Now that another EBP busy season is behind us, there are probably a few things you would do differently if you could go back to the beginning.
We asked our Founder and CEO, Kelly Mann, CPA, to think back on her own years of auditing employee benefit plans. What helped during the busiest part of the season? What always seemed to come up? And what did she learn that made the next year a little easier?
When we asked what helped keep her sane during the busy season, her first response was,
"Is that even possible?"
But one thing did make a big difference: knowing exactly where her engagements stood.
Kelly kept a tight, up-to-date list of her open engagements and their status, along with an open-items list that she was meticulous about updating in real time.
It meant she could get everything out of her head instead of trying to mentally keep track of every outstanding item, client request, and next step. She could look at the list when she needed it rather than feeling the pressure of what she calls a growing "black box of to-dos."
And there was always something new added to that list.
For Kelly, it was often a new client that a partner had said yes to. Now there was an entirely new audit to somehow fit into an already busy schedule.
This was also around the time clients started checking in more often to ask about the status of their audits. And yes, sometimes those were the same clients who had not responded to emails for three months.
Having everything current made those moments easier to manage. Kelly could see what needed her attention, answer client questions, and figure out where work could be moved around.
It also made it much easier when someone else needed to step in and help.
Instead of reviewing the file, figuring out where everything stood, meeting with another auditor, and getting them caught up from scratch, the engagement status and open items were already there. There was a much clearer picture of what had been done and what still needed to happen.
That was one lesson Kelly carried with her. Another was something she wishes audit teams had been better about: documenting exactly where they got their information.
If it was a PBC file, who gave it to you?
If you ran a report from the recordkeeper, where did you get it? Which fields did you select? What parameters did you use?
Those details are easy to overlook when you are in the middle of the work, and everything is fresh. But there is a good chance you are going to need the same information next year. Plus, having that detail documented is important for reperformance.
Taking the time to document it now means you are not starting from scratch and trying to retrace your steps when you need that same information again.
There was one other habit Kelly developed over the years, and it usually came up when things weren't going according to plan.
Sometimes she would get to a procedure and realize she could not get the same information that had been used the year before.
Instead of spending more time trying to recreate the prior-year process, she would stop and ask herself:
"What am I actually trying to accomplish here?"
Once she went back to the purpose of the audit step, she often found there was another way to get there. And sometimes that way was much easier and created a lot less friction.
It is easy to repeat what was done last year because it worked last year. But that does not always mean it is the best way to get the audit done this year.
That may be one of the more useful things to think about while this busy season is still fresh.
What made your life easier this year? What made things harder than they needed to be? What did your team have to figure out more than once?
You do not need to change everything before next year. But you also do not have to keep doing something the hard way just because that is how it has always been done.
Sometimes it is worth going back to the simplest question: "What am I actually trying to accomplish here?"
Some busy season problems are one off. Others seem to show up every year.
If your team keeps running into the same bottlenecks, workarounds, or processes that feel harder than they should, it may be worth looking at the workflow behind them.
In Why EBP Audit Teams Keep Running into the Same Workflow Problems, we look at why some of these challenges tend to stick around and what firms can start thinking about differently.
