A CA firm runs on partners, seniors, semi-qualified staff and article trainees working through filing seasons and audit calendars. Pay, hours and growth are rarely written down, and the people who learn the most leave first.
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Share your requirementsA chartered accountant firm is a few partners and a larger group of seniors, semi-qualified assistants, article trainees and office staff. Work arrives in waves around audits, returns and year end, with clients calling partners directly and partners giving tasks verbally. Articled trainees join for a fixed period, learn a lot and often move on once qualified. Experienced seniors become the real operating managers, yet may have no title. Time sheets, if they exist, are filled late. Partners worry about capacity and about losing trained staff. See also HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Late nights during filing and audit weeks are routine, yet nobody tracks them. The tired team then leaves just after the busy period.
Article trainees are meant to learn across areas but often do the same task all year, which frustrates them and weakens the firm's own bench.
Client-wise hours are guessed on Friday or never filled, so the firm cannot see which clients are profitable or overworked.
Experienced staff run client files, review work and train juniors but have unclear grade and pay, and look at other firms.
Staff delay leave to avoid the rush and then take it at once. Cover for client work is arranged by phone.
One partner is generous and another strict. Staff compare, and the firm has no common view of review, praise or correction.
A person who has served clients for years may take some with them. The firm has no discussion of growth, partnership or a stake.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Employee Administration; Performance Management; Learning and Development. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a CA firms business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Mark the heavy weeks for each service line, and plan who is on leave, who is on call and who gets time back after.
What this coversHideMark the heavy weeks for each service line, and plan who is on leave, who is on call and who gets time back after. The attendance, shift and leave process helps.
A written plan for each trainee across audit, tax and accounts, with a mentor and a mid-term review.
What this coversHideA written plan for each trainee across audit, tax and accounts, with a mentor and a mid-term review.
A daily five minute entry by client and task, reviewed by managers weekly.
What this coversHideA daily five minute entry by client and task, reviewed by managers weekly. Start with one team before the whole firm.
Names, duties and expectations for each step, so seniors know what the next step needs.
What this coversHideNames, duties and expectations for each step, so seniors know what the next step needs. The role design work covers it.
A common form and a yearly sit-down with each person, with feedback from the managers they worked for.
What this coversHideA common form and a yearly sit-down with each person, with feedback from the managers they worked for.
A conversation about partnership, a stake or a specialist track, before they decide to leave.
What this coversHideA conversation about partnership, a stake or a specialist track, before they decide to leave.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A season-aware leave and working time plan, with time back after peak weeks and cover for client files.
One review method across partners, so staff know what is expected and how growth is decided.
Trainee rotation, review notes and skills sessions that build your own bench.
Simple views of hours, leave and exits by team, so partners see strain before people leave.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
Measures that show how reactor, console, lab and gantry staff are really doing, the ones that mislead or bury near misses, and a monthly sheet an in-charge can run in twenty minutes.
7 min readRead article
Plastics training dies when it waits for a free Saturday. Tie it to mould changes, purges and cold starts, use one-point lessons and a visible skill ladder, and protect it in peak months.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Split it into blocks across audit, tax and accounts, name a mentor for each, and hold a review at the midpoint. Share the plan with the trainee on joining so expectations are clear.
Yes, if kept light. They show which clients take more time than the fee supports and who is overloaded. Start with simple entries and use them to talk, not to police.
Many firms do, informally. Writing it down, with fair rules, makes it predictable and keeps goodwill. Agree it by team so client work is still covered.
Talk early about their ambitions. Offer a clear grade, a role in client relationships and, where it suits, a route to partnership. Some will still go, so plan handovers of client files.
Agree a short common standard for review, feedback and leave, then let each partner manage within it. Staff stop comparing partners when the basics are the same.
We would ask what your team did in the last filing season, how trainees are rotated and who the seniors are. A common first step is a grade ladder with a trainee rotation plan. Scope is written down for you to accept or change.
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