Firm Operations Manager

Primary Responsibilities

1. Workflow Management and Production Oversight

• Oversee firm workflow across individual tax preparation, business tax returns, bookkeeping and accounting services, tax resolution, and tax notice response work.
• Maintain visibility into active client engagements, including status, assigned staff, due dates, internal deadlines, budgets, open items, review status, billing status, and completion status.
• Assign, monitor, and update internal due dates, milestones, and staff responsibilities.
• Balance workloads, identify capacity issues, and reassign work as needed.
• Monitor firm output against statutory deadlines, internal target dates, budgets, and client expectations.
• Identify workflow bottlenecks and recommend solutions before deadlines are at risk.
• Coordinate workflow meetings and prepare weekly and seasonal production reports.
• Assist with workflow checklists, status codes, project templates, routing rules, and deadline-tracking systems.

2. Process Improvement, Controls, and Efficiency

• Evaluate administrative and production processes and recommend practical improvements.
• Create, implement, and monitor controls for client intake, document collection, workflow routing, review readiness, e-file authorization, billing, and project closeout.
• Standardize procedures to reduce rework, missed steps, delays, and administrative involvement.
• Track realization, turnaround time, budget-to-actual performance, missing-information delays, and staff capacity.
• Improve tax-season, extension, bookkeeping, and notice-response procedures.
• Design repeatable workflows for recurring services such as bookkeeping, quarterly estimates, business tax returns, and individual tax preparation.

3. Technology, IT Systems, and AI Workflow Coordination

• Serve as an internal liaison for practice-management, tax, client-portal, document-management, e-signature, communication, and related systems.
• Coordinate with outside IT providers and software vendors.
• Assist with technology implementation, testing, and refinement.
• Maintain templates, automated task lists, recurring workflows, dashboards, reports, and system permissions.
• Coordinate the integration of AI agents and automation into appropriate administrative and workflow processes.
• Monitor AI-enabled workflows for human review, privacy, accuracy, and procedural compliance.
• Identify automation opportunities and train staff on firm systems, workflow tools, portals, and automation processes.

4. Staff Coordination and Administrative Leadership

• Supervise and coordinate administrative staff responsible for client communications, document collection, engagement letters, billing support, collections, tax-season preparation, scanning, portal activity, and office functions.
• Establish responsibilities and accountability for administrative team members.
• Coordinate schedules, workload assignments, and recurring deadlines.
• Assist with onboarding and training administrative personnel.
• Facilitate staff meetings and follow up on action items.
• Liaise among professional staff, administrative staff, leadership, vendors, and IT providers.
• Promote accountability, responsiveness, organization, and continuous improvement.

5. Client Onboarding and Service Coordination

• Oversee new-client onboarding from acceptance through setup in firm systems.
• Ensure engagement letters, client information, prior-year records, portal access, billing arrangements, and service expectations are established.
• Coordinate annual tax-season preparation, including organizer distribution, engagement-letter tracking, document requests, and follow-up.
• Monitor missing client information and ensure timely follow-up.
• Support standardized client communications, deadline reminders, document requests, and status updates.
• Help ensure a consistent and professional client experience across service lines.

6. Billing, Collections, and Engagement Budget Monitoring

• Coordinate timely billing of completed work.
• Monitor engagement budgets and compare budgeted time or fee expectations with work status and completion.
• Track work in process, completed-but-unbilled projects, unpaid invoices, and past-due balances.
• Support payment-before-release procedures where applicable.
• Report billing status, collection issues, and budget overruns to firm leadership.