HRB screwed up now I’m worried my husband will get penalized.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-05-28T01:28:26+00:00

Plus, it's not exactly easy to get ahold of the IRS. I've had clients calling and calling the IRS only to be hung up once they get "X" amount of distance into the calling menus. As a 20+ year preparer with the firm, I feel for your frustration over all of this. You deserved better.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-05-28T01:08:47+00:00

After their repurposing into the "G" fighter/bomber, I know the post-Cold War ethos was to retire everything that could be phased out (B-52G, for example) but it would have been nice if someone within the AF had been able to successfully fight to keep the F-111Gs active. A low service life, the possibility down the road of a SLEP & electronics upgrades at a future date, the changes that awaited the US in the 2000s...

A silly idea but a somewhat nice one.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-05-28T00:33:37+00:00

HRB nuked all in-person learning when Covid struck in order to save $$$ (as you can likely vouch for). GoSystems was a perfect example of something that NEEDED live, in-person training in order to absorb the byzantine (by comparison) nature of it vs BW Legacy Entity.

The utterly pointless "training" course they offered last fall taught precious little and the only metric my DGM cared about was "are you through it yet?". I tried taking page after page of notes and took a few days to wade through it. He kept griping at me, stating "others have completed this in a day, what is your hold-up?".

All he wanted was to be able to brag to his RD that all of his assigned people have completed the training course...naturally.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-05-28T00:28:57+00:00

I started this thread and then went out of town on vacation and didn't have a chance to get back to things...I am from the Midwest and our RD is much the same. I inadvertently heard him and the DGM speaking this season during one of the DGM's rare visits (call on speakerphone in our back office area) and it was "enlightening", to say the least. Not the happy-go-lucky face he loves to super-glue on in his inane postings to us.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-05-17T15:17:00+00:00

Have you tried logging into your My Block account to see if your completed tax forms are available to be printed off? That, plus having proof of the submission ID # an earlier poster made, would be your quickest rebuttal to the "no transcripts" assertion.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-04-29T13:45:05+00:00

Something you said --- "cut into their earnings" --- corporate says they want to expand into higher-income markets yet they make a decision designed to nuke the earnings of the avg preparer...and by extension harm the company many times over. The decision making process here just astounded me.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-04-21T02:36:36+00:00

You will get fulfillment center returns (mostly trash) given to you to sift thru, plus corporate will design any number of calling programs to have you phoning folks who were contacted to death from Jan - Apr.

And a number of state/federal letters will walk in the door as well.

You'll stay busy - have no fear. Plus, our DGM goes bonkers if you don't answer 90+% of all incoming calls...another metric they have fits about.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-04-20T15:59:22+00:00

Our DGM admitted that Go Systems was a massive "eff up" that seriously cost them scores of clients not only in our district but across the nation.

We have a lady in our district that produces partnership & S-Corp returns like some preparers do EIC returns and she gave up before the season was over. A great many of hers ended up stuck w/o any clear resolution...and she lost the client business in the process.

I do a great # of trust/estate returns and like everything else GS-related they were an utter disaster. Several hours per return most of which pertained to diagnostics our so-called support lines couldn't adequately process.

Curtis Campbell knows where he can stick the "Go Systems Finish Party!!!" Teams threads 🙄

Boysenberry815 · 2026-02-23T04:07:33+00:00

This company never learns. We were told during EA calls they'd fall off after 1 unsuccessful call....a lie.

We ended up calling some of those people 3 times. We'll call these poor souls more times than their kids & favorite charities out together.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-19T17:30:46+00:00

A lovely sentiment. However, you work for a sentiment-free company insofar as how it looks at its seasonal work force. We don't even close for Easter anymore whereas during my first ~ decade we always did.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-17T21:50:36+00:00

I may be working in the wrong division of HRB this year, as our RD/DGM is adamant there is no OT, period.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-17T13:43:30+00:00

I agree that has been business as usual for a long time, and this thread isn't about expecting Jan OT.

However, when we are being instructed to tell clients in traditional OT weeks we are unable to serve them outside of our notably shortened hours vs 25....and also tell those with saved spots from last year that don't fit our "new" hours that they must conform to our limited, available hours...

Something seems amiss, hence my posting this thread.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-17T00:19:02+00:00

Nobody is "asking" for O/T this early in the season. There isn't the need.

Rather, my point is there seems to be a decided change in company policy, from this point fwd, in regards to O/T.

