What partners should look at each week
A weekly routine for partners using the figures Achekam reads from its server: review queues, time, realisation, capacity and new business.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Most partners find out that the practice is in trouble from the bank balance, which is the last place it shows. By the time cash is short, the warning signs have been sitting in the work for weeks: files stuck in review, unbilled time ageing, a manager booked at twice their capacity, and no new proposals going out.
A short weekly look at the right figures catches those signs early. The trick is to look at the same few things every week, in the same order, and to use figures that come from the work itself rather than from a spreadsheet someone updated when they remembered.
This article suggests a weekly routine of about half an hour, using the screens in Achekam that read their figures from the server.
Start at the Command Centre and the desks
The Practice Command Centre, the Work Dashboard and the Account Manager Cockpit read server figures, so they show the practice as it is recorded, not as someone last typed it. Use them for the overview.
Then open the Partner Desk. Each level of review has a desk, Supervision, Manager and Partner, showing that level's review queue, returned work and risks. For a partner, three questions matter:
- What is waiting for me, and how long has it waited?
- What did I send back last week, and has it come back?
- Which risks are flagged on engagements I sign?
A long partner queue is not a sign of diligence. It is usually the bottleneck the whole firm is waiting behind.
Review queues and returned work
Look one level down as well. The Manager Desk tells you whether work is reaching managers and moving on, or piling up. Returned work at either level shows where files are bouncing.
A file that goes back and forth repeatedly is costing time nobody will bill. When you see one, ask what the returns were about rather than who caused them. If the same gap keeps appearing, the fix is usually a briefing or a template, not a conversation with one person.
Time and realisation
Time first, then money.
Staff submit weekly timesheets that a manager, partner or administrator approves or returns, and by default time becomes billable only after someone other than the person who recorded it approves it. Timesheets left unapproved therefore hold up billing. Check how many are waiting.
Time Reports offers ten reports for a chosen period, among them staff time, engagement time and utilisation, exportable as CSV, XLSX or PDF. Utilisation there is never based on keyboard or mouse activity. Last week's utilisation by team is enough for a weekly look; save the deeper analysis for month end.
Then open Rate Cards & Realisation under BILLING & FINANCE. A firm can keep rate cards there and see the age of unbilled work, realisation and recovery. Time with no rate is counted as unvalued rather than estimated. A growing unvalued figure means rate cards are missing, and until they are filled in, the realisation figure for that work is incomplete.
One trap: the Recovery & Profitability page shows "Not measured" for realisation and margin. The measured realisation is on Rate Cards & Realisation, and write-offs are in the WIP Register, where write-downs above the firm's threshold, 10% by default, and every write-off wait for approval by another partner. Writing WIP up, down or off explains that register.
Capacity
The Hours: Allocated vs Consumed screen compares each engagement's planned hours with the hours logged. An engagement that has used most of its budget with the work only half done is next month's write-off unless someone acts this week.
The Capacity / Resource Planner shows people by weeks. Read one feature carefully: a week with no capacity recorded shows as "not set". That does not mean the person is free. It means nobody has told the system, and a partner planning new work around a "not set" week is planning on a blank.
New business
Finally, look forward. The CRM Dashboard sets leads, proposals and accepted fees against what the firm spent on each lead source or campaign per month. Cost per lead stays blank where no spend was entered, so if the figure is empty, the gap is in the data, not in the marketing.
A weekly glance is enough: how many new leads, how many proposals sent, how many accepted, and which source produced them. Set that beside the capacity plan. New work accepted in a month when the planner shows the team fully booked is a promise someone will struggle to keep, and the partner who signed the proposal is the person best placed to see the clash early.
A one-page weekly agenda
| Order | Screen | The question |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Command Centre, Work Dashboard | What changed since last week? |
| 2 | Partner Desk, Manager Desk | What is stuck, and what was sent back? |
| 3 | Timesheets, Time Reports | Is time recorded and approved? |
| 4 | Rate Cards & Realisation, WIP Register | What is unbilled, unvalued or written off? |
| 5 | Hours: Allocated vs Consumed, Capacity | Which budgets and people are overstretched? |
| 6 | CRM Dashboard | Is new work coming in, and from where? |
Each line should end in an action with a name, or in "nothing to do". AccountingTools' short explanation of management accounting describes the same idea: internal reporting that tracks revenue, expenses, variances and other measures so that managers can act on them.
Make it a standing appointment
Put thirty minutes in the diary at the same time each week and keep the agenda above beside you. For the first month, note one action from each line. If people are the issue rather than process, the Team Activity report shows each person's time against their working hours, stated as facts about the work.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
