People Before Processes: How Two Founding Principals Built a Modern Firm Without Burning Out Team

Описание: Their team has not worked overtime during tax season. Not once since their launch.

After a combined 60 years in traditional accounting firms, Anna Hergenrader and Gwen Hodges launched Hodges and Hergenrader, LLP in 2023 with one rule: people come first. They watched talented staff burn out under the old model of more hours, more people, more chaos. They decided their firm would be different.

Here is what they did that most firm owners get backwards: they documented workflows before things broke, not after. They set client cutoff dates and actually enforce them. March 15 means March 15. Clients call ahead now because they know the boundaries are real. They built a team of seven, including three staff members who have worked with them for 10 to 20 years, because they hire for values first and teach the technical skills later.

What you will learn in this episode:

• The workflow documentation strategy that lets their team work without waiting for answers
• How to set and enforce client boundaries that clients actually respect
• Why they focus on advisory relationships with small and medium business owners instead of standalone compliance work
• How cloud-based tax software like ProConnect enables their fully remote, no-overtime firm structure

Anna and Gwen prove that sustainable tax practice management is not a dream. It is a decision. Their firm runs remote, their clients show up prepared, and their team goes home on time.

Stop running your firm on memory and sticky notes. Explore Intuit Professional Tax Software to build workflows that scale without burning out your team: https://accountants.intuit.com/tax-so...

Connect with the hosts:
🎙 Carrie Hammond:   / cahammond  
🎙 Lexi Bonicard:   / lexibonicard  

Follow our guests:
💼 Anna Hergenrader:   / annahergenrader  
💼 Gwen Hodges:   / gwen-hodges  

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