Systems & Strategy
Advisory
Clean books tell you what happened. Advisory is the conversation about what to do next — which practice areas actually pay, what an associate really costs, whether the draw is sustainable, and what your rate should be.
Sound familiar?
- You have no idea which practice areas actually make money
- Your rate has not changed in years and you are not sure it should
- You want to hire but cannot tell whether the firm can carry the cost
- Every quarter feels like a surprise
- You are taking a draw without knowing whether the firm can sustain it
What you get
What changes once this is running.
- A clear read on which practice areas and matter types actually make money
- A rate that reflects your real cost structure instead of what the firm down the road charges
- A cash flow forecast you can make decisions against
- An honest answer on whether you can afford the next hire
- A partner draw that does not put the firm under pressure every quarter
Included
What the engagement actually covers.
Practice area profitability
Revenue and directly attributable costs analysed by practice area and matter type, with overhead allocated on a defensible basis. Firms are regularly surprised by which work is actually carrying the others.
Rate and pricing analysis
What you need to bill, given your real overhead, your realistic billable capacity and your target income — and how far your current rate is from that number.
Cash flow forecasting
A rolling forecast built on your actual collection patterns and known commitments, so a slow quarter is something you saw coming rather than something you discover at the bank.
Hiring and capacity modeling
What an associate, a paralegal or an admin actually costs fully loaded, how much they need to bill to cover themselves, and how long the firm carries them before they do.
Compensation and draw modeling
A draw structure the firm can sustain through a normal revenue cycle, including what needs to stay in the business as working capital.
How it runs
No surprises about the process.
Start from clean books
Advisory on unreliable numbers is worse than no advisory at all — it gives you confidence in a wrong conclusion. If the books are not solid, that gets fixed first.
Set the questions
What actually needs deciding this year. Hiring, a new practice area, an office move, a partner buy-in, or simply whether the current model works.
Build the analysis
The specific models that answer those questions, using your data and assumptions you have agreed to, with the assumptions stated explicitly.
Meet and revisit
A recurring session to walk the numbers and revisit decisions as reality diverges from the forecast — which it always does.
The questions clean books let you answer
A reconciled set of books is not the goal. It is the precondition. What it buys you is the ability to answer questions that are otherwise unanswerable.
Which work should you be doing more of? Most multi-practice firms have at least one area that feels busy and productive and is in fact subsidised by the others. Revenue alone will not show you this — you need the directly attributable costs and a defensible overhead allocation alongside it. The answer is frequently uncomfortable and almost always actionable.
What does an associate actually cost? Salary is roughly two thirds of it. Add payroll taxes, benefits, malpractice coverage, a bar license, CLE, a workstation, software seats and their share of overhead, and the fully loaded number is materially higher than the offer letter. Then the real question: how many billable hours, at your realization rate, before they cover themselves — and can the firm carry them for the six to twelve months before that happens?
Is your rate defensible? Not “does it feel high,” but: given your overhead, your realistic billable hours after admin and non-billable work, and your realization rate, what do you need to bill to reach your target income? Most attorneys have never done this calculation. Our hourly rate calculator does it in about a minute, and the number is often a surprise.
Can you take the draw you are taking? A draw set in a good year and never revisited is one of the most common ways a profitable firm ends up borrowing to make payroll.
What we will not do
We will not tell you what the market will bear — you know your jurisdiction and your specialty far better than we do. We will not give tax advice; that is your CPA’s role and we would rather work alongside them than around them. And we will not build you a forecast that assumes everything goes well. A forecast that only works in the good case is not a forecast.
Questions
About Advisory
Is this financial advice?
No, and the distinction matters. We do management reporting and financial analysis — organising your own numbers so you can make better decisions about your own firm. We are not licensed investment advisers, we are not a CPA firm, and we do not give tax, legal or investment advice. Tax strategy belongs with your CPA and we work alongside them.
Do I need advisory if my books are already clean?
Not necessarily. Plenty of firms are well served by accurate books and their own judgment. Advisory earns its cost when a specific decision is on the table — a hire, a rate change, a new practice area, a partner restructure — and getting it wrong would be expensive.
How do you allocate overhead across practice areas?
On a basis we agree with you up front and then apply consistently — usually attorney time, headcount or direct revenue depending on your cost structure. There is no universally correct method, which is exactly why the method gets stated openly instead of buried in a spreadsheet.
Can you tell me what to charge?
We can tell you what you need to charge to cover your costs and hit your target income at realistic billable volume — that is arithmetic. What the market will bear for your specialty in your jurisdiction is your judgment, not ours. The calculator gives you the floor; you decide the price.
Keep going
Related services and tools.
Ready when you are
Find out what shape your books are actually in.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell whether we are the right fit for your firm — and you will leave it knowing more about your own numbers either way.
- No obligation, no sales script
- Straight answer on whether we fit
- Talk to the person who does the work