It’s everyone’s favorite time of year: tax season!
OK, maybe it’s not a favorite, but it’s still important. You have plenty on your plate, and you probably can’t afford an IT catastrophe in the middle of this stressful season.
A managed IT service provider (MSP) can help you get ahead of IT problems before they occur to offer you smoother operations and more stability through the tax season. Here are a handful of ways your MSP can specifically aid you.
Preventing Costly Downtime
According to Forbes, downtime can cost enterprise businesses as much as $9,000 per minute. Even smaller businesses take it on the chin any time their systems go down. Adding to the challenge, downtime costs and risks can vary seasonally.
In several industries, tax season comes with a surge in digital activity. Whether you process financial information for others or need to increase communication with your own financial management resources, these demands show up like clockwork every year.
Increasing digital communication—in the form of tax documents, receipts, general communications, and more—also increases risks. Crashes, communication failures, security threats, and myriad technical problems that hit businesses every day become an even larger concern with tax deadlines looming.
Managed IT services proactively monitor and protect your systems. Your MSP can identify and resolve issues before they manifest into downtime. These efforts boost efficiency and save you from considerable costs associated with downtime. Considering the increased activity of tax season, those savings matter even more.
Ensuring Security for Sensitive Data
One way tax season elevates digital risks is that it pushes businesses of all kinds to transmit additional financial information. This usually includes secure and/or sensitive data. Data thieves understand this seasonal shift, targeting small and medium-sized businesses when they are busier, more stressed, and possibly less prepared to handle intrusions.
In short, the more hectic your business feels, the better a target you make for malicious actors.
Managed IT services utilize robust security measures, including encryption, firewalls, secure data storage, and other safeguards. These provide constant protection, whether you’re in a tax-related frenzy or not.
Your IT provider can boost your defenses when you feel vulnerable, creating additional layers of security to mitigate risks.
For example, an accounting firm might benefit from an access and password security audit at the beginning of tax season. Especially if they boost labor during tax season, a preemptive audit ensures best practices are in place before the season kicks into high gear.
This is one of countless ways your managed service provider can anticipate your needs and protect you from costly attacks.
24/7 IT Support for Uninterrupted Operations
Immediate support provides an obvious solution to many downtime issues. Something breaks, and you need a rapid response to get it working again.
Most managed IT providers offer some level of helpdesk support. When demand surges, expanded help desk access reduces downtime and productivity bottlenecks related to your technology.
With 24/7 support, you get all the help you need, even while you burn the midnight oil to keep up with the extra demands of tax season.
Better yet, adaptable service tiers let you expand or contract your help desk support with seasonal business fluctuations. Get extra help when you need it, and save money when business cools in the off-season.
Optimizing Accounting Software
With tax season comes reminders of every inefficiency or problem you might have with your accounting software. High-level tech support can help you optimize your existing software, supplement it with strategic support apps and tools, and outright replace it with something better if and when that suits your needs.
Simply updating and maintaining your standard software, like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage, can eliminate bugs, clean up activity, and help you get more from the software you already use.
Work with your MSP to optimize your accounting software, and you’ll find this tax season much easier to manage.
Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
Downtime comes in many forms, but losing access to data can be one of the most frustrating things to experience. Especially during crunch time, losing access to essential records can stop you in your tracks.
With robust data backups and disaster recovery, you can solve this problem before it occurs.
Your MSP can work with you to create multiple backups. Some can be stored on your premises with others kept safe in the cloud. With multiple redundancies, you virtually eliminate the risk of total data loss, and you give yourself multiple avenues to restore any data that is temporarily lost.
Combined with a detailed disaster recovery plan, you can rapidly overcome data loss and keep any downtime to an absolute minimum.
Compliance and Regulatory Assurance
Compliance is always a major concern for businesses. Healthcare providers deal with HIPAA, restaurants deal with health codes, and every other business has its own oversight.
Tax season adds state and federal regulations to your existing concerns. You can hardly afford to get your finances wrong during tax season, but do you have time to gain expertise in yet another complicated field?
Your MSP can help. With industry experience and knowledge, they can ensure you have the right tools for tax season. They can also confirm your systems and processes are up to regulatory code. This helps you avoid downtime related to regulatory burdens and allows you to focus on other challenges that keep you busy.
Supporting Remote Work and Secure Access
It’s common these days for businesses to have at least some remote work. If you need your main place of operations to be in top technological shape for tax season, you probably want the same for any remote work you support.
Your MSP can beef up remote work infrastructure and review processes and policies to be sure you’re set for tax season. Preventing remote work downtime is often just as important as keeping a main office up and running.
Cost-Effective IT Solutions
IT advances every year. With those advancements come opportunities to improve your IT support and access while lowering costs. A good MSP offers strategic planning services to help you find the most efficient path forward.
Reduce downtime, get through tax season with less stress, and save money throughout the year by planning appropriately and taking full advantage of strategic services from your MSP.
Rapid Issue Resolution
While issue resolution and help desk support are related, not all issues run through a help desk. Some issues require more critical attention, and you need a response team ready to jump at any sign of trouble.
Issue resolution is common among IT services with MSPs, and your Pittsburgh business should review this service every tax season. Ensure you have access to immediate support and robust issue resolution. From network crashes to hardware failures and more, issue resolution attacks downtime with a vengeance.
As you know, things always go wrong at the worst possible time. You can have a team on standby ready for that exact moment.
Frequently Asked Questions About Managed IT and Tax Season
How can a managed IT provider reduce downtime during tax season?
Managed IT services proactively monitor systems, identify vulnerabilities, and resolve issues before they cause outages. During tax season — when digital activity and data transmission surge — this preventative approach is especially critical. Providers like JENLOR can also perform pre-season security audits and optimize accounting software to ensure peak performance.
What cybersecurity risks increase during tax season?
Tax season drives a spike in sensitive financial data transmission, making businesses attractive targets for phishing, ransomware, and credential theft. Cybercriminals specifically target SMBs during this period, knowing that increased workloads can lead to security oversights. Managed IT services counter this with layered security, encrypted communication, and real-time monitoring.
Should I upgrade my accounting software before tax season?
At minimum, your accounting software should be updated and maintained to eliminate bugs and security vulnerabilities. An MSP can help optimize existing platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage, and recommend supplementary tools if needed. Addressing software performance before the crunch prevents disruption during the most demanding period.
How does data backup protect a business during tax season?
Robust data backups — stored across multiple locations including on-premises and cloud — ensure that financial records are recoverable even in the event of hardware failure, ransomware, or accidental deletion. Combined with a detailed disaster recovery plan, a managed backup strategy minimizes data loss and keeps operations running during critical deadlines.
Getting Support From JENLOR
Tax season can keep you on your toes without throwing IT problems into the mix. JENLOR wants to help keep any IT issues under control so you can focus on your real mission. Contact us today to discuss services, strategies, and everything else we can do to take care of you.
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