Backlog and turnaround times.....

About 6-8 weeks

is normal for us. We log everything in and proceed with jobs in date order. This time span includes time waiting for incomplete information. Sometimes we might have to do a job out of sequence for reasons such as tax credit claim information .

-- Iceni

2 to 4 weeks

Normally we need 2 weeks for the simpler jobs and 4 weeks for the more complex jobs. Clients don't usually moan about it taking longer if you have warned them in advance.

Two weeks max ....

 otherwise I don't collect it from them. OK some people send me stuff when they are ready but mostlu I am in control of the 'when'. I have an old sideboard in a spare room which can hold a maximum of 6 boxes / bags etc and that is about 2 weeks work on average .. simple systems are often the easiest!

Try to start work within a couple of days

Quick turnaround is important to many clients. I wasn't happy with my turnaround time (maybe a couple of months) so I have disciplined myself to trying to turn work around in a couple of days. If I start very quickly I usually find that something is missing and it can take ages for clients to provide the information. Clients don't like it if you take two months to look at their work and then say you need something more. I try to do client work in date order but I break that rule if a client is a very good payer or there's a deadline looming just for one or two clients.

I would recoomend you look into why you are starting so late and what you can change.

Days rather than weeks
It's taken a few years of attacking my longstanding backlog, but for the past year or two, I've been able to start virtually immediately when the books/info is received. This means that if all the info is provided at the outset, I can usually post out a simple tax return the same week, and accounts are sent out probably the following week, so an average time of 5-10 working days tops. Obviously, if I need more info, then the clock stops until client gives it me, but then, once received, I get back onto it straight away. I have the same approach with incoming emails & correspondence - rather than logging & organising, I just deal with it and reply same day where possible. I don't really need any systems for dealing with current workflows, because there's so little that is waiting for my attention.

I would never have believed that I could have got to this position if you'd asked me 5 years ago when I was drowning under full in-trays and a pile of unstarted client books, and spending too much time fire-fighting and writing/re-writing task and workflow to-do lists to try to prioritise the urgent work. But, I went on one of those motivational courses and the speaker spent a lot of time on highlighting how much time is wasted by endlessly re-writing task lists and constantly having to revisit things you'd already done weeks or months ago but didn't quite manage to finish. He was a great advocate of the "one touch" approach, where you just force yourself to take whatever actions are needed to conclude every task you come across straight away. He gave an example of when you receive a bill, rather than putting it to one side for attention later, just get the cheque book out and send the cheque and log it on your book-keeping system - takes a minute or two and then you "file and forget". It really was the "clean desk is a sign of a tidy mind" philosophy. I was initially sceptical but was almost clinically depressed with my backlogs that I decided to heed his words.

OK, it took at least a couple of years, but every day I made small changes to stop the rot and catch up. At first, it was simple and quick things, like paying bills, quick replies to correspondence & emails, etc where I dealt with them immediately they arrived. I started to see the in-tray go down. Then I attacked accounts prep and tax returns where I'd at least have a look at the info received straight away to check for missing information so that I could put it aside in a different pile that I couldn't start which wasn't my fault which was mentally important because the pile of stuff that I could work on was a lot smaller. And so it went on. Rather than automatically working long days and some of the weekend just tacking my backlog, I forced myself to do specific non-earning tasks out of normal hours, such as archiving & shredding old files, or writing a newsletter, etc - this left my M-F 9-5 time free to actually do the chargeable work.

Now if two or three large jobs arrive at the same time, then I'll go in at the weekend to keep all three moving at once. If there's nothing to do, then I'll stay at home and do some decorating or gardening or go for a walk or whatever. If I get a lot of emails or post, then I'll stay in the office for an hour or so longer to reply to them so that I can start the next day with an empty in-box. I think the key is flexibility as to working hours. But, what I hadn't appreciated, was that by not having a backlog, not faffing around with to-do lists and prioritising, etc., you waste far less time on non chargeable work so you are far more efficient and do more work. The mental side is also important - there's nothing better than arriving at work to an empty desk and only a handful of boxes/bags in the cupboard. I've proved to myself that turnaround times don't have to be weeks and months and I'm on my own, now earning far more than I did 5 years ago when I was drowning with a long backlog. That course was a turning point for me and I'm so glad I went and embraced the advice.

Ken

That's an inspiring story!

I used to get caught out by new clients who wouldn't send company credit card statements and bank deposit statements. Now I always ask at the beginning. Always ask for personal bank interest received at the start because clients take weeks to provide that.

The most frustrating thing for me now is getting 95% of the work done in a day and then waiting a month for a client to provide information that they should be able to provide in a few minutes.

When you turn round quickly you develop a certain confidence plus you don't want to let yourself down so you keep going. Previously I wasted a lot of time on reordering tasks and felt stress from the lists of things todo. I also felt embarrassed at how slowly most work was turned round. Now my list are mainly made up of what I am waiting for from clients.

As you say, putting the time in when needed is the key. I'd rather spend a weekend working and be up to date than spend a full week trying to catch up. None of our household works 9 to 5 five days a week so there's no problem working whatever hours are needed to keep on top of things.

Murphy

You have a lot on your plate but I'm sure it's the quarterly VAT returns that are the cause. The present quarters are best for accounting reasons so I wouldn't suggest changing them. I would make more effort at trying to get the information early. Maybe just accept that one quarter out of three is going to be bad and you have to put in a lot of extra work. Chase people who may be expected to send accounts and tax work soon to do it before the busy month.