How a 50-Person Firm Solved Its Most Frustrating Tax Workflow Challenge

Lombardo Ayers conducts surveys with its staff at the end of tax season, and last year, there was an obvious pain point.

“We were spending an exorbitant amount of billable time trying to get information from our clients, whether (it was) their W-2, their 1099s, whatever it was,” said Jim Fleshman, a partner at the firm.

Sound relatable? Across the country, skilled tax preparers are forced to spend far too many hours writing emails to coax documents out of their clients, rather than focusing on the work they became tax professionals to tackle.

At Lombardo Ayers, a 50-person practice serving clients aged 18 to 98, the problem was compounded by how different those clients felt about technology. Younger clients wanted to upload documents from their phones, while older clients were annoyed with endless portals and passwords.

Luckily, Lombardo Ayers found Truss on Tax Twitter, and the wheels were set in motion.

Taking a chance on Truss didn’t feel like a risk to Lombardo Ayers, and that was important. Knowing the software had been vetted by the BDO Alliance was an immediate source of trust and comfort.

“That gave us the confidence to say, okay, this is a company we should be working with,” Fleshman said.

But Truss wasn’t Lombardo Ayers’ only option, either. The firm whittled down a list of three or four platforms with a clear set of criteria: security and ease of use. Truss’ SOC 2 compliance stood out against competitors that were only SOC 1, but there was another easy selling point.

“I just knew that our clients did not want another password to remember,” Fleshman said.

Truss quickly solved the issue of document chasing by giving clients a platform they liked using. With the power of AI, the platform read each client’s return from the last year and compiled lists of documents to request – though clients could make easy edits if they changed employers or took on different sources of income.

Even the most reluctant clients came back to Fleshman and his colleagues with glowing reports.

“When they gave it a shot, they saw how easy it was, and they would call me back and say, ‘Sorry for giving you the headache,’” Fleshman recalled.

Imagine if a firm had two extra weeks of time on its hands across the entire organization to do its tax prep? At Lombardo Ayers, the employees suddenly found themselves with a much longer window to do their returns, easing the stress on the entire staff.

“Truss worked too well for us,” Fleshman said. “We were able to get information two weeks earlier this year. Usually it’s late February, early March when everything starts to come in. This year it was the second week in February.”

Handling intake at a record pace gave Lombardo Ayers all sorts of flexibility. The firm also tested Truss Prep’s human prep function on 40-50 of its returns this season, freeing up staffing resources.

“What if you had the people, (but) they just weren’t in your office?” Fleshman asked.

The ultimate benefit, in Fleshman’s view, was committing more thought and hours to the work the firm’s tax pros wanted to handle most of all.

“We’re going to do what we love to do — the tax planning, the advisory, the consulting work,” Fleshman said. “Once you get that time back, you can put it to a more productive use. It’s a domino effect.”

To Fleshman, satisfaction with a product doesn’t stop with signing a contract. Building a relationship with Truss, which included multiple customization meetings to make sure the platform was tailor-made for the firm’s clients, made Lombardo Ayers feel lasting confidence in the partnership.

“Sadly, in this industry, there are times where we get sold a product and then poof, they’re gone,” Fleshman said. “It wasn’t like that. You’ve taken an active interest in our firm.”

So Fleshman was enthusiastic about endorsing Truss to other tax pros, which he didn’t take lightly.

“In our industry, your referrals are your name. We do not take referrals lightly,” Fleshman said. “The fact that we’re willing to put our name behind it, that’s what we look for in a partner.”

After such a successful first year, Lombardo Ayers is ramping up its partnership with Truss to include state returns and business returns, and may even use Truss’ Max AI to look over completed returns.

“I feel like we’re just scratching the surface,” Fleshman said.

He also had a pitch to firms of all sizes who were experiencing the same pains.

“It doesn’t matter what size firm you are,” Fleshman said. “If you’re a smaller firm looking for a second set of eyes, or a larger firm with a lot of clients — at least schedule a demo and see where it could be a fit.”