The problem
Your firm isn't short on skill. It's short on hours.
Small firms lose time every week to work nobody bills for: chasing documents, retyping numbers, answering "where are my books?" Firms that automate the routine can take on more clients with the same team. Firms that don't, fall behind.
What the industry reports
#1
"Late and unprepared clients" ranked the top challenge in a Wolters Kluwer survey of 1,983 US accounting firms.
99%
of accounting and finance professionals surveyed had experienced burnout.
95%
of accountants and bookkeepers surveyed experienced late payments; overdue invoices averaged 31 days late.
Several figures come from software vendors with an interest in the problem looking large.
Where the hours go
Your report measures these six areas from your own numbers.
Document chasing.
Requests, reminders and follow-ups for the same statements every month.
Manual data entry.
Retyping receipts and transactions that a bank feed could bring in.
Client communication.
Status questions clients could answer themselves.
Invoicing and payment chasing.
Invoices sent late and reminders sent by hand.
Client reporting.
Monthly summaries built from scratch each time.
New client onboarding.
The same welcome emails and checklists, rewritten for every client.
What it can cost: one example
HypotheticalA hypothetical firm, for illustration only. Your report runs the same math on your own answers, for every area.
60 document requests a month × 15 minutes = 15 hours a month
15 hours × 35% recoverable × $40 an hour × 12 months = $2,520 a year
Document chasing alone. Hypothetical figures, not data from a real firm.