the Cost of Temporary Tax Accounting Services

Our firm hired a temporary accounting employee to help us out during the busy tax season. We paid them $1000 a week.

We could have gotten a student to do the tax preparation for us at a much lower price. However, we didn't have the time to be answering questions and helping them or checking their work. So we decided to go with a very experienced temporary accounting employee and pay them a premium. We also offered a bonus if the employee completed a certain number of tax returns during the 4 week period we employed them. They did not meet this goal, or even come close, so we did not give them the bonus. The employee was definitely very knowledgeable, thorough and intelligent. They were not, however, particularly speedy or good with the customers. We appreciated their attention to detail and want to get everything perfect but we did have deadlines to meet and would have liked to see a little more hustle.

Be sure to consider all the things you want in an employee, not just their professional experience. If they are going to be working with customers try to set up the interview in a way that you can get an idea of their customer service skills.