Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1
GET READY FOR TAX SCHOOL ......................................................................................... 2
UPDATE CONTACT INFORMATION ................................................................................................................. 2
SET UP CLASSES.............................................................................................................................................. 5
MONITOR PERFORMANCE............................................................................................................................ 16
Introduction
A Jackson Hewitt Tax School should be conducted annually in every territory you own during
the fall and winter timeframe.
Operating Tax School benefits your business in the following ways:
Promotes Jackson Hewitt as a leader in the income tax industry to the general public.
Educates students about income tax preparation, the tax industry, tax law updates and how
to prepare individual income tax returns.
Provides an effective curriculum for PTIN holders to attain their Continuing Education (CE)
requirements.
Prepares interested students for the IRS RTRP Test.
Encourages tax preparer retention by providing returning employees with an opportunity to
enhance their tax knowledge and tax preparation skills.
Helps grow your business by supplying you with a pool of qualified candidates to consider
for employment for the coming tax season.
Note: The completion of any tax preparation course is neither an offer nor
guarantee of employment. Your students should understand that additional
training, experience, or skills may be required.
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If you have a legal advisor for your business, consider adding the Tax School state requirements
to their duties.
Create a Budget
Tax School plays a critical role by providing a pool of qualified tax preparers and as a resource
that helps retain existing tax preparers. As such, consider Tax School to be an investment in the
growth of your operation.
Begin creating a budget by reviewing expenses and revenue generated from the previous year's
Tax School. In addition, use the Tax School Budget Worksheet to:
Use the 'break even' number to help determine your registration, tuition fee, and/or book fee, if
applicable. Important Note: You must comply with state tax regulations when determining your
fees.
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Design Curriculum
Your tax school curriculum; the number and types of classes to offer, should accommodate both
new students and existing tax preparers. The following steps help you make selections that
benefit your business.
Also, communicate with existing tax preparers to evaluate the level of interest for an Enrolled
Agent Study Group session.
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your office for scheduled lab work, assessments, follow-up, etc. (The online Basic Income
Tax Course is not available in all states. Check your states page on JHnet for regulations).
Facilitated Classroom: This course is designed to be held in a traditional classroom
environment and is taught using previously-recorded modules with a facilitator/proctor
on hand for each class. The facilitator/proctors role is to take attendance, monitor the
sessions, and facilitate Knowledge Check Questions, homework exercises, assessments,
etc., as well as deliver state tax information and reinforce the tax concepts as they are
presented in the sessions. The Facilitated version is the same as the online version.
Refer to the Basic Income Tax Rollout Guide for more information on each delivery method.
In addition to the Basic Income Tax Course, there are a variety of CE-eligible Intermediate and
Advanced courses, and EA Study Group etc. Visit the Tax Education Center Page for a
complete list of these courses available.
Conduct classes in all office locations where you need staff for the tax season, rather than at
only one central location. This strategy ensures that students recruited as tax preparers for the
specific office will be comfortable with the driving commute.
If you have a large volume retail location with no other offices nearby, consider alternative sites
such as the local community center, a church hall, or even a community college.
Anticipate that recruited students availability will mirror the timeframes they attended class.
Therefore, analyze the anticipated work schedules of returning tax preparers and identify
specific timeframe gaps. Once identified, offer classes at varying times during the week that
include the timeframe gaps. For example, if you need evening employees, offer evening classes.
If you need daytime employees offer daytime classes.
Set Up Classes
Once you have determined the course locations, dates and times, take the following steps to get
ready for classes.
Document
Document your new Tax School classes as well as Off Season Access courses in Employee
Education eService so you can register students, monitor their performance and evaluate your
Tax School efforts.
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Enrollment Agreement
Schedule of Classes / Course Catalog
Other items required by your state law and regulations
Welcome Letter
Schedule for course and lab work
Basic Income Tax Course Participants Manual, or instructions on where to purchase
the Participants Manual if youre not providing it as part of the course fees.
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Availability, ordering instructions and special offers are communicated on the Operate Your Tax
School site.
Additional equipment and supplies (e.g. state, city specific forms, pens, note pads, projector,
etc.) may need to be purchased locally. A list of recommended items is documented in BIT
Rollout Guide.
Supervisory experience
Interpersonal and communication skills
Computer skills
Ability to multi-task, delegate and remain organized
Training and sales experience
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Instructor:
Role: Tax School Instructors are the face of Jackson Hewitt to students. Therefore, its
important they have the necessary skills and personality to retain as many students as possible
by delivering the course in an organized, knowledgeable and engaging manner. Additional
responsibilities include:
For additional details about these specific responsibilities, please consult the Tax School
Checklist on.
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Leads
Students
Students converted to employees
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and not show up, may show up but drop out, or may successfully complete the course but are
not interested in employment with Jackson Hewitt. Therefore, strive to register significantly
more students than your staffing needs, which mean generating an even higher number of
leads.
As you create your Marketing Plan consider using these best practices:
Identify target groups of people who may be receptive to registering for Tax School and
customize your marketing strategies accordingly. For example, you can reach out to active
retirees with a postcard mailing sent to a local senior housing complex, or leave a stack of
flyers geared toward stay-at-home mothers at an area child care facility.
Place posters and banners in areas with heavy traffic, such as check cashers, retail stores, and
Laundromats.
Display Tax School signage, with a phone number listed, in every office location from May to
November.
Update your voicemail and/or on-hold messages to remind callers about Tax School and
encourage registration.
