Blog · Board and management reporting · Consulting and advisory
The ten questions the managing director of a consulting or advisory firm puts to the practice leads, which clients use one practice, will the sold work fit the bench, which consultants are busy and unprofitable, which proposals cost more than they win, whose book depends on one client, which fixed fees overran, which practices hire while their neighbours bench, what is realisation per client, which clients have gone quiet, and what changed, each with the table from the time entries, the proposal log, the roster and the bills, and the answer to send back.
A consulting firm managing director asks the practice leads how the practices are doing and hears utilisation. The time entries, the proposal log, the roster and the bills hold the practices as tables, and utilisation is the one that misleads most. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answer to send back.
| # | The question | The table | Identity | Send back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will the sold work fit the bench? | Demand hours vs supply hours by practice and month; cross-practice line | Σ practices' supply = firm | Pipeline in fees, roster in people |
| 2 | Who is busy and unprofitable? | Utilisation beside realisation per consultant; four quadrants; fixed-fee source | Hours and fees sum to firm | Utilisation alone |
| 3 | Which proposals cost more than they win? | Win rate and cost per win by practice, source, fee band | Proposals in one state | Overall win rate |
| 4 | Which clients use one practice? | Practices used vs norm; cross-practice share | Fees sum per client | A cross-selling target |
| 5 | Whose book depends on one client? | Partner concentration; sole-relationship share | Fees sum per partner | A partner's reassurance |
| 6 | Which fixed fees overran? | Engagement hours vs budget; realisation; consultants on it | Time entries to engagements | Engagement revenue |
| 7 | Which practices hire while neighbours bench? | Cross-practice availability against shortfall | Same as 1 | Practice-level headcount requests |
| 8 | What is realisation per client? | Billed over worked at standard rates, against the agreement | Billed sums to ledger | Firm realisation |
| 9 | Which clients have gone quiet? | Contact recency against cadence, by fees | Assigned clients sum | Partner's word |
| 10 | What changed? | The movements page | Every line cites | Narrative |
MD: Will November fit? Response: Operations is short nine hundred hours in November on weighted pipeline; January has seventeen hundred hours of bench. Strategy has four hundred spare in November. Table 1, with the cross-practice line. MD: Is Operations profitable? Response: 84 percent utilised, 66 percent realised; consultant C-04 at 94 and 51 on two fixed fees at 160 percent of budget. Tables 2 and 6. MD: And the tenders? Response: Strategy wins one competitive tender in twenty at $290,000 of partner time per win; existing clients at 68 percent and $3,600. Table 3.
Three tables, two practices, one bid rule.
Utilisation as the measure. The overrun rewarded.
Pipeline in fees, bench in people. Never compared.
Tenders exempt from the bid rule. The most expensive cell, unmeasured.
Practice leads' accounts of their practices. Confident, from memory.
Covirage produces the ten tables from the time entries, the proposal log, the roster, the bills and the client master, with the identities checked. The professional services page describes the setup, and the sold work against bench guide covers the first table.
Sold work against the bench four months out, because it is the one with time to act: a practice short by nine hundred hours in November needs to hire or subcontract now, and a practice with seventeen hundred hours of bench in January needs to sell into it now. Both are visible from the pipeline and the roster today.
Proposal cost per win does; without hours coded to proposals the cost is spent and unmeasured, and setting the code up is the first step. Utilisation, realisation, leverage and lock-up need time entries against engagements, which every firm has.
Practices' supply hours sum to the firm's; billed fees sum to partners and clients; every person is in one home practice; proposals are in one state past a stated age. A utilisation figure that rewards an overrun fixed fee is sent back.