Intern Update: David Ruiz de Chavez

David Ruiz de Chavez

Accounting, College of Business, Influence, and Information Analysis

Keller & Owens, LLC. - Accounting Assistant

As I have continued working for Keller & Owens this spring semester, I have been most recently busy with tax preparation and assembly. However, most of my seasonal work at Keller & Owens is based on tax return assembly. Assembly is not an easy process because each client is different and have slightly different aspects to their tax returns. For example, one client might earn revenue in a different state than they live, so I would need to organize the return to account for their out of state revenue. Many of our clients are Kansas residents because the firm is in Kansas. Kansas has a simple state return that, depending on the client, is usually only about five to ten pages long. Some clients also have jobs in the city (Kansas City), and therefore must file a city return as well. It is my responsibility to use the tax software (CCH) to find all the client’s respective documents from their tax preparation and bind them in a paper copy for the client as well as saving a paper copy for our firm’s files. Since many of our clients prefer electronic copies of their returns, I must also convert their return into a PDF and edit the order of the documents before I save it in their folder on our firm’s network. As I said, each return is slightly different, so the process of assembly is not always straightforward. Also, the firm requires that those doing tax return assembly can only bill a half an hour of time to the client for return assembly. Of course, this is for individual clients and not corporate clients. So, if I take longer than a half an hour on a certain return then the time I spent becomes non-billable which is not a good reflection of efficiency.

I work in an office next to one of the partners (Greg Owens), and he frequently has me complete projects and assignments for him. Some examples are medical deduction spreadsheets, sorting client financial data from a third-party firm that handles the client’s trust, and other deductible expense spreadsheets. Greg is very nice and can explain what he needs me to complete on a project or assignment without wasting any time. It is good exposure for me to do work directly for a partner in the firm in which I am currently employed.