Deadline load

Hours of work due per manager per week, from each engagement's deadline, its hours from last year's time entries, and a stated lead time over which the hours spread. Against roster capacity less leave, the excess is visible months out, and reassignments and early starts flatten it.

DefinitionHours of work due per manager per week, from each engagement's deadline, its hours from last year's time entries, and a stated lead time over which the hours spread. Against roster capacity less leave, the excess is visible months out, and reassignments and early starts flatten it.

Hours, not counts

Thirty-one filings in a week is a number. A hundred and four hours against thirty-four is a plan.

Eight weeks out

The moves need weeks to work. A curve drawn in the peak is a report, not a plan.

How it is computed

For each manager and week, the hours of work due, taken from each engagement's deadline and last year's hours, against the hours available.

Example

In the third week of January one manager has 190 hours due and 130 available, while a colleague has 85 due. Moving four engagements in November avoids the problem.

Where it goes wrong

Planned by month. The crunch is a particular week for a particular person, and a monthly total hides it.

Articles that use this term

Territory, capacity and quota planning · Tax and accounting

Deadline load per manager: filings due per week against the hours to do them

How an accounting firm turns its engagement list and filing calendar into a load curve per manager: filings due per week, the hours each typically takes from the firm's own time entries, the hours available from the roster, the weeks where load exceeds capacity months ahead, and the reassignments and early starts that flatten the peak before the season does it the hard way.

16 Sept 20263 min read Alternatives and comparisons · Tax and accounting

How to choose analytics software for tax and accounting: questions, data and traps

How accounting firms should choose analytics software: start from the questions, check the data you hold, ask vendors ten questions, avoid the traps.

24 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting · Tax and accounting

Practice KPIs for tax and accounting firms: ten measures that matter, each with its formula and the export it comes from

The ten practice KPIs a tax or accounting firm should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: service lines per client against the norm, fee per client against the norm for its size, season watch, deadline load per manager, advisory triggers acted on, realisation by client, client retention by fees, lock-up by client, scope creep on fixed fees, and new client onboarding time. Also the three measures most firms miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.

17 Sept 20264 min read Coverage and territory · Tax and accounting

Season watch on five clients: the whole arithmetic on one page

The complete season watch calculation on five accounting clients, small enough to check by hand: each client's usual start date from the last two years' time entries, the margin, today's date, whether this year's engagement has a time entry yet, days late, the deadline, the split into the deadline-at-risk list and the possible-attrition list, the client marked closed who drops off, prior-year fees as the ranking, and the identity that every client with a recurring engagement is in one state, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own practice management export.

17 Sept 20263 min read