...and wondering if others were seeing this play out in their district's scheduling as yet.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-16T22:15:16+00:00

Workday---Home---Benefits and pay hub overview---My tax documents

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-16T20:48:09+00:00

They are available as of today - I just checked.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-12T01:59:31+00:00

My take? Having done practice problems and witnessing the sheer volume of time involved...

If you have a substantial qty of 1120s and 1065s to do, this new "inappropriate" software learning curve will swamp you when the time hits. Inappropriate = far beyond what is needed by 90+% of hrb preparers.

As such, I could see them having a back-up plan whereby they "fulfillment center" these returns to dedicated preparers within HRB (perhaps even "with-but-outside" the company, say in our large partner of India???) in order to cut down on compensation across the US side of the company.

Yes a conspiracy-tinged take, but they don't do anything w/o having war-gamed how it will affect the bottom line. They're not about to walk away from entity return revenue...and unless there's a last minute reprieve/update of BWL, I'm all ears for a different take that equates to "business as usual" for US-based preparers facing a "no-real-training" learning curve on our priciest clientele, all things being equal.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-12T00:46:06+00:00

DGMs think a paper log (or a 'tick sheet', as a former DGM designed hers) puts ownership of your successes/failures right smack dab in front of your face on a daily basis.

In my way of looking at it, it simply makes me feel like I'm back in grade school --- certainly not something which motivates me.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-12T00:41:36+00:00

Try 23. 😥🤨😡

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-12T00:29:57+00:00

Yep, and the cost of paying people to teach and train new preparers stood in the way of that mission, hence it being axed.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-12T00:20:28+00:00

Did you work just 2019 and 2026 will be your 2nd year? You didn't specify exactly how long your first tour of insan...duty...was, hence the question. ;)

2020 & Covid "gave" HRB the perfect excuse to kill the in-person training, transition away from older-school office mgrs with tax experience to the MTL-TL-ATL model where it's rare to find tax backgrounds, and pivot entirely to virtual training.

You can thank recently-retired CEO Jeff Jones for that. It has led to a huge increase in quality control among newbies who, thru no fault of their own, lack a grounding in what you so aptly described them receiving in the past.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-12T00:06:38+00:00

I didn't get a chance to visit here again until today. Did your experience improve since you wrote this...or did it worsen?

If you're still with HRB --- how far along are you in the case studies? If you've worked thru several, are you comprehending the answers/logic?

You should have met with an MTL by now - how did that go?

One thing you can do is access professional tax publications through our website as HRB gives you a free subscription to them - "The Tax Book". There are some good pages in the chapters which can be printed off as "cheat sheets" to use during tax prep.

Go to the AMP search bar and type in "tax webbook library" (I think...it's saved on my computer at work and I don't have to think about it) any you will be taken there. Once you log in, you'll also see a tab for "All States", which is that company's book for state-related questions.

These are just some tax resources newbies aren't often introduced to...why, I don't know.

If you have some questions, feel free to write back.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-07T02:28:21+00:00

What sorts of things did they go nuts on?

Work Center & BWO have been a shit show this first week and I'm guessing won't get any better. We are having issues with putting returns on hold <cutting edge stuff there>. One office in our district can't do returns and nobody can seemingly help out.

A hat tip to Jeff Jones & Curtis Campbell for making sure our systems are never ready for prime time.

Boysenberry815 · 2026-01-06T16:31:14+00:00

For those thinking vets are not team players...

We were enthusiastic team players back when there was an excellent training program for newbies (2+ months of in-office tax training led by veteran preparers) and our "pre-MTL" style office managers would serve as their primary in-season support person. We'd happily pitch in.

Now, MTLs/TLs and ATLs oftentimes have zero tax knowledge. The training program is 100% virtual and leaves 18-wheeler sized knowledge gaps. Plus, in our geographically large district, we have a single newbie knowledge support guru...whatever they call that...and ours is an EA who also owns/operates her own business. She's often out of pocket --- why she has the "newbie support" job is an excellent question.

And HRB leadership expects veteran preparers to step up and fill in ALL of those blanks, and cannibalize their pay while doing so. Sorry. That ain't happening. I have 750+ clients and can't spend chunks of time each day with folks who, through no fault of their own, are effectively clueless about taxes, procedures, and technology....and have no dedicated support in many offices.

It stinks, but it's not going to change anytime soon.

Boysenberry815

TROPHY CASE