Production capacity
Bookkeeping and review
The firm's output rests on a volume of documents to process inside fixed windows: tax deadlines do not move. Data entry and reconciliation occupy the least experienced staff, who are also the hardest to hire and to keep. Files pile up before every deadline, and the review happens under pressure.
An illustrative example, not client work
Who it is for
Accounting firms, audit firms
What the problem costs
In an accounting firm the constraint is not demand, it is hiring. Every hour of data entry handed back is an hour of review or advisory available at the same headcount, which is revenue the firm used to turn away.
The process today
- Documents arriving by email, through a portal, sometimes on paper
- Entry and account coding, document by document
- Bank reconciliation, by hand on whatever does not match
- Review by an engagement manager, often after the internal deadline
- Chasing the client for missing documents, at the end of the process
The approach we take
An assistant reads the documents, proposes the account coding, reconciles what reconciles and only escalates what resists: an unreadable document, an ambiguous coding, a reconciliation gap, a missing document. The staff member handles the exceptions instead of entering everything. The review keeps the decision, and no entry is approved without a human check.
How it works
4 steps, and a human who decides at the end.
Collection
Documents are gathered whatever channel they arrive by, and the missing ones listed.
Pre-coding
The account coding is proposed, with how certain it is.
Reconciliation
What matches is reconciled, the rest goes out as an exception with its reason.
Review
The staff member handles the exceptions. The engagement manager checks and approves.
Before, after
What changes in your teams' day.
Today
The volume you can handle depends on how many people are free. Files pile up before every deadline.
With the solution
The volume you can handle stops being proportional to the size of your data entry team. Staff move onto review and advisory, which bill higher.
Expected benefits
- Missing documents are chased at the start of the file, not at the deadline
- Exceptions are handled by the staff, simple entry no longer occupies them
- The workload becomes measurable file by file, so the firm knows what it can take on
- Capacity rises without depending entirely on hiring
No figure is shown: a gain is not promised before it has been measured at your company.
Prerequisites and limits
- Nothing is approved without a human check: the firm's liability cannot be delegated to a program, and the scope says so
- Quality depends on the documents received. A client who uploads blurry photos produces exceptions, not gains
- The chart of accounts and the firm's own coding rules have to be made explicit, which takes time at the start
- Unusual files, or sectors with particular rules, are still handled entirely by hand
Systems involved
- Accounting production software
- Client document portal
- Bank statements
Related service
Design & rollout
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