Serving Customers Beyond the Deadline 

Preparing a tax return is a way of looking back over the year, both to determine taxes due and to learn any lessons the past might offer. 

The problem is that customers don’t live their lives in the past.  They live in the present, while they prepare for the future -- buying a house, selling stock, paying for college, having children, starting a business, retiring from the workforce, buying equipment or attaining a better salary.  For professionals who use Drake Tax Software, the toolset that helps to blend the past, present and future into a coherent plan is the Drake Tax Planner, already built into the software and ready for use. 

Simply open the customer’s tax return and click on the Tax Planner icon from the data entry menu. 

Then it is a matter of building scenarios and setting them up so that different scenarios can be compared with respect to the customer’s life goals and tax situation.  This process is described on pages 370 – 374 of the Drake Tax Software Manual, but the finished comparison looks like this: 

The Tax Planner provides an unlimited number of current and next year scenarios using all forms and schedules, making it extremely flexible.   It provides comparisons to the original return of up to three scenarios at a time. These scenario comparisons, and other toolbars and menus in the program, offer the same feel and navigation as Drake's tax software. 

Your customers’ lives do not end on April 15, and neither should your services.  By incorporating tax planning into the tax practice, you can build better customer relationships, build a hedge against customer churn, and earn additional revenue outside of tax season – from within the familiar Drake Tax Software suite.