1,100 returns. A 5 p.m. finish.
How Teel Accounting used Filed to process over a thousand returns, reclaim 4 hours a day, and get home for dinner during peak season.
I went from working 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., pretty much seven days a week, to working from 7 to 5, going home, having dinner, putting my kid to bed. I wouldn't have been able to do it without Filed.
High volume. No margin for error.
Teel Accounting is a high-volume individual tax practice based in Lambertville, NJ that filed 1,100 returns this season. Brian Teel runs the review process himself. The firm handles everything from simple W-2 returns to complex multi-state filings.
Before Filed, peak season meant 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. Weekends ran 12 to 13 hours. There was no buffer for the unexpected, and no realistic path to scaling without hiring staff that the market couldn't reliably provide.
The firm needed to get more returns out the door without adding headcount it couldn't find, train, or rely on.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it without Filed. I don't even know if I could have filed all the returns I did without it."
All in from day one.
Brian didn't ease in. He committed fully, processing 50% of all returns through Filed for data entry and diagnostics. By the end of the season, everything was going through Filed, including simple returns, because the volume demanded it.
"I'm paying for this thing. We're going in 110% on it."
The upload and submission process was simple enough that a team member with no prior tax office experience could handle it end to end, running documents through Filed the same way a second-year preparer would handle data entry.
"She was basically acting like a second-year tax preparer, running everything through Filed."
Brian reviewed in ProConnect and made adjustments. No back-and-forth between programs. He treated Filed the same way he'd treat a junior preparer: review everything, correct where needed, move on. The difference was that Filed didn't call in sick, didn't need training, and could process returns around the clock.
I replace an entire person. Times two, potentially. You have to look at it as what it does versus what you get out of it.
The numbers speak for themselves.
4 hrs
Shifted from a 9 p.m. finish to a 5 p.m. finish. Weekends went from 12 to 13 hour days to 7 to 8 hours.
200-300
Without Filed, an estimated 200 to 300 returns simply wouldn't have made it out the door this season.
50%
Filed handled half of all return preparation, effectively replacing the equivalent of two full-time preparers.
5 p.m.
For the first time in recent memory, Brian had evenings back during peak season. Dinner with family became the norm, not the exception.
Next year: all 1,100 returns.
Brian is planning to process every return through Filed next season. The firm is rethinking its team structure: training data processing staff to become reviewers instead of data entry workers.
"My expectation was whatever I did this year, whatever feedback I provide, it's going to be better next year. I want things to be better so I don't have to hire 15 people who may or may not show up to work the next day."
The goal for the 2027 season: 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. 9 to 12 on Saturdays.
Not a moonshot. Just a realistic goal, built on what this season proved was possible.
"It gave me a home life."
Anything that adds less time, more value. That's how I look at it. If I could do a thousand tax returns with just me, that's great.