Tell us what February looked like last year and we will take it from there. Call (604) 813-7881 and ask for Tony, or send us a note. Regular hours are Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm MT, and a person answers emergency calls on the same number 24/7.
Tax season slowdowns and downtime at accounting firms
Everything gets slow in February, and we can’t afford a bad day
If that sounds like your firm, you are in good company. Here is the risk to the firm, what good looks like, and what we do.
Free consult with Tony. No pressure, no jargon.
The risk in busy season
In February the setup that felt fine in the fall starts to show its limits. A client file takes a while to open, a report stalls, and someone working from home gets bumped off. Minutes add up across the team behind deadlines that do not move. On the worst day a server that was already close to its limit stops, and the question becomes how long until the firm is back.
Good looks like room to breathe: software that stays responsive when everyone is busy, a server that can come back in under 2 hours if it fails, and a pre season check so surprises turn up in January instead of February.
We look after the foundation so busy season is calmer. For the shared stack (Hyper-V, RAID 10, Meraki, Huntress, MFA and backups), see the accounting IT support overview and why firms run servers on Hyper-V. During tax season we can also put a technician on site. Ask us how that works for your firm.
What we put in place
- A server that can fail without stopping the firm. QuickBooks and tax software run on Hyper-V with RAID 10, so one failed drive does not stop the firm. Why accounting firms should use Hyper-V.
- A network sized for the rush. A Meraki firewall and separate networks so server traffic stays fast and guests stay off the firm lane.
- Backups you can trust. Server backups run on Veeam and follow the 3-2-1 rule, stay immutable for 30 days, keep an offsite copy in Vancouver, BC, and we test restores. If a server itself fails, we restore it in under 2 hours.
- A pre season check, and help when it counts. Before the busy weeks we look over the server, network, backups and software together. A person answers (604) 813-7881 24/7 for emergencies, and every firm gets its own group chat with dedicated technicians on WhatsApp, Slack, Google Chat or Microsoft Teams. It is for IT help, so keep SINs and client financial details out of the chat.
Also see
Tax season IT questions we hear
Can you promise no downtime in tax season?
No, and anyone who does is promising too much. Hardware can fail and some work needs a planned window. What we can do is make a failure less likely to stop the whole firm, make recovery quicker, and tell you plainly how much downtime your setup can ride out.
Do we need new hardware to get through busy season?
Not always. Slowness often comes from the network, a single overloaded server or a setting, not only from age. We look first and tell you honestly what we find.
When should we start?
Earlier is calmer. A check before the busy weeks leaves room to fix things without a deadline breathing down your neck. If it is already busy season, call anyway and we will sort out what can wait.