Accounting firms · 🇳🇿 New Zealand
A four-person practice that stopped working GST weekends
GST season compressed six weeks of work into two. Adding capacity under the practice's own brand removed the peak.
New Zealand accounting practice, 4 staff, 60 SME clients. Client identity withheld — we publish names only with written permission, so this engagement is described by its shape rather than by who it was.
2 → 0
Weekends worked per GST cycle
60
Clients supported
Same
Client-facing experience
The situation
- The practice's workload spiked around each two-monthly GST cycle and the 7 May and 15 January dates in particular.
- The principal was doing preparation work at weekends and reviewing their own output, which is not review.
What we found
- Client files arrived in wildly different states, with no standard intake.
- The principal was the only reviewer, so review quality dropped exactly when volume peaked.
- Several clients were priced below cost once the peak overtime was counted.
What we did
- Standardised client intake and workpaper structure before adding any capacity.
- Moved preparation to the delivery team working inside the practice's own Xero Practice Manager.
- Freed the principal to review rather than prepare, and repriced the loss-making clients.
The outcome
- GST cycles no longer require weekend work, and review happens with fresh eyes rather than the preparer's.
- Repricing the underwater clients was a bigger financial change than the capacity itself.
Start with a conversation
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