Busy season is the stretch of the year when accounting firms run at maximum intensity around audit and tax deadlines, roughly January to April for December year-ends, with local variations such as Australia’s June year-end cycle.
It is the sharpest predictable attendance spike in professional services: audit teams flood back from client sites, war-room style team spaces are in constant demand, and the desk plan that worked in August fails in February. Firms that plan capacity seasonally, rather than annually, avoid the busy-season desk lottery.