Company: Accruity
Industry: Accounting & Financial Services
Client Background
Accruity is an accounting and financial services firm supporting businesses with services including bookkeeping, accounting, accounts payable and receivable, payroll, financial modeling, tax strategy, and fractional CFO support. OBS supported the firm’s US tax operations by assisting with tax-related documentation review, data validation, information gathering, and the resolution of day-to-day client queries.
As tax activities progressed, the team faced a recurring operational challenge: essential information was often incomplete, queries were tracked manually, and resolving even straightforward issues could involve multiple follow-ups with different stakeholders. This created unnecessary back-and-forth communication and consumed valuable time that could otherwise be spent on core tax activities.
OBS was brought in to create a more structured approach to managing queries, tracking outstanding information, and ensuring unresolved items did not affect tax completion timelines.
Client Challenges
- High Volume of Tax Queries: Routine tax activities generated frequent questions relating to missing documents, incomplete data, supporting schedules, and information requiring clarification from clients or internal stakeholders.
- Incomplete Supporting Information: Required documentation was not always available in a complete or readily usable format, making it necessary to review existing records before determining exactly what information was required.
- Manual Tracking of Open Items: Without a centralized process, monitoring open queries, pending responses, responsible stakeholders, and aging items required considerable manual coordination.
- Repeated Follow-Ups: Individual queries were often handled separately, resulting in multiple communication cycles and unnecessary back-and-forth between the tax team and stakeholders.
- Tight Tax Timelines: Open queries and delayed responses had the potential to affect downstream tax activities, making prioritization and timely follow-up critical.
- Excessive Administrative Coordination: Tax professionals were spending significant time tracking query status and chasing information instead of focusing on higher-value tax review and preparation activities.
Client Goals
The objective was to establish a more organized and proactive tax support process that would:
- Improve visibility into open and pending queries.
- Reduce unnecessary follow-up cycles.
- Identify missing information more efficiently.
- Improve ownership and accountability for outstanding items.
- Prioritize critical queries based on tax deadlines.
- Reduce manual coordination and status tracking.
- Support the timely completion of tax-related activities.
Our Solution
Rather than treating every missing item as an isolated issue, OBS introduced a structured query-management workflow designed to improve visibility, ownership, and turnaround.
- Document Review and Gap Identification: Our team reviewed available documents and supporting information to identify gaps, inconsistencies, and missing data before raising queries with the client or relevant stakeholders.
- Query Categorization and Prioritization: Open queries were categorized based on urgency, ownership, and their potential impact on tax completion timelines. This allowed critical items to receive immediate attention.
- Consolidated Information Requests: Instead of sending multiple individual questions, OBS consolidated related queries into clear and structured requests. This reduced fragmented communication and made it easier for stakeholders to respond efficiently.
- Centralized Query Tracking: A centralized tracker was maintained to monitor:
- Open queries
- Responsible stakeholders
- Pending information
- Query aging
- Follow-up status
- Resolution progress
- This created greater visibility and ensured that no important item was overlooked.
- Proactive Follow-Up Management: Critical and aging queries were monitored closely, with timely follow-ups initiated before unresolved items could impact the overall tax timeline.
Example of Client Query Resolution
During the review of a tax-related schedule, the OBS team identified information that appeared to be missing. Rather than immediately sending a broad clarification request back to the client, the team first investigated the available records to determine the precise nature of the gap.
The resolution process involved:
- Identifying the specific data gap.
- Reviewing available records and supporting documentation.
- Validating whether the required information could be located internally.
- Preparing a clear and concise query outlining exactly what was required.
- Assigning the query to the appropriate stakeholder.
- Following up based on priority and aging.
- Reviewing and validating the information received.
- Updating the relevant tax schedule.
- Closing the query only after final validation.
This structured approach eliminated unnecessary clarification cycles and enabled the client to provide the required information faster and with greater accuracy.
Time & Process Improvement
The introduction of a structured query-management process improved the overall efficiency of day-to-day tax support activities.
Key improvements included:
- Faster resolution of routine tax queries.
- Fewer follow-up and clarification cycles.
- Better visibility into pending and aging items.
- Clearer ownership of outstanding requests.
- Improved prioritization of deadline-sensitive queries.
- Reduced manual effort spent on coordination and status tracking.
- Lower risk of unresolved queries affecting tax timelines.
By consolidating requests and proactively tracking open items, the process shifted from reactive follow-ups to a more controlled and organized workflow.
Key Results
Within the engagement, OBS helped establish a more efficient framework for managing tax-related queries and outstanding information:
- Reduced unnecessary back-and-forth communication through consolidated query requests.
- Improved visibility and accountability through centralized query tracking.
- Accelerated the identification and resolution of missing information.
- Reduced manual coordination efforts for routine follow-ups.
- Improved prioritization of critical queries to support timely tax completion.
- Created a repeatable process that could be applied across ongoing US tax activities.
Business Impact
The engagement gave the client a more disciplined way to manage one of the most time-consuming aspects of tax operations: chasing information and resolving outstanding queries.
Instead of relying on fragmented communication and manual status checks, the client gained a centralized process for identifying gaps, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and escalating aging items.
This allowed the tax team to spend less time on administrative coordination and more time focusing on core tax activities, while reducing the risk of unresolved information delaying important deliverables.
The Result: From Reactive Follow-Ups to Proactive Tax Support
OBS transformed a fragmented and manual query-handling process into a structured support framework built around document validation, centralized tracking, clear ownership, and proactive follow-ups.
The result was not simply faster query resolution. It created a more reliable operational process where outstanding items were visible, responsibilities were clear, and potential bottlenecks could be addressed before they affected tax timelines.
For the client, this meant less time spent chasing information, fewer unnecessary communication cycles, and a more efficient path toward the timely completion of US tax activities.