Billable utilization
Producing the deliverables
The deliverable is the firm's product: audit report, analysis note, committee minutes, case file, study report. The substance is produced during the engagement. What eats the hours comes after: the formatting, the standard outline, the consistency of figures between the appendices and the body, the proofreading. Those hours do not always get billed.
An illustrative example, not client work
Who it is for
Consulting, engineering, law, design offices
What the problem costs
The share of time actually billed in professional services has fallen to 66,4 % in 2025, against a target of 75 %. Formatting deliverables is one of the things that widen that gap.
The process today
- Taking the last deliverable of the same kind as a template
- Copying over meeting notes and the file's documents
- Applying the firm's house style, by hand
- Checking the figures between the body and the appendices
- A review by a partner, often the night before delivery
The approach we take
An assistant produces a first version of the deliverable from your own materials: engagement notes, the file's documents, the firm's template. It follows your standard outline, applies your house style, and flags discrepancies between the figures in the body and those in the appendices. The consultant keeps the analysis, the conclusions and the signature. The first version is never the version delivered.
How it works
4 steps, and a human who decides at the end.
Gathering
The notes, the documents and the file's data are brought together in one place.
First version
The firm's standard outline is applied, the factual sections are written and sourced.
Consistency check
Figures in the body and in the appendices are reconciled, the gaps listed.
Taking over
The consultant writes the analysis and the conclusions, corrects the rest, signs.
Before, after
What changes in your teams' day.
Today
Part of the writing time goes into formatting and copying over. It bills badly, and it often lands on the evenings.
With the solution
The factual part and the formatting arrive prepared. The consultant's time goes to the analysis, which is what the client is buying.
Expected benefits
- Figure mismatches between appendices and body are caught before delivery
- The firm's format is held without spending time on it
- The delivery date stops depending on who is free in the evening
- The share of time spent on analysis rises, and that is the part that bills
No figure is shown: a gain is not promised before it has been measured at your company.
Prerequisites and limits
- A firm with no standard outline and no house style has nothing to apply: they have to be written first, and that is firm work, not technical work
- The analysis and the conclusions are not produced by the assistant, and must not be
- Deliverables that carry the firm's liability require a full human review, and that is written into the scope
Systems involved
- The firm's document store
- Deliverable templates and house style
- Engagement tracking tool
Related service
Design & rollout
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