Blog · Coverage and territory · Tax and accounting
How an accounting firm turns time entries and the filing calendar into a weekly list of clients whose returns have not been opened by the date they usually are, why the client's own history is the right norm, the roll-up by partner and office, and the two lists that come out: at-risk deadlines and clients who may have gone elsewhere.
An accounting firm learns that a client has left when the return is not filed, or when the client's new accountant asks for the working papers. Both are months after the client decided. The firm's own time entries could have said in February. This guide sets out the season watch list built from them.
Per recurring client:
Usual start = the date work on the return started last year, and the year before, taking the later Watch trigger = no time entry against this year's engagement by usual start plus a stated margin
Per partner, per office:
Clients on watch, and their prior-year fees
Client identifiers only.
| Signal | List | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| On watch, deadline within eight weeks | Deadline at risk | Engagement manager |
| On watch, deadline further out, no contact this season | Possible attrition | Partner |
The same clients, split by how soon the deadline is. The first list is about capacity. The second is about the relationship.
One office, week ten of the season.
| Client | Partner | Usual start | Days late | Deadline | Prior fees | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3310 | P-07 | 12 Feb | 31 | 30 Apr | $18,400 | Deadline at risk |
| 1187 | P-07 | 3 Feb | 40 | 31 Jul | $9,200 | Possible attrition |
| 2044 | P-11 | 20 Feb | 23 | 30 Apr | $41,000 | Deadline at risk |
| 0961 | P-11 | 8 Feb | 35 | 31 Jul | $6,100 | Possible attrition |
Partner P-07 has two clients on watch and $27,600 of fees behind them. Client 1187 has no deadline pressure and forty days of silence, which is the pattern of a client who has moved. A call in week ten recovers some of those; a call in September recovers none.
clients on watch per office = Σ partners
And fees on watch per office, as a share of the office's compliance fees. An office at eight percent on watch in week ten is normal; one at twenty percent has a problem the managing partner wants to know about now.
Office average used as the norm. Early-starting clients are flagged late and late-starting clients are flagged for no reason. Use the client's own history.
Closed engagements not marked. Departed clients stay on the list and the list is not trusted.
Only the deadline list worked. The attrition list is where the fees are lost. Work both.
Margin too tight. A five-day margin flags half the book in a slow week. Two to three weeks is the usual starting point; state it.
Mapped once, time entries and the engagement list produce the season watch every week, split into the two lists and rolled up by partner and office. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The tax and accounting page describes the setup, and the service line gaps guide covers the advisory gap measures that sit beside the season watch.
Because clients are consistent. A client whose return is started in February every year and has not been touched by mid-March is unusual for that client, whatever the office average is. The firm's own history is the fairest test.
Mark the engagement closed in the practice system and the client drops off the list. The list exists for the ones who did not tell us, which is most of them.
The first time entry against this year's compliance engagement, or the first document received into the client's workspace, whichever the firm tracks reliably. State which.