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Groundhog day - a repeating annual ritual for accountants
iStock_Sherri Simms_Groundhog

Groundhog Day: Seems like déjà vu all over again

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Gobbler’s Knob, PA: The digital clock flicks to 06:00 and Sonny Bono’s distinctive whine emerges from the speaker: “Just put your pretty little hand in mine/There ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb… Babe.”

2nd Feb 2023
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Yes folks, it’s 2 February again and UK accountants have emerged blinking from their winter burrows, blinded by the small print of thousands upon thousands of personal tax returns. 

As AccountingWEB’s answer to WPBH-TV9 reporter Phil Connors, my job here is to see whether the symbolic groundhog sees its own shadow and retreats to its lair for another six weeks, or emerges into the gloom to make the most of an early spring revival.

“It’s a month where we go through the whole range of emotions from sheer panic to euphoria until that final click late on the 31st leaves us feeling flat, wondering what just happened and strangely sad that it’s all over so quickly,” wrote AccountingWEB member Winnie Wriggleroom in a philosophical exhalation on our Any Answers page.

Sense of foreboding

Across the Atlantic, US accountants are weighed down more by a sense of foreboding. Where the 31 January deadline for self assessment tax returns represents the first chance for UK practitioners to step back and relax after nearly four years of permanent deadlines, change and crisis, the annual 15 April closing date for US tax returns is just 10 weeks away.

These shared annual rituals are an opportunity to learn how accountants on both sides of the pond respond to prolonged stress - and what they plan to do in the year ahead to make things easier for themselves next year.

In Winnie’s case: “Now it’s February and as we go outside, blinking into the cold light of day we can reflect more objectively and promise ourselves that this year we will be more organised and whip these clients into shape, but deep down in your heart you well know that you feed off this monster that you have helped to create and you need the annual rush as much as you need to breathe.”

Last year Hugh Simpson captured the eerie similarities of the UK tax deadline and the annual groundhog day ritual in rural Pennsylvania - and the Bill Murray/Andie McDowell movie that celebrates the occasion. When Hugh looked ahead, what he saw was, “Attend to the tasks tomorrow and then the day after and then the day after and...” 

Recovery time

For Andrew Dick at GW Dick & Co in South Shields, it was a tough busy season - a feeling shared by many fellow practitioners in a private Facebook group he belongs to. “A lot of them felt clients were worse at getting data in this year. It seems like they couldn’t care less or had other priorities to worry about, so it was back to those long hours and weekend work,” he said.

The Making Tax Digital (MTD) income tax project was a distraction for the past couple of years. But with the recent delay announcement until 2026, “Now we’ve got a chance to set our own agenda ” he continued.

Like many accountants, Dick will turn his attention to making the firm fitter by completing its internal digital transformation. Among the things practitioners have said they want to deal with are the resource shortages and bottlenecks that make busy season such a grind every year. For some, practice management, workflow and online signature tools could speed things up when the deadlines near. On another recent Any Answers conversation, several accountants flagged an interest in upgrading their payroll software

For all these glimmers of positive activity, experience has shown that the best intentions of springtime are often pushed to the margins by the day-to-day intrusions that Hugh Simpson mentioned. Like those who give up alcohol during January, accountants frequently lapse back into old habits. By the time summer comes to an end, the momentum has gone and they’re looking ahead to another busy season as bad as the last one. And then the annual treadmill starts up all over again.

So, how can practitioners break this counterproductive cycle? Take a few small steps in the direction you want to go and get colleagues, friends or mentors to help clarify your thinking and keep you honest about your commitments to change.

The annual Accounting Excellence Awards are another tradition that springs into life at this time of year. Hundreds of firms that have made positive steps forward during the past 12 months get the opportunity to test their achievements against their peers and to discover the techniques that contribute to excellence and sustainable growth. 

Andrew Dick’s big theme for the year is to “focus back on what’s in our clients’ best interests”, which pretty much sums up that ethos. Firms can spend so long obsessing about their workload management and processes that they sometimes forget about the people who keep them in business. Going back to that core principle and making time to ask clients what they want to achieve and how they want to run their businesses can be an energising tonic for jaded practitioners.

In spite of the his busy season battle scars, Dick is feeling more optimistic this year. “I can see that we need to change our habits, so when we set a target, it becomes embedded in what we do. And rather than getting distracted by small stuff, it’s time to listen to your own advice and not get bogged down in things you don’t need to.”

But if accountants are basing their next steps on prophecies of Pennsylvannia's favourite groundhog, Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow today and retreated to his burrow. It looks like people might need to hunker down for a few more weeks.

Replies (6)

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By carnmores
02nd Feb 2023 16:43

its the only quote i know from Yogi Berra, now i know more:

https://www.mlb.com/news/yogisms-best-yogi-berra-sayings#:~:text=MLB%20c...

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Tornado
By Tornado
02nd Feb 2023 17:29

There are also the unexpected problems ................ like getting pneumonia during the last week of January. Still it was OK as apparently only 1 out of 100 people die as a result of this bacterial infection.

The future ain't what is used to be

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Replying to Tornado:
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By Catherine Newman
03rd Feb 2023 18:14

I know people who have had likewise. I stayed away from any of my usual activities and luckily have never been ill in January in spite of having 2 girls. I went out with friends on Wednesday and one still has it.

The situation is ridiculous.

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By Postingcomments
02nd Feb 2023 20:43

On what cycle is the deja vu for internet content writers?

Quick article. Coffee.
Quick article. Coffee.
Quick article. Coffee.
Try to come up with something catchy hoping it will go viral and you'll hit the click jackpot.
Quick article. Coffee.
Maybe poke the "zen accounting" idea again to see if you can eventually get that dead old horse to go viral. It won't. Move on.

Thanks (1)
Replying to Postingcomments:
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By mumpin
03rd Feb 2023 14:10

Get you!
You're engaging with Stoykers to such an extent that you've transcended empathy and started to deconstruct his job.
You should be in the twitosphere or BTL at The Telegraph online.

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Replying to mumpin:
John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
10th Feb 2023 09:22

Hmmm... I'd say it's less a case of deconstructing my job than astrally projecting themselves into my daily reality. Spooky.

Like Phil Connors, I've now written this item twice in a row, because my number came up again on the 2 February opinion article lottery (and I have a weird obsession with furry little critters, Bill Murray and ridiculous episodes in American folk culture). Next year could get very meta if we see a repeat engagement.

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