Tax season is a phrase that strikes fear in the hearts of millions of Americans, especially accountants. From late January through April 15th, accounting teams will grind through one of the most demanding stretches in any professional service industry, logging 50, 60, and even 70+ hour weeks to get every return filed accurately and on time.
For the leaders and managers responsible for keeping accounting firms running, the busy season presents the familiar challenge of trying to protect your people while also producing high quality work and increasing revenue. All without adding to an already heavy workload.
While there are plenty of ways to aid your team during the accounting busy season, one often overlooked yet powerful tool is food. A structured workplace meal program does more than keep your team fed. It reduces the hidden costs of burnout and turnover, preserves billable hours that would otherwise walk out the door at lunchtime, and signals to your accountants that their wellbeing is a business priority rather than an afterthought.
In this article, we'll cover the real financial impact and hidden costs of tax season. We’ll also explore how to budget and implement a food program for your team so your accountants can do what they do best.
Long work hours can have a devastating toll on long-term physical and mental health. Unfortunately, extended working hours are an unavoidable necessity during tax season.
However, by acknowledging the impact of this busy time and offering practical solutions, firms can change how their teams endure the most hectic stretch of the year.
It’s practically impossible for the wellbeing of accountants to be unaffected by the tax season. During the 2024/2025 busy season, working over time was the norm. Nearly half of public accountants reported working 51–60 hours per week, with another 19% logging 61–70 hours, and 12% exceeding 71 hours weekly. Working long hours filled with difficult work quickly causes r accounting teams to feel burnt out and fatigued.
During this time of year, the trifecta of self-care, professional output, and job satisfaction becomes unbalanced, with the need to produce flawless returns tipping the scales. Even the most experienced and dedicated professionals struggle to maintain their drive and attention to detail.
Naturally, accountants know this happens every year. While they prepare as much as they can, the stress is unavoidable. Juggling hard deadlines, collecting client documents, and mounting pressure can make it difficult to stay positive and motivated.
As your team knows, attention to detail is of the utmost importance when handling sensitive information, numbers, and documents. Staying vigilant and on task is critical all the time, but especially during tax season. Many things can affect how your accountants are feeling, and the food they eat is one factor that can have a large impact on their output.
Nutrient-dense foods, like leafy greens, whole carbohydrates, and colorful fruits can positively impact our brainpower. It’s not a fix for everything, but healthy meal choices add up over time. Cutting down on processed foods and refined sugars can ward off energy slumps, which in turn helps with productivity.
Although a workplace food program may feel like an extra expense during the already busy accounting season, there are many benefits that can save you money down the line.
Replacing any employee during any time of the year can be expensive. The average cost of replacing an employee can range anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary, depending on their experience level. During tax season, replacement becomes even more crucial. As work loads increase, you’re looking at extra time and money spent on recruiting and onboarding, which in turn means less productivity and profits.
The extra work that comes from the accounting busy season makes self care less of a priority for accountants. When workloads begin to pile up and deadlines grow closer, accountants often put their well-being on the back burner in order to meet output expectations. This can look like not enough sleep, less exercise, and not eating enough (or the right kind of) food.
If your accounting team isn’t eating enough or opting for convenient, greasy meals,, they're more susceptible to turning in subpar work. A single filing mistake could be detrimental and lead to IRS penalties, client loss, or reputational damage. Even if the mistakes don’t result in grave financial or legal trouble, they still require extra time and effort to fix. Keeping your accounting team properly fueled and healthy during this time will not only improve employee morale, but also productivity and the quality of their work.
Implementing a meal program is a great way to mitigate the consequences of the increased workload during tax season. When looking at the costs from above and comparing them to the cost of a meal program, the numbers speak for themselves.
A typical workplace meal program runs $12–18 per person, depending on your city and program structure. For a 10-week busy season with a hybrid team of 20 employees dining three days per week, that works out to roughly $7,200–$10,800 for the full season. Weighing that cost against the cost of one turnover event or a single client-facing error, it’s clear that a meal program can be a big money saver. This fixed and predictable line item not only helps ease the process of budgeting, but also helps increase profits in an unexpected way during this busy time, ensuring you’re maximizing ROI.
Creating a budget for a workplace food program for your accounting team doesn’t have to be complicated. When structured correctly from the start, workplace food programs are one of the more controllable discretionary expenses a firm can manage.
