IMGCAP(1)]How much time does it take to be an effective managing partner? Most CPA firm partners ask the question a bit differently. It goes something like: “We have X amount of revenue and Y number of partners, so how many chargeable hours should our managing partner have compared to the other partners?”
And the next question usually is: “How big should the managing partner’s book of business be compared to the other partners?” If these two questions aren’t a topic of conversation among your partners, they probably should be. We will give you some of the trends and also some guidance on where you should be.
First, it is much more important to make sure that you “manage” the managing partner’s charge hours than you manage the size of their book of business. Most managing partners that we work with continue to maintain relationships with key firm clients as their firms grow and their duties as the managing partner grow. Those clients typically stay in the managing partner’s book, but they have to leverage the work differently than they used to and rely upon more involvement of other partners and staff to get the work done.
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The much tougher metric to manage is the chargeable hours of your managing partner and the time that is left to run the firm. How do you know where those numbers should be? It truly is a function of the size and complexity of your firm. The problem is that we don’t adjust quickly enough as our firms grow. Most managing partners are spending too little time leading and managing, and too much time serving clients. As a part of our managing partner coaching process we are almost always counseling firms to find a way to reduce the leader’s chargeable load.
The sad reality is that we see the trend for managing partner chargeability going the wrong direction: up. Emerging from the recession may have had something to do with the “all hands on deck” approach that many firms have adopted. But leading and managing an accounting firm is not getting easier in the face of competitive issues, succession issues and the returning people void.
How do you know where your managing partner should be? We use a pretty simple metric. First, for smaller firms (under $5 million), we don’t see much relief for the managing partner beyond a good firm administrator who carries a lot of the load. We often see several partners splitting up duties wearing different administrative and management hats. In firms with under $5 million in annual revenue, the managing partner is probably getting 1,100 or so charge hours like all of the rest of the partners.
When you arrive at that $5 million revenue threshold, the maximum charge hours for the managing partner should begin to come down by about 100 hours and for every additional $5 million of revenue after that. If the starting point is 1,100, a managing partner of a $10 million firm would be at no more than 900 charge hours; at $15 million, no more than 800 hours; and so on.
This is not an exact science, but you need to consciously bring down the hours as the firm grows. It won’t happen unless you plan for it. Most managing partners enjoy the client work. They’re good at it and are sometimes reluctant to give it up. And, remember we’re talking maximum numbers here.
Where do you stop? Our suggestion is that, with the exception of the very largest firms, you don’t go to zero, but rather level it out at 100 to 200 hours. The reason is that we believe it’s important for your managing partner to have enough personal involvement in client service to stay knowledgeable of client concerns and issues. It really does help him or her stay grounded and connected.
Remember that these are guidelines. We see numbers all over the map depending on the firm and the makeup of the individual in the managing partner chair. Your goal should be to reduce the client service hours of your leader to free up time to serve what is your number one, most important client—the firm.
Gary Adamson is a CPA and the president of Adamson Advisory, specializing in practice and partner consulting for CPA firms. He can be reached at (765) 488-0691 or
