No matter the industry, we hear the business cliché, “our people are our most valuable asset.” Although comparing humans to assets might seem impersonal, this cliché is factually accurate for professional services firms.
In a financial sense, an asset is something that holds or generates value, and that’s exactly what professional services teams do. In place of IP, digital, or physical products, professional services firms bill for their people’s time, expertise, and knowledge. Through this lens, people are an asset; a resource to be managed in a way that returns the most value to the firm. In other words, the success of the firm is directly linked to the quality of its resource management practices.
It stands to reason that optimising resource management should be a key area of investment for accountancy firms. However, this isn’t always the case and for many firms it’s a struggle to shift the perception of resource management from an admin function to a practice fundamental for success.
The value of resource management in accounting
It’s worth noting that not only do practitioners drive the revenue of the firm but their knowledge, suitability, and morale levels also directly impact on the service that clients receive. Therefore, how happy and well-trained your people are in the area they are delivering for the client will, in the long term, feed back into the growth of the firm.
Accounting practitioners are notorious for putting in long hours, but unlike robots they have needs, aspirations, and limits. Stretching a team really thin one year might generate more profit, but consider the true cost of doing this if these people leave the next year.
Why then do so many firms fall short on striking the right balance between profit, client service, and the people who ultimately deliver both? The answer is that resource management is too often undervalued.
Striking the right balance in professional services
When it comes to people planning in a large professional services firm, making all the right decisions at exactly the right time can feel like an insurmountable task. That’s because it often is. With so many moving variables to be considered, resource managers have a complex job on their hands. Resource management requires a great deal of experience and skill to deliver on profit, client service and employee satisfaction simultaneously. Neglecting any one of the three may not be deliberate or even conscious, but can lead to failure in revenue, reputation, and/or resources.
The overall performance of the firm can be boiled down to these small decisions that are made thousands of times everyday. As humans, it’s impossible to fathom the full impact of each tiny decision in a meaningful way, but automated resource planning technology can help to join the dots and paint the bigger picture. Rather than competing with a resource manager’s judgement, automated resource planning supports this fundamentally human skillset. By streamlining the decision-making process and reducing manual steps, automation adds value for resource managers by weaving efficiencies into their workflows.
Intelligent tools to optimise resource management
Intelligent resource planning software surfaces the impact of each small resource management decision on overall engagement economics. AI-powered resource management tools helps teams make decisions which are more consistent, fair, and aligned on the areas they need to prioritise.
At Dayshape, we know a people-driven business requires people who are driven. Practitioners are not just the backbone of the firm, they are the economic link between client satisfaction and financial performance.
That’s why we have designed a solution to elevate resource allocation and give resource managers the tools they need to add strategic value to their firm. There are several levels of automation, from automated suggestions through to continuous AI-powered planning. At all assistance levels, investing in intelligent resource management could be your new strategic advantage.
If “the greatest investment you can make is in your people,” your next investment might be the right resource management solution to support them.
Discover how Dayshape could help you optimise your resource management, better align your decision-making, and deliver more profitable engagements.
