Problem: An accounting firm is always very busy in the months leading up to tax day (usually April 15). Consider a firm that has two major groups of customers: individuals and small businesses. They employ Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), return preparers (RPs) and administrative assistants (AAs) who all work 40 hours per week. They have found that new customers (both new individual customers and new small businesses) will generally require more time to process, since information from previous returns is not available in the firm's IT system.