Queues and bottlenecks are a constant for accountancy practices – beating these queues is more important than ever with MTD around the corner, suggests Vipul Sheth.
Is queuing a ‘problem’? And… what does that have to do with accountancy? Bear with me.
There’s a fun (or not so fun depending on your perspective) article in the FT* by Tim Harford on that most British of hobbies.
Harford makes the point that having too much capacity, reducing queues to a constant zero, is impractical in the real world. We can’t all have a GP or bus at hand as and when required.
Keeping with public services, Harford then illustrates that bottlenecks are often interlinked; courts are struggling to deal with cases while prisons are full, of which a fifth of the prison population are awaiting trial.
Once the bottlenecks are there, the queues get out of control - and won’t simply disappear.
Strategic thinking is therefore required to find a plan to deal with interlinked bottlenecks and, of course, some extra capacity where things have got out of hand.
Building bottlenecks
Accountancy practices are no strangers to capacity and resourcing issues or indeed bottlenecks. In fact, the fundamental operating model of a practice is built around it.
The work undertaken is driven by ebbs and flows created by the statutory filing requirements of tax, accounting and audit. And then, on a day-to-day basis, managing these ebbs and flows is complicated by staff illness, holidays, perhaps even clients sending in information much earlier (or later) than usual. There may even be a slew of ‘too good to turn away’ clients that join.
Work builds up, and pressure is created. Workflow management can help, but legislative filing deadlines don’t move.
What other bottlenecks and problems are then created? There are many and varied that can be highlighted. Partners put on hold their business development work to check or even produce files. Meetings with existing clients are pushed back, loosening the bond you have with them or even missing out on a piece of work because the conversation didn’t happen.
The staff you have depended on, that have fought fires for months, consider their career options.
Management then struggles to find the time to come up with a new long-term resourcing strategy, which means that bringing in extra capacity is usually short-term, expensive and sub-optimal.
Beat the queues
I don’t really want to pivot to an MTD rant. I would much rather focus on Advancetrack’s ability to help practices manage their capacity requirements and become an integral part of their resourcing strategy. However, there are two huge tranches of micro businesses that will come under MTD’s remit in 2026 and 2027; I have serious concerns that practices, large and small, are not grasping the nettle on what it means for client workflows and, more importantly, relationships.
Practitioners have a unique and envied relationship with their clients. It is understandable that not all the quarterly returns required of MTD and bookkeeping can be undertaken by the practice directly. But, keeping clients at arms-length during the start of this process, which is something I hear is happening often, could prove self-fulfilling.
Firstly, accountants could find that the impact of this approach is lots of confused clients calling up and asking for help after the horse has bolted – creating further workflow bottlenecks and capacity issues.
Secondly, AI and automated tech will make the task of bookkeeping and filing easier for businesses and the public. But practitioners’ true value comes from supporting their clients through compliance and providing further advice and support during the business lifecycle.
The ‘bloke down the pub’ is being replaced by AI searches; if accountants leave clients (literally) to their own devices then many will take the next step towards full self-service. Practices, sadly, may then find that the queues of work to be undertaken disappear.
Vipul Sheth is founder and MD of Advancetrack
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*Article paywalled
