BUSINESS

Stop Chasing Capacity: How One Firm Went from $1.2M to a $1.8M Run Rate  

 "When we get time." 
  
If you've ever asked your team to fix a process, document a workflow, or finally sort out billing, you've probably heard that answer. You may have even answered like that yourself from time to time. Before you know it, another busy season arrives, and the same problems remain. WIP keeps building. Invoicing gets pushed to month-end. Files sit in the partner's review tray, and everyone is waiting for someone else before the work can move forward. 
  
If you're the person making those final decisions, I understand why it's frustrating. You're working hard, your team is doing its best, but somehow there's never enough time to get ahead. 
  
So, the answer becomes finding more capacity. Another hire, a few more weekends, or a bit more from people who are already stretched. But what if more capacity isn't actually what your firm needs? 
  
Picture your firm as a cup that's already full to the brim. Pour more in, and it spills. The only way to make room is to remove finished work from the cup every day. That's why I encourage accounting firms to achieve their growth targets daily by focusing on completing and invoicing work each day, rather than venting about the team’s lack of capacity. 
  
I've seen what a difference that shift can make. One firm we work with finished the 2025 financial year at around$1.2 million in turnover. Six months later, its monthly invoicing was running at the equivalent of $1.8 million a year. 
  
Same people. No additional headcount. And perhaps the most interesting part? The team told me they were enjoying their work more. 

Why more capacity isn't always the answer 

When I speak with accounting firm owners about growth, capacity is often one of the first things they mention. They need more people. More hours. More time to get through the workload. 
  
I understand that thinking. When you're already stretched, asking your people to produce more can feel like adding pressure to an already full cup. But here's what I've come to understand. Being busy and being productive aren't necessarily the same thing. 
  
You can have a team working flat out all day, but if jobs are waiting for review, client questions remain unanswered, and invoicing keeps getting delayed, all that effort isn't necessarily turning into better results. 
  
And it's not always because people aren't working hard. Sometimes the problem is simply how the work moves through the firm. Think about the last job that sat on your desk waiting for approval. Your team might have finished their part days earlier, but until that review happened, the job couldn't move forward. 
  
That's time, effort, and potential revenue tied up in work that's already been done. Instead of asking where you can find more capacity, try asking a different question: What's stopping us from finishing and invoicing more work today? That question changes the conversation from what your firm doesn't have to what your people can actually improve. 

How one firm changed its results with the same people

Let me take you back to the firm I mentioned earlier. This wasn't a business with everything running smoothly. By the team's own account, they'd been close to rock bottom. They had capable people, but the firm was poorly structured and short on systems. 
  
In fact, when they cleared out their old office, 35 years of accumulated paper filled seven and a half skip bins. That gives you some idea of the changes they were dealing with. Yet within six months of finishing a financial year at approximately $1.2 million in turnover, their monthly invoicing was suddenly running at an annualised rate of $1.8 million. And they achieved it with the same headcount. 
  
So, what did they do differently? 
  
They introduced three levels of growth targets: minimum, growth, and blitz. They converted those annual figures into daily invoicing targets and made reporting their progress part of the normal working day. 
  
One of the people responsible for keeping everyone focused wasn't even an accountant. She worked in the administration team and took responsibility for sharing the daily invoicing totals. When I asked whether the team was enjoying work more, the answer was a definite yes. 
  
One team member explained: "You come to work, you're happy to be at work ... because you can see the results of what you're doing." And I think that says a lot. The improvement wasn't just about the numbers. People could finally see that their efforts were making a difference. 
  
When I suggested the possibility of building a $1 million bookkeeping division, the response was an immediate yes. That's a very different conversation from asking an already exhausted team to work harder. 

How to set accounting firm growth targets your team believes in

One thing I've noticed is that a big annual revenue target can sound overwhelming until you break it down. Let's look at the minimum, growth, and blitz framework we use at Best Practice. 

For illustration, we'll use three levels: 

• Minimum: Around 10% above last year's turnover. 
• Growth: Around 20% above last year's turnover. 
• Blitz: A stretch target of around 30% above last year's turnover. 

Now imagine your firm generated $500,000 last year, with 220 invoicing days available. 

Here's the interesting part. The difference between a 10% growth year and a 30% growth year is approximately $455 in additional daily invoicing. An extra $100,000 across the year might sound daunting. But $455 a day, shared across a team, starts to feel much more manageable. 
  
Of course, setting a target doesn't guarantee the result. The work, pricing, and processes must support it. But when you break the numbers down, you give people something practical to work towards. 
  
And imagine the conversations that become possible. 
  
