The most valuable thing a Chartered Accountant does takes about four hours a month. The rest is chasing.
What the four hours are
They are the judgment calls. Is this expense capital or revenue? Does this number look right against last year? Is the client about to breach a covenant? Is this the moment to say no to a director? Which of the three ways of treating this transaction is the honest one?
Nobody else in the room can make those calls. They need training, scar tissue and the willingness to sign. That is what the fee is for.
What the other hours are
Asking for the bank statement. Asking again. Keying an invoice from a PDF. Matching a payment to a bill by eye. Reminding a client that the deadline was yesterday. Copying a total from one system into another. Writing the same covering email for the ninth time.
None of those need a Chartered Accountant. They need a patient person with a good memory, and the human version of that gets tired by Thursday.
A doctor does not draw the blood
A specialist spends a few minutes with a patient and the whole visit turns on those minutes. The blood test, the queue, the form, the reminder to come back: all of that is done by someone or something else. Nobody thinks the doctor is doing less. The doctor is doing the only part that needs a doctor.
Accounting firms have drifted the other way. The partner draws the blood. The partner runs the queue. The judgment hours get squeezed into whatever is left after the chasing, usually late, usually tired.
Delete the chasing
This is the work we do. We take the chasing out. The machine asks for the statement, matches the invoice, sends the reminder and drafts the covering note. It checks its own work against the rules I gave it. Then it stops and waits for a person.
That person gets the four hours back. The four hours get done in the morning, with a clear head, instead of at nine at night.
The firm does not bill fewer hours for judgment. It stops billing hours for chasing, or it stops eating them.
If a client pays a Chartered Accountant for judgment, should they be paying anything at all for the chasing?