How do accounting practices manage work in progress and billing efficiently?
Practices lose 1-5% of revenue to unbilled time. Master time recording, billing lag reduction, and WIP visibility to improve profitability.
·4 min read
How do accounting practices manage work in progress and billing efficiently? Professional services firms (including accounting practices) lose 1-5% of annual revenue to unbilled time every year. For a practice turning over £500,000, it’s between £5,000-£25,000 in work completed but never charged.
Research on time tracking and billing in accounting firms identified the same root causes:
Time that isn’t logged until after the work has been done
Disbursements that aren’t tracked at the point of incurrence
Billing that happens weeks or months after the work is done
The result? Details have faded, the scope creep has been forgotten, and the invoice is written that inaccurately reflects the work that was done.
What is WIP in an accounting practice context?
Work in progress (WIP) is the mechanism by which practices track completed but unbilled work, and managing it well is one of the clearest direct drivers of practice profitability. It represents the gap between what’s been done and what’s been invoiced, and in most practices, it’s the clearest single metric for whether the billing process is keeping pace with the work.
In practices without dedicated time recording and WIP management tools, time is logged intermittently, often from memory. The result is a WIP position that understates the value of work completed, which systematically erodes margin.
The billing lag problem and why it matters
Billing lag is the time between completing work and issuing an invoice, and is one of the most direct drivers of WIP aging. In practices that bill monthly or at engagement completion, a short billing lag means WIP turns over quickly and the practice has a clear, current picture of its financial position. In practices that bill whenever the partner gets around to it, WIP can sit for 60-90 days before an invoice is raised, which distorts revenue recognition, creates cash flow unpredictability, and makes it harder to have accurate conversations with clients about what they owe.
The billing lag problem is compounded by scope creep. Practices without real-time WIP visibility often bill for the original scope and absorb the additional time rather than having the conversation about additional fees. Practices with clear WIP data can see, at any point, exactly how much additional time has been invested and have an informed conversation before the invoice goes out.
Time recording: The foundation of WIP management
Accurate WIP management depends on accurate time recording, and this requires minimal friction at the point of capture. The practices where time recording works consistently are the ones where logging time is easy and immediate. An example could be where staff can record a half-hour call against a client matter in thirty seconds, rather than having to remember it at the end of the day and reconstruct the timing from calendar entries.
An hour that felt like 45 minutes gets recorded as 45 minutes, and a call that ran over doesn’t get its final 20 minutes logged. Across a team and a year, those small discrepancies compound into significant revenue leakage.
How does BrightManager by Bright handle WIP and billing?
BrightManager by Bright includes time recording and WIP tracking for accounting firms built into the platform. Time is logged against client matters as work progresses (not reconstructed from memory) and feeds directly into the WIP position without requiring manual export or data entry into a separate billing system.
You can view WIP by client, by matter, by staff member, and by aging period. That visibility makes billing reviews faster, makes scope creep visible before it becomes a difficult conversation, and gives the practice a live picture of its unbilled revenue position at any point in the month.
For more on how practice workflow connects to financial reporting, see our post on how AI is transforming practice management software.
How does BrightManager by Bright compare to alternatives for WIP and billing?
The main alternatives for practice WIP and billing management are Karbon, and IRIS Practice Management. Karbon has strong billing and workflow visibility but its time recording functionality is more limited than dedicated billing tools. IRIS Practice Management has comprehensive billing tools suited to larger practice environments.
BrightManager by Bright is differentiated by its integration with BrightAccounts
BrightManager by Bright gives accounting practices the time recording and WIP tracking tools to recover the revenue that currently slips through the gaps. Book a demo to see the WIP and billing workflow in action.
This content may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools. Content is reviewed by a member of the Bright team before publication. Guidance on legislation can be obtained from your industry body.
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