Practice operations
The firm operations workflows we automate
Your own realization, capacity, and engagement economics, maintained continuously instead of assembled annually.
The workflows
WIP and realization reporting
- Today
- realization understood by impression, assembled into a real analysis once a year if at all.
- We automate
- realization by engagement, client, service line, and preparer, computed continuously from time and billing data.
- You keep
- the write-off and pricing decisions it informs.
Scope versus actual monitoring
- Today
- engagements discovered to be over scope when the bill is drafted.
- We automate
- actual hours tracked against scope with drift flagged while the engagement is still live.
- You keep
- the client conversation while it can still change something.
Capacity forecasting
- Today
- staffing for busy season planned on last year's memory.
- We automate
- forward load computed by period and staff level from the engagement pipeline, constraints visible months out.
- You keep
- hiring and assignment decisions.
Billing preparation
- Today
- invoices drafted from time detail by hand, exceptions caught by whoever remembers.
- We automate
- draft invoices assembled from time and engagement data with exceptions flagged for partner review.
- You keep
- what actually gets billed.
How it runs
| Stage | Agents | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Intake | Time and Billing Connector, Engagement Data | Pulled on schedule |
| 2. Normalize | Engagement Mapping, Staff Level Mapping | Categorized by type, line, and level |
| 3. Domain work | Realization computed, Scope Variance, Capacity Model | The firm's own analysis layer |
| 4. Verify | Recomputation Verifier computed | Re-derived from source records |
| 5. Exception | Exception Router | Over-scope engagements, capacity constraints in window |
| 6. Output | Dashboard, Billing Draft | Continuous reporting, drafts with exceptions flagged |
The boundary
Write-offs, billing, staffing, and pricing are partner decisions. The system makes them informed decisions.
One schedule, from the scope versus actual workflow
What monitoring catches mid-engagement
The workflow above reads the time and billing export your practice system already produces and tracks actual hours against scope on every open engagement. Drift surfaces while the engagement is still live, not when the bill is drafted, and what gets written off or billed stays a partner decision.
| Engagement code | Client and stage | Scope hrs | Actual hrs | Of scope | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10428.001 AUD | Ashfield Group · FY26 audit, in fieldwork | 310 | 288.5 | 93% | Accepted |
| 10233.004 TAX | Brant & Cole LLP · TY25 return, on extension | 96 | 71.0 | 74% | Accepted |
| 10577.002 CAS | Halyard Foods · FY26 monthly close, four months left in term | 240 | 268.5 | 112% | Flagged |
| 10391.006 ADV | Corbin Ridge · Q3 CFO support, approaching scope with a month to run | 120 | 118.0 | 98% | Proposed |
| 10604.001 TAS | Silverbrook Mutual · buy-side quality of earnings, planning | 180 | 42.5 | 24% | Accepted |
Illustrative engagement schedule · not client data
Your existing stack
The time and billing connector reads what your practice system already exports. We build against Karbon, Canopy, CCH Axcess Practice, BQE Core, and Practice Ignition. The full list, by service line, is on the platform page. If your firm can export it, we can build against it.
Name the one costing you the most.
45 minutes with the people who would build it. You leave with a written map of where your hours go and an estimate for each, whether or not we work together.
Book a practice workflow assessment