does anyone charge extra for having to open envelopes?

[schirallicpa]

Because I'm getting really tired of opening envelopes.  Really?  People don't even look at their W2?  I wish I were so trusting and simple.

 

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

I get so sick of opening envelopes that haven't been opened or the ones that have been opened and they still shove the crap back in so I have to take it out again. I throw the stupid envelopes away most of the time. Unfortunately, my mother is one of the worst offenders. She never met an envelope that she didn't like. She puts all of her bills back in the envelopes and keeps them forever.

[jklcpa]

Add on to the aggravation of having to open the darn envelopes are those clients that give us additional information written as notes on the outside of them!

I throw the envelopes away whenever possible. I have one woman with many 1099s from bank int, divs and iras, and she reconciles each one back to her other records with notations on each envelope. I can't throw any of them away, and worse yet is that I have to stuff the docs back into their envelopes after scanning them in. It is such a waste of time!

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I charge by time so opening envelopes, while painful at times, is income producing and gives me a little overview.  I do not, however, replace documents inside them.  I'm not that nice... probably why I don't get goodies.

[RitaB]

I charge more for aggravation.  I don't tell them I'm doing it.  My time is precious.  I hate giving time away for a chore like opening envelopes, or calling for your 1099, or getting you an extension after your return sat here, finished, for six weeks, and you tell me today to get an extension, because you owe.  If I want to waste time chatting with you, that's on me.  I usually enjoy that part of the job.

[FDNY]

The cover letter to my clients includes the sentence, "Please remove all your documents from envelopes to reduce your mailing costs and save the life of my shredder.   I'm up to 90% compliance.   I like to train my clients well to make it easy on me. 

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

That is so smart! I need to add that one too! Of course it won't help with the people that don't even open my envelope. 

[Lion EA]

I had one client that not only had everything in original envelopes, they were not necessarily the original envelopes for the contents.  Would ignore an envelope that was her personal AmEx bill only to find later that it contained a sales receipt for some biz materials she purchased + her son's report card + an uncashed dividend check.  I paid a gal to open her envelopes, sort info, and create a ledger of sorts, and charged client a bookkeeping charge.

[GeneInAlabama]

I use to have a client that would give me all his mail unopened.  Sometimes there would e a certified letter from the IRS that hadn't even been opened.  I guess certified mail from the IRS doesn't mean anything.

[FDNY]

13 minutes ago, GeneInAlabama said:

I use to have a client that would give me all his mail unopened.  Sometimes there would e a certified letter from the IRS that hadn't even been opened.  I guess certified mail from the IRS doesn't mean anything.

How many times have you gotten an envelope with a check in it? 

[GeneInAlabama]

25 minutes ago, FDNY said:

How many times have you gotten an envelope with a check in it? 

Hmm.  He must have had a special sense to be able to pick those out. 

[Catherine]

50 minutes ago, GeneInAlabama said:

I use to have a client that would give me all his mail unopened.  Sometimes there would e a certified letter from the IRS that hadn't even been opened.  I guess certified mail from the IRS doesn't mean anything.

No, it means it's too scary to dare open!

[Catherine]

37 minutes ago, FDNY said:

How many times have you gotten an envelope with a check in it? 

Had one this year that contained a check for the 2013 tax year refund.... 

[FDNY]

11 minutes ago, GeneInAlabama said:

Hmm.  He must have had a special sense to be able to pick those out. 

I've gotten a few with rebate checks that makes me wonder if they even give the envelope more than a cursory look.

[jasdlm]

I had a client who was quite upset with me one year for throwing away her envelopes.  That was her 'filing system'. 

[Richcpaman]

33 minutes ago, jasdlm said:

I had a client who was quite upset with me one year for throwing away her envelopes.  That was her 'filing system'. 

Didn't you "file" it for her?

[jasdlm]

47 minutes ago, Richcpaman said:

Didn't you "file" it for her?

That's EXACTLY what I did!

[taxxcpa]

I had a client who handed his forms to me one at a time explaining that "This is my W-2, and this is my wife's W-2"

Others would give me all medical receipts which were less than 7.5% of their income.  I had to add them to make sure though

[jasdlm]

48 minutes ago, taxxcpa said:

I had a client who handed his forms to me one at a time explaining that "This is my W-2, and this is my wife's W-2"

Others would give me all medical receipts which were less than 7.5% of their income.  I had to add them to make sure though

This sends me over the edge.  I want to scream 'no kidding - I've never seen one before'.  I'm training my clients to drop off and not meet with me.  The later in the season, the more likely I am to be snarky about 'this is my W2'.  Some of them just can't help themselves, however, and when I tell them to just drop off, they put a sticky note (W2, 1099, etc.) on every sheet.  Aaargh!  One guy this year printed an entire sheet of paper and paper clipped it to EACH item (i.e. 1 full sheet of paper that said 'my W2').  I mourn the tree that died for that folderal.

[JohnH]

Don't take the fun out of opening envelopes.  Most of my clients mail their stuff in or drop it in my night drop, but there are a few that still insist on dropping it off and handing their stuff to me a piece at a time.  Pulling the important piece of paper out and simultaneously cramming the boilerplate and envelope directly into the shredder is the highlight of the appointment.  The expression on their face while that shredder is grinding  away  is priceless. 

[FDNY]

As a related issue, I never have to buy paper clips and now have a ton of those really good black clips, you know the ones with the handles that fold down, all different sizes too.

[GraceNY]

How about the envelopes that have instructions on them as to how to open them. "Tear off the right and left side tabs, slide your finger under the...."  Oh for god sakes, it shouldn't be that complicated to open an envelope!  Of course if the client gets one of these, they don't follow the directions and the tax document comes in in all sorts of pieces.

[Catherine]

15 hours ago, taxxcpa said:

I had a client who handed his forms to me one at a time explaining that "This is my W-2, and this is my wife's W-2"

Others would give me all medical receipts which were less than 7.5% of their income.  I had to add them to make sure though

I have a couple of these, too.  have been training but one is super-stubborn.  So this year I asked him about something unrelated and when he turned to look for whatever it was I asked about, I grabbed the whole stack away from him.  It felt like victory.  Went through one-by-one in record time; "Your w-2, the retirement statement, interest, dividends, your usual charities, re tax, excise -- yup; got it all.  Great."  He didn't know what to do.  Hoorah!

[BHoffman]

I have a client who puts all of his docs in nice neat folders labeled "income", "medical", etc.. All of the docs are in plastic sleeves so I remove them to copy, and then take the time to replace them exactly as I got them.  I asked him once not to do that but he said that's the way he's always done it and is afraid he'll miss something if he changes the routine.  OK.  I inherited this client from a retired CPA friend, and she charged him a high fee, so I just didn't change that.