P&T Tax Services Scales Without Burnout Using Magnetic
P&T runs a lean operation with just 3 full time tax professionals on staff, but the 2023 season had pushed them to the brink. Each team member averaged 3-5 returns per day, spending 10–12 hours daily to meet deadlines.
Thomas Shelley
Co-founder
Published :
Apr 18, 2025
P&T Tax Services Scales Without Burnout Using Magnetic
How Magnetic helped a Maryland firm reclaim time, boost output, and maintain quality during the busiest tax season yet.
Overview
P&T Tax Services, a Maryland-based tax firm using Drake Software, prepares thousands of individual tax returns (Form 1040) annually, with a mix of S-corps and small business clients. Many of their clients are self-employed or active traders with complex financial data. For the 2024 season, they faced a familiar challenge: how to manage rising volume without expanding headcount - or burning out their team.
That’s where Magnetic came in.
The Challenge
P&T runs a lean operation with just 3 full time tax professionals on staff, but the 2023 season had pushed them to the brink. Each team member averaged 3-5 returns per day, spending 10–12 hours daily to meet deadlines.
The bottleneck? Data entry. From W-2s to 1099s to multi-page brokerage statements, the time spent inputting data into Drake was consuming over an hour per return - leaving another hour for review and finalization. It was unsustainable.
P&T needed a way to handle more returns without compromising quality or overworking staff.
The Magnetic Solution
Partnering with Magnetic for the 2024 season, P&T offloaded the first hour of every return to our AI-powered document processing system. Magnetic scanned and digitized client tax documents—including:
Standard IRS forms (W-2s, 1099s, 1098s)
Complex consolidated brokerage statements with hundreds of short-term capital gains
Self-employment income records and business expense summaries
Everything was structured and ready for final review inside Drake.
The Results
Metric | Before Magnetic | After Magnetic |
Returns per preparer/day | 5 | 7 |
Hours worked/day | 10–12 | 8 |
Avg. prep time per return | 4 hrs | ~2 hr |
Total returns filed | +150 returns |
By reducing prep time by 50%, P&T’s team could work normal hours, take on 150+ more returns, and maintain high accuracy - even with the most complex clients.
Looking Ahead
With Magnetic as their prep partner, P&T transformed how their team works during tax season: fewer hours, more capacity, and happier staff. They’re already planning an even deeper integration for 2025.
“Magnetic let us do the impossible—grow without burnout. We didn’t hire a single new preparer, and still filed more returns than ever.”
— Chris Peralta, Senior Tax Manager, P&T Tax Services
