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Accounting practices · a worked example underneath
Four questions we answer in tax and accounting practices.
Open one, or walk through our full process.
Why it persists
Every price was set the day the client walked in. Nobody has ever matched the hours against the fees, and the partners’ phone-call time was never written down, so the most expensive work in the firm is invisible.
How we solve it
- ONEMatch the hours to the fees, client by client, including the partner time nobody logged.
- TWORank the gaps between what the work takes and what it bills.
- THREEReprice the widest gaps first, with the evidence in hand.
The end result
Every fee stands on what the work actually takes.
Raises go to the right clients, one at a time, each with a reason you can say out loud. And when a client sits in the wrong tier, you can see it.
Watch it get answered →Why it persists
The answer is already in the firm’s own files. Every return the firm has ever filed says how that client’s business is doing, but nobody reads old returns. So advisory grows by accident, one favor at a time.
How we solve it
- ONERead the return history the firm already owns.
- TWOFlag the clients whose businesses have outgrown a once-a-year visit.
- THREEGive the partners a short list of names, with the reason next to each one.
The end result
New revenue from clients you already have.
The clients most likely to say yes are identified for you, with the evidence for the conversation already in hand.
Watch it get answered →Why it persists
Every client’s numbers live in their own accounting file, their bank feed, their invoices, their payroll. Each month gets rebuilt by hand, one client at a time, and the same work repeats forever because nothing is ever wired together.
How we solve it
- ONEConnect each client’s accounting system and the records behind it, once.
- TWOLet the routine month assemble and check itself overnight.
- THREEPut your people on the exceptions the checks surface, not the copying.
The end result
The routine month runs itself; your people handle what actually needs them.
The same team serves a bigger book, and the hours move to the advisory work clients pay real money for.
Watch it get answered →Why it persists
Hiring in a small firm is a leap of faith taken during a bad week in March. Nobody can see the team’s real capacity, what is eating it, or whether the next person would pay for themselves or just absorb underpriced work.
How we solve it
- ONELay out the hours by person and by week, through the season and past it.
- TWOSeparate the load that repricing would relieve from the load that is real.
- THREEPrice the hire against the work that is actually there.
The end result
The next hire becomes a calculation, not a leap.
You hire when the book supports it and you can show why, instead of staffing for the worst week of the year and carrying it through the quiet ones.
Watch it get answered →