Instead of telling your team you need another $100,000, you're asking what could be completed, reviewed, and invoiced today to move closer to that goal. With the same headcount, improved invoicing and productivity can also create opportunities for better profitability and team rewards. 
  
One client in regional Queensland even took his entire team and their partners on a seven-day luxury cruise ship costing just under $50,000, funded by profits the business hadn't been making the year before. Now, that's a much better way for people to experience growth than simply being asked to do more for the same reward. 

The daily habits that make the difference 

I've learned something important about productivity over the years. Some of the most useful ideas don't come from complicated business models. They come from seeing a simple habit work in practice. 
 
I’ve enjoyed coaching thousands of firms over many years now, and this straightforward daily productivity approach works every single time. 

And I've seen the difference this can make even as an advisory tool for SMB’s (small to medium businesses). During our two-week intensive coaching programs, some firms have doubled their daily invoicing with the exact same team. 
 
But here's something else I've seen. A few weeks after our intervention, the numbers can start slipping back. Why? Because everyone goes back to their old ways. One owner told me how their firm had returned to month-end invoicing. What had taken about an hour a day was once again taking two or three twelve-hour days at month-end. 
 
It's a familiar problem. Knowing what works is one thing. Making it a lasting habit is another. That's why I encourage firms to focus on four practical changes. 

1. Protect time for completing work. Consider dividing the working day into three blocks: 9 am to 11 am for planning and guidance, 11 am to 3 pm for client meetings, and 3 pm to 5 pm for finishing, reviewing and invoicing. Imagine what could change if your team had dedicated time every afternoon to review completed work and get it out the door, rather than leaving files sitting in your tray overnight. 
    
2. Introduce an afternoon huddle. Most firms have some form of morning meeting. But what happens at the end of the day? A short afternoon huddle allows everyone to discuss what was finished, what wasn't, and what needs to happen tomorrow. That means problems can be addressed while they're still manageable, rather than becoming another week's backlog. 
   
   
3. Review work with the person who prepared it. Instead of taking a file away and returning it days later with corrections, sit down with the team member and, where practical, work through the review together. You can answer questions immediately, help them learn, and avoid unnecessary back-and-forth. Over time, that can also reduce how much your team depends on you for every decision.
    
4. Keep ageing WIP under control. Make reviewing WIP a regular habit, particularly when work has been sitting for more than 21 days. Look at what's holding it up. The aim is to stop completed work from being forgotten simply because everyone's moved on to the next job. 
   

None of these ideas is particularly complicated. But here's the challenge: the directors and partners need to follow the same disciplines as everyone else. If the person responsible for reviews isn't available, the process breaks down. As I've said many times, the fish stinks from the head down. 

What could your firm do with the time you get back?

One concern I sometimes hear is, "What happens if we become more efficient and run out of work?"  
  
I'd suggest that's a much better problem to have than constantly struggling to keep up. Think about the client conversations you've been meaning to have. The tax planning opportunities you haven't followed up on. The advisory services you'd like to introduce. The clients who could benefit from more of your expertise but rarely hear from you unless there's a deadline. 
  
Imagine having the time to be proactive rather than constantly reacting. And imagine what that could mean outside the business, too. Fewer unfinished jobs hanging over your head. Less pressure around month-end. More confidence that the work is progressing without everything depending on you. Even get your team fully trained up on how to really use AI properly. 
  
That's the real opportunity behind better systems and daily productivity habits. Not simply doing more work, but building a business that works better for everyone involved. 

Start your 2027 plan before January

Here's a quick exercise. Take last year's turnover, work out your minimum, growth, and blitz targets, then divide those numbers by your available invoicing days. If your financial year ends on 30 June, consider what you need to achieve over the remaining months as well. 

The maths won't take long. The bigger challenge is working out what needs to change to make those targets achievable. What work is getting stuck? Which processes need improving? What habits need to become part of the normal working day? 

Now imagine stepping into 2027 with those questions answered. You know your targets. Your priorities are clear. You understand what's holding your business back and have a practical plan to fix it, with your team committed to making it happen. 
 
That's exactly the kind of work we'll be helping you tackle at Virtual Retreat 2027. Instead of putting things off until the workload settles down, you'll have two focused days to step away from daily pressures, work through opportunities in your business, and turn your ideas into action. 
 
If you'd like to see what's involved, look through our Virtual Retreat 2027 brochure to see how you could outsource two days to us and supercharge your team’s commitment to 2027. 
 
Because the firms that grow aren't necessarily the ones that find more capacity. They're the ones that learn to make better use of what they already have and build the habits to keep improving. 

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