Intuit® eSignature increases compliance and service efficiencies for virtual tax and consulting firm

Dr. Sheika Square is dedicated to providing her clients with a transformative experience through financial coaching and business consulting. Tax preparation is another key piece of Sheika’s comprehensive service offering, designed to provide everything her entrepreneurial clients need to succeed—and that includes the ability to work more efficiently with online technologies, especially Intuit® eSignature and Intuit ProConnect™ Tax.

“Through my consulting work, I meet a lot of business owners who need their taxes done,” she said. “I serve a diverse range of businesses, but the majority of them are female entrepreneurs.” 

Sheika developed her firm’s niche purposefully to support her preference for preparing business taxes. “We coach our clients on all aspects of their business finances to make sure that they have strong revenue sources. This is always a primary concern for entrepreneurs. We also help to create more business efficiencies, as well as assist with hiring and leadership development.”

In fact, it was her business consulting that led Sheika to add tax preparation to her firm’s offerings. At one point, she had a staff of five, but because there was some redundancy, she scaled back to a smaller team, relying on the automation she built into her accounting and tax tech stacks to streamline her operations. Currently, she and her two team members handle up to 100 tax returns each season.

A focused formula and efficient tax filing to ease financial fear for female entrepreneurs

“When it comes to small businesses, a lot of the time their finances can be a mess,” said Sheika. “We work with people who need guidance on how to file their taxes, how they should be saving throughout the year, and how to manage their finances in general. I guide them on best practices to prepare for the following year, with financial planning or tax planning.”

In addition to tax preparation and financial coaching, Sheika often finds that many of her clients also need assistance working on prior year taxes, who, she shared, “haven’t filed in years because they’re afraid. It’s a real thing. They’re afraid and don’t know where to start. Once you get behind a year, or two, they just get scared.”

Empowerment for clients is driven by efficient tax filing and eSignature capabilities

Answering questions and easing her clients’ fears is a priority for Sheika and her team. In fact, she wants to empower her clients to take control of their finances by setting them up with QuickBooks®. She prepares taxes Intuit ProConnect Tax, and it was through her use of the tax software that she started using eSignature, integrated into ProConnect Tax. This reduced the burden of collecting signatures on returns, IRS letters, and other documents for her clients and her team.

“We’ve used ProConnect for about three years. The first year we used it, we were able to use eSignature to complete the work online, but would sometimes have to print out the returns to have clients sign them. Then, we implemented a process that even if you came into the office, you had to sign online. Efficiency is the word at my firm!”

Sheika believes that using eSignature is critical to cover her clients’ and her firms’ legal obligations related to IRS compliance and tax filing authorizations. 

“Electronic signatures give us more flexibility in meeting deadlines and saves us significant amounts of time,” she said. “For our clients, using eSignature shows that we understand that their time is important. This is a people-oriented business. We are  mindful of their time, and they don’t have to double back with us to get things completed and filed.”  

Most of Sheika’s clients are very satisfied using eSignature. Even for those who need a little coaching to sign online, technology is accepted as a non-issue. Her clients also appreciate that signing digitally with eSignature includes compliant identity authorization.

“I realize after doing my research that Intuit eSignature is one of only a handful of vendors that offer this capability,” she said. “I’ve never had any clients wonder if it wasn’t secure, but sometimes a new client will ask questions. We always tell them the facts, letting them know that we use this technology because it’s much more secure and so much better than sending documents by email.”

At a glance

• Customer: Dr. Sheika Square 
• Firm: Square Tax Group, Inc.
• Location: New Orleans, La.
• Size of firm: 3
• Niche focus: Small businesses and self-employed individuals 
• Intuit Software: QuickBooks Online, ProConnect Tax, and Intuit eSignature.

With Intuit eSignature and ProConnect Tax, Dr. Sheika Square has realized significant increases in productivity and reductions in overhead:

• Increased client adoption and satisfaction with eSignature for tax filings and IRS compliance documents.
• Acknowledgment by her clients that her firm is technologically savvy and up to date with IRS compliance guidelines.

Learn more about using Intuit eSignature to increase productivity and efficiency. Contact us today for a quick consultation or call 833-978-6830.