Series · read in order · 8 parts · ~105 min
Tax season without the inbox spiral.
A filing year has a shape, and so does the inbox that carries it. It starts quiet in December, turns in the second week of January when the first forms land, breaks in April, and then does it again in September for everyone who extended. This series follows one small practice through that year: what arrives, what gets missed, and what the missing costs, deadline by deadline. It is a read rather than a reference, so the practical how-to for any one of these jobs lives in the accounting email guides and is linked where it belongs. Read it in order, ideally in December, when there is still time to change how January goes.
- 01
Getting your inbox ready before January
December is the last month a practice can change how its mailbox works. What to settle in the quiet weeks, and what January sends whatever you settle. - 02
The fortnight the 1099s start arriving from both sides
Mid-January in one practice. W-2s and 1099s landing from two directions at once, and the Thursday Corinne found she could not say what was missing. - 03
The chasing emails, and the list behind them
February in one practice. Eighty-six first asks, replies arriving in pieces, and the fortnight Corinne became the only copy of the list. - 04
The PBC email, and what comes back looking done
March in one practice. Sixty business engagements, half of every list not built yet, and a schedule that arrived complete and stopped in September. - 05
April, when every client is waiting on you at once
April in one practice. Ten working days against three hundred and nine returns, and the fortnight in which sorting the list stopped changing the answer. - 06
The extension agreed in the middle of a reply
Late April in one practice. A hundred and thirteen extensions, forty two of them agreed inside a reply about something else, and no date on any of them. - 07
The July deadline that was one line in a March email
Summer in one practice. A staff plan mentioned once in March, a return that fell due at the end of July, and the deadline that carried no date at all. - 08
October, and the second season nobody planned for
Autumn in one practice. Ninety-four returns in twenty-two working days, and what it cost a firm to carry a hundred and forty-four files that all said October.