Make sure someone is in the office to answer inquiries on the day of and day after the ad is
placed. Youll have better recruiting results when callers reach a live person who can answer
their questions when they call. It is acceptable to have an answering machine on when the
office is closed provided you follow up on all inquiries promptly.
Distribute flyers to the local hotspots, such as supermarkets, coffee shops, Laundromats
and check cashers.
Attend job fairs and visit with local area colleges to generate interest.
Include any prior year lead, not just last year, in your marketing efforts.
Use the Employee Education Contact Report to generate mailing labels for prior year leads
in your database.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Most states impose restrictions on the marketing and advertising of Tax
Schools. As with all marketing, the representations in the materials promoting your Tax School
must be truthful. In addition, you must be careful not to make any direct or implied offer or
guarantee of employment in your marketing materials. Please submit a copy of any locally
created Tax School marketing materials to the Corporate Marketing department for review and
approval before you place the ad. Complete the Advertising Approval Form and submit your
proposed advertisement via email to creativeservices@jtax.com.
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Manage Leads
Every lead is a potential student. Therefore, each lead must be managed meticulously using a
well defined process. Be prepared to manage leads from the following sources:
Prior-year
Leads
Current-year
Leads
ProFiler
Leads
Public
Website Leads
People that inquired about Tax School but did not register. Note: A prior
year lead refers to a person that inquired about tax school in any prior year,
not just last year.
Inquiries generated by the current marketing campaign.
Clients that stated they were interested in Tax School during the ProFiler Tax
Interview.
People that request further information about Tax School from the
Jacksonhewitt.com.
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Collecting information and completing the Registration Form for each lead.
Using the Employee Education eService to input the information into the database.
Forwarding correspondence
Using the Call Campaign to follow-up with leads and encourage registration
Facilitating a standard registration process
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FILL CLASSES
Convert Leads to Students
Converting leads to students often requires following up with leads multiple times to promote
Tax School and encourage registration.
Cost
Time Commitment
Course dates and/or timeframes are not compatible with work/personal schedule
Location of class is not convenient
Lack confidence about being able to comprehend the course content
When Tax School team members follow-up with leads they need to have the skill and
knowledge necessary to encourage registration by alleviating concerns and removing obstacles.
Several resources providing instruction about how to respond effectively in these situations can
be located using the Operate Your Tax School site.
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Has a PTIN
Does not have a PTIN
Is an Enrolled Agent, CPA, or attorney
To locate additional information about the process to obtain a PTIN refer to irs.gov and the
Preparer Registration / PTIN Information site on JHnet.
Monitor Results/Status
Continually use the Tax School Dashboard to evaluate your process toward your student goal
by:
Based on your analysis, decide if you need to add more courses to your Tax School curriculum
to accommodate higher-than-expected lead activity, or if you need to alter your marketing
activities to generate more leads.
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Registration Letter: This document can be printed from Employee Education eService and
serves as both a receipt for the students payment and information sheet with class detail and
login information and detail for TaxSchool.com.
Welcome Letter: This document contains detail about class location, dates, time, contact
information for the Instructor and other detail.
Course and Lab Schedule
Basic Income Tax Course Participant Manual or instructions about where to purchase the manual
if you are not providing this document as part of the course fees.
Distribute textbooks or provide detail about how students can obtain their books. (Use the Issue
Books link on the Students Tab of Employee Education eService to document this action).
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RETAIN STUDENTS
Not every student that registers will complete class. Student attrition can happen for a variety of
reasons and several can be directly related to the actions of the Tax School Instructor. Therefore,
providing Instructors with the tools, resources and guidance they need to retain students can
have a positive impact on your Tax School.
Monitor Performance
Evaluating student and Instructor performance on a routine basis provides an excellent
indication about whether or not the Instructor is facilitating effective learning.
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Assist Students
Coach Talent
Support your Tax School Instructors by providing an appropriate level of motivation, education
and guidance.
Celebrate your Instructors achievement once they have completed their curriculum
and are ready to deliver their first tax class of the season by presenting them with a
Tax School Instructor Training Certificate of Completion
Provide an incentive program for achieving student retention rate that exceeds goals
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Identify Talent
When filling any open position in your tax office, you want to carefully select the best
candidates. To help you decide which Tax School students may be qualified candidates for
filling your open Tax Preparer positions, ask your Instructors for recommendations and review
your students scores. Your Instructors should use the student evaluation tab in the Employee
Education eService to note the students' interest in employment and their recommendation.
After you identify qualified candidates, follow state and local laws for interviewing and hiring
your staff. Use the Tax Preparer Structured Interview Score Sheet to help you assess the
TS 2012 Jackson Hewitt: Operate Your Tax School Manual
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potential of the applicants and keep your interviews consistent. This score sheet helps you
conduct behavioral interviews so you can better determine a candidate's knowledge, skills, and
abilities by asking them for specific examples from their past experiences. Since past
performance is one of the best predictors of future performance, using behavioral interviews
increase the likelihood that your newly-hired employees have the necessary competencies for
the job.
In the Employee Education eService, you can convert students to employees using the Hire
function located in Employee Information eService. Once you complete this step, the
information in the Employee Information eService will populate the Learning Center, and the
employees will be assigned a Development Plan to continue their tax season training.
Inquiries generated
Registered Students
Students Retained
Students that were recruited as tax preparers
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Instructors
Recruiters
Take the time at the end of tax school to document ideas for improvement for next year while
the information is fresh in your mind.
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