In October of 2024, I received this email from a firm owner:
They were burned out, and they were also unintentionally bottlenecking the firm.
This is only one example, and I’ve encountered hundreds of accounting firm owners like them throughout many years of coaching them.
The firm is pulling in good revenue, but the firm owner is constantly working 50+ hour weeks.
Why?
Because everything runs through them, meaning they have virtually no time for things like firm growth and business strategy.
Sound familiar?
In this article, you’ll learn how to redesign your firm so that it runs well even without your involvement…
So that you can get your life back while growing your business. 🙂
Let’s get started!
Why You’re the Bottleneck (Even With a Team)
Bottlenecking isn’t random, and it’s not a personal failing either.
I’ve coached many firm owners through it, and the same patterns reappear no matter the size of the team or how good their services are.
Here’s where it starts.
You’ve Taken On More Clients Than Your Team Can Handle
You already know this, but…
There’s always another client who needs help.
Demand for accounting services is basically unlimited.
So, if you’re saying yes to everyone who comes knocking, you’ll never run out of people to say yes to.
Which means nothing is stopping you from taking on more than your team can realistically handle.
Most firm owners don’t notice this happening in real time.
Revenue is going up, the client list is growing, and it feels like progress.
But somewhere along the way, the number of clients outpaces the team’s capacity to serve them well.
And when capacity runs out, the work finds its way back to you.
Your Team Isn’t Senior Enough to Buffer You
Not every client issue is simple.
Some are complex, and some are sensitive.
Some need someone who’s seen the situation before and knows exactly how to handle it.
If nobody on your team fits that description, guess who does?
You!
Your organizational chart probably looks something like this:
This is what happens when a team is stacked with junior or mid-level people, and nobody senior enough to stand between you and the harder stuff.
The junior work gets handled just fine.
But the moment something requires judgment, experience, or a difficult conversation, it skips right past the team and lands on your desk.
Because your team simply doesn’t have anyone at the level required to handle it.
Your Team Can’t Own What You Haven’t Defined
When a team doesn’t seem accountable, what has to be done?
Do they need more oversight or check-ins?
Not really…
In most cases, the underlying issue is that nobody has defined what “owning it” looks like in the firm, like:
- Where is the firm going?
- What does the business stand for?
- What does success look like a year from now?
If your team doesn’t have clear answers to those questions, how do you expect them to make great decisions on their own?
They’re not avoiding responsibility…
They’re just missing the context required to take it.
And if you’re the only person with that context, everything still has to run through you.
How to Fix Bottlenecking in Your Accounting Firm
Bottlenecking feels permanent when you’re in it.
Good news…
It’s not!
Here’s how to fix it and break your firm’s current growth ceiling.
Fix #1: Reprice Before You Do Anything Else
When I sit down with a bottlenecked firm owner, pricing is almost always the first thing I look at.
It’s usually the core issue.
How?
Underpriced work means you can’t afford to say no.
So you accept clients you shouldn’t at a rate that doesn’t reflect the work involved.
As a result, capacity gets filled too fast, pushing work back to you.
If you fix the pricing, you’ll fix what’s feeding the bottleneck in the first place.
What to Charge Instead
Too many firms charge way too little.
Generally speaking, the minimum amount I recommend is $500.
More specifically:
- At least $500/month for ongoing accounting or bookkeeping services
- At least $500 for an individual tax return
In Ignition’s 2025/2026 U.S. Accounting and Tax Pricing Benchmark (to which I provided input)…
They found that 67% of firm owners charge at least $500/month for bookkeeping and accounting services.
Which is good.
But it also means 33% of them are in what I’d call the “danger zone.”
If you’re in that group, you’re dealing with a pricing problem.
So fix that first!
Where to Start
The best place to start is charging these prices with the clients you already have.
That means repricing them…
Which feels scary, and I get it.
What if a client says no?
What if they leave?
In my experience, if you frame the value of what you do properly, good clients are happy to pay significantly more.
But don’t take my word for it.
Just ask one of my Future Firm Accelerate members who had a client sign up for a $1,950/month plan when they were expecting the client to sign for the $350/month plan!
Again, start with your existing client base.
Reprice everyone to where they should be.
If you want to learn more about doing this effectively, read my guide to repricing your accounting clients.
Most clients will stay, because they value what you do, and a fair price increase isn’t the dealbreaker you think it is.
The ones who will leave are almost always your C and D level clients.
The ones who were underpaying and overdemanding to begin with.
Instead of thinking of losing them as a loss, think of it as capacity handed back to you.
Three-tiered pricing (Bronze, Silver, Gold) makes this even easier going forward.
But only if your packages are built around a transformation or a result, not just a list of tasks.
Here’s an example of a tiered plan that effectively showcases value:
Fix #2: Hire Senior
Fixing your pricing makes this next fix possible.
Even with better margins, if there’s nobody senior enough on the team, most of the work is still going to land on you.
