviewers and admin
- Over and under-utilization thresholds you set
Measure time in tax software, QuickBooks and client portals
Group your accounting tools into activity groups so you can see how much of the day goes to production work. Website usage shows client portals and agency sites by name, so you know how much time disappears into logins and uploads.
- Activity groups like "Tax software", "Accounting software" and "Client portals"
- Per-person, per-hour heatmaps for any application
- Sites recorded by name only, such as a bank's domain, never the full URL
Put a dollar figure on non-billable time
Enter your average salary and productive-hours goal. The workforce utilization report shows how many people are under goal, the untapped capacity in FTE, and what that gap costs each month. Compare it with what you billed.
- Monthly and annualized cost of lost time
- Breakdown by team and by shortfall band
- CSV export to line up against your billing reports
| Team | Under goal | FTE gap | $ / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer service | 4 | 0.9 | $3,900 |
| Accounting | 3 | 0.6 | $2,600 |
| Sales | 2 | 0.3 | $1,300 |
Tax data is a target. Security is our number one priority.
Accounting firms hold exactly the data criminals want, and busy season is when phishing peaks. CyberWall is a security-first managed IT provider. Insights alarms flag large USB copies and file-sharing site use. CyberWall Shield adds 24x7 threat detection and response, Microsoft 365 sign-in monitoring and backup, all in one console.
- Alarm when files are copied to USB drives
- Alarm on file-sharing and job search sites
- Risky Microsoft 365 sign-ins caught by Shield
Insight into the workload. The returns stay private.
Client data stays unread
Insights doesn't open returns, workpapers, email or chat. It records the active application, window and site name.
Limited manager access
Give each manager access to their own company's reports. MFA protects every login.
No screenshots unless you ask
Screenshots are off by default. If you add them, they are taken only while someone is active and never while the screen is locked.
Questions from accounting and tax firms
Can we pay only for seasonal staff while they work for us?
Yes. Insights is $4 per active user per month, and you are billed only for employees who were active in the last 30 days. When a seasonal preparer leaves, they drop off your bill.
Does Insights track billable hours to clients?
No. Insights doesn't replace your time and billing or practice management system. It shows how the day was spent, which you can compare with what was billed.
Will it see what's inside a client's QuickBooks file or tax return?
No. Insights records that QuickBooks or your tax software was in use and for how long. It does not read the data inside. Window titles can include a file or client name, so limit report access to the managers who need it.
We work long hours in season. Will after-hours alarms flood us?
You choose which alarms to turn on. You can skip the after-hours rule in season, or raise its threshold. Each rule sends at most one alert per person per day.
Can we set a different goal for busy season?
Yes. Update the productive-hours goal and work schedule for any team when the season starts and change it back afterward.
How long does setup take?
Most firms are running the same day. The agent installs on Windows computers through Microsoft Intune, and reports start filling in within minutes.
Related
Start busy season with real numbers.
Try Insights free for 14 days. Deploy through Microsoft Intune today and see your team's capacity by tomorrow.