Every client wants the same fortnight, and there is only one

Compliance practices have a shape no amount of good management removes: the work arrives when the statute says it does. What varies between practices is whether they enter the peak knowing their capacity or discovering it.

The commitment made in October

Clients are accepted through the year on the reasonable assumption that it will be managed. Nobody totals the hours those commitments imply against the hours the team actually has in January, because the two numbers live in different places — one in engagement letters, one in nobody's head.

Documents are the real constraint

The bottleneck is rarely the work itself. It is waiting for papers. A practice that starts chasing in the first week of the season has a different January from one that starts when the file is opened, and the difference is entirely process.

What makes chasing work is that it is scheduled and recorded, so the second request does not depend on someone remembering the first went unanswered.

The number worth having by March

Not revenue. Hours spent per client against the fee agreed. In most practices a handful of clients consume a disproportionate share of the peak, and they are usually not the largest fees — they are the ones who supply documents late and in pieces.

That is a repricing conversation, and it can only be had with a number behind it.