The most common budgeting mistake firms make is estimating total program cost before establishing expected utilization. A meal program budget should be built bottom-up:
A hybrid team of 25 accountants, in office 3 days per week, with an estimated 70% participation rate, means you're budgeting for roughly 53 meals per week, not 75. That distinction matters when you're trying to get a program approved.
The subsidy model you choose has the biggest impact on your total spend. The flexibility of subsidy types makes it easy to adjust for each office’s specific budget.
For most accounting firms, a partial subsidy during the entirety of the busy season that is supplemented by full subsidies in the final two weeks before April 15th will strike the right balance between budget efficiency and employee impact.
Regardless of the subsidy structure you choose, it’s important to set a hard per-person daily cap. This eliminates budget unpredictability and makes sure your program cost scales with usage.
Tax season runs approximately 10 weeks. Build your budget across the full window rather than on a weekly basis, so you can front-load or back-load spend based on when your team needs the most support. Many firms find that upping their subsidy value in weeks 8–10 (when deadline pressure peaks) has an increased impact on team morale and output.
Present the meal program budget alongside your turnover and absenteeism costs from the previous busy season. If even one accountant left post-tax-season and cited burnout as the cause, or if your firm logged higher-than-average sick days in February and March, those figures justify the cost of a meal program almost immediately. A $10,000 seasonal food budget is much easier to get approved when it's sitting next to a turnover event that cost $75,000.
At Fooda, we understand the importance of a workplace food program and the impact that one can have on everything from revenue to employee morale. The tax season will always bring long hours, tight deadlines, and high pressure, but access to great food can make the accounting busy season less daunting.
Fooda makes it simple to build a meal program that works within your budget, scales with your headcount, and requires zero logistical lift from your team. With our network of over 4,500 restaurant partners and flexible services, Fooda is built for exactly the kind of high-stakes, time-sensitive environment your firm operates in during tax season.
From curated Popups and catering to flexible meal subsidies and pantry solutions, Fooda makes it easy to prioritize your team’s health while keeping productivity high.
Our Popups bring local restaurant-quality meals directly into your office, rotating a curated selection of vendors throughout the week so your team always has something new to look forward to. During tax season, popups turn a designated space in your office into a genuine lunch destination, with no one needing to leave the building.
When your accountants are too deep in a deadline to step away, Fooda's Office Lunch Delivery brings restaurant-quality meals straight to your door on a predictable, scheduled basis. No third-party app markups and no surprise delivery fees. Just a reliable, cost-controlled lunch option your team can count on every day.
Fooda's Corporate Catering is built for high-stakes moments. Whether that's an all-hands working lunch during peak filing weeks or a team celebration once April 15th passes, Fooda Corporate Catering has you covered. Every order is handled end-to-end by Fooda, so your office manager isn't spending billable hours coordinating logistics.
Fooda's Pantry and Micromarket Solutions keep your office stocked with healthy grab-and-go options for the accountants who are in early and staying late. It's a low-lift food benefit that’s always available and extends your team's support beyond the lunch hour, which is exactly when busy season demands it most.
Your accountants will do their best work when they're supported. Fooda helps you make that happen without the overhead, the waste, or the guesswork. Ready to boost your team’s resiliency and productivity? Get in touch with Fooda today!
In the United States, the busy season for accountants runs from January 31, which is when the IRS starts accepting tax returns, through April 15, when all returns are due.
These two and a half months are extraordinarily demanding for accounting teams across the country. They have to execute multiple preparations at once: managing changing regulations, client communications, and complex filings - all while maintaining precision and accuracy. While an unavoidable industry standard, the busy season is an extremely demanding and stressful time for tax professionals.
Employers can make a difference by cultivating a supportive and wellness-focused work environment. You can promote regular breaks, stock healthy snacks, and offer subsidized meals. These options can help accountants stay energized throughout long shifts.
Making the office inviting and reducing stressors, such as deciding what to eat, can boost morale and productivity. When teams have access to nutritious meals and snacks, they’ll be better equipped to handle the demands of busy season accounting.
Pantries are more than just quick snacks - they provide employees with convenient and healthy options that can help maintain energy and focus. When accountants are working extended hours or odd schedules, having grab-and-go options onsite ensures they never have to skip meals or rely on low-quality takeout.