But with senior team members, you have people who can take a messy situation, handle it, and keep you from getting in the weeds.
What “Senior” Looks Like
“Senior” doesn’t mean a title.
It means someone who can be trusted to handle the work that currently only you can handle.
That looks like someone who can:
- Take a complex client issue from start to finish without looping you in
- Have a difficult or sensitive client conversation on your behalf
- Review work from juniors and provide guidance to them
- Make correct judgment calls on complex situations
- Be someone clients can trust outside of you
If there’s no one in your team who can do these, then you need to hire someone who can.
When you do have a good senior on your team, here’s what happens:
- You stop losing hours to concerns that don’t really need you
- You finally have the mental space to think about the future of your firm
- You have time to work on the firm instead of in it
How do I know this works?
Because when I first started my own firm, two of my first hires were senior CPAs.
It strained my cash flow, and it got uncomfortable.
But it meant I wasn’t stuck delivering client work.
I was able to focus on growing the business instead.
That allowed me to grow it from scratch to a successful sale within just five years.
I’m not saying it’s easy…
But it’s definitely worth it. 🙂
Where to Start
This hire is going to have a major impact on your team.
So it’s much more important to hire right than to hire fast.
Here’s how to do this:
- Make a list of things this person will take over. Write down everything that eats up your time and shouldn’t require you. This could include handling client relationships, mentoring junior team members, and other things you want to hand off.
- Turn that list into the role. Each item becomes a responsibility this person needs to own. This will define the job.
- Write a posting that sells the role. Highlight what makes your firm different. Give real reasons someone should want to work there, and show them how their work will matter.
- Interview for attitude, not skill. Skills can be taught, but you can’t change someone’s attitude. Look for ownership, and look for coachability: someone who takes feedback well and applies it. That leads to more success than pure technical skill.
- Onboard them properly. Don’t just hand them client files and hope for the best. They may be great hires, but they’ll still need as much context as possible to be successful in their role.
If you’re not sure how to begin this process, I wrote a guide to writing a job description for senior accountants.
Fix #3: Build Accountability Starting From Vision
Even with good pricing and capable seniors in your firm, you can still run into bottlenecking.
In fact, I’ve seen this happen in seven-figure firms that were getting good profits and had a strong team (on paper).
The usual issue?
Ownership.
Team members weren’t stepping up, weren’t making calls on their own, and kept routing decisions back to the owner.
And the instinct, every time, is to assume the fix is more oversight.
Usually, though, the problem is that nobody set expectations.
Team members don’t know where the business is headed, what “success” looks like for their role, and how their role contributes to the overall success of the firm.
Without that, a team can’t own their role even if they want to.
How to Fix Accountability
I heard this a few times while coaching members inside Future Firm Accelerate…
One notable issue was a team that wasn’t accountable.
And what the firm owner asked me for was exactly what most people ask for in that situation:
“I need KPIs, a scorecard, or something to hold my team to.”
It makes sense on the surface.
If someone’s not performing, measure them, and the problem gets solved.
But it usually doesn’t work that way.
I went through this myself inside Future Firm.
We brought on an experienced COO, someone who had spent 15 to 20 years managing multi-seven-figure companies, specifically to help fix accountability on our own team.
My first instinct was the same one every firm owner has:
Build the scorecard!
…
She pushed back immediately.
The KPI, she told me, is the last thing you should be looking at.
Before any of that, she wanted to know:
- Where is this company going?
- What’s the vision?
- Is the team on the same page about what we’re building?
That’s where accountability starts…
Context!
Here’s how the sequence goes:
- Vision. Get clear on where the firm is headed, at a 10,000-foot level.
- Example: The firm wants to hit $1.5M in revenue in three years while the owner works no more than 40 hours a week.
- Org chart and role structure. Map out what the team needs to look like to get there.
- Example: To hit that vision, the firm will need a Chief Operating Officer, two senior accountants, and a virtual assistant. Below is an example of an org chart.
- Role descriptions. Define what each role is responsible for, and what success in that role looks like.
- Example: The COO owns hiring and process; the senior accountants own client relationships and complex work; the VA owns scheduling and admin work.
- KPIs, last. Once the first three are in place, the specific numbers finally have context.
- Example: The COO is measured on process adherence, the senior accountants are measured on client retention and turnaround time on complex work, and the VA is measured on scheduling accuracy and process efficiency improvements.
To help you structure your firm better, check out my post on the roles you need in your accounting firm.
Bust the Bottleneck in Your Accounting Firm
That’s a wrap!
It’s time to stop being the bottleneck in your firm…
And start being its driving force to success.
You’d be surprised how much you can grow your firm without your involvement.
If you want to get the coaching and resources that have helped hundreds of firm owners build profitable businesses that let them live the life they want…
Go check out Future Firm Accelerate. 🙂
Good luck!
