[mandy8041]

I know a lot of us work in firms where we bill our time. Just wondering what everyone’s job requires as a percent of billable time. My boss prefers 70%. Is this high or low compared to others?

FAR- 75
REG- 82
BEC- 73, 79!! Its over. Am I dreaming?
AUD- 74, 74, 88

[katiekanton]

The firm I worked in most recently was more like 90%. I needed at least 36 billable hours per week. I strove for 40, though, reasoning that if they're paying me for 40 they ought to get 40. That didn't mean I really worked 50, just that I got really good at determining whom to bill and recording every single minute, even opening mail. I was also not averse to keeping my timer running while I was on hold with the state of Massachusetts to clear up whatever ridiculous tax matter they were questioning us on for one client, and running a second timer for another client for another task I was doing while on hold. Gotta be careful to make sure you're accurate with your timers if you try to do that.

AUD - 88
FAR - 90
REG - 85
BEC - 88

[Anonymous]

70% seems really low. If you are efficient, you really shouldnt have any non-billable hours. You're job is working on client engagements, so if you are at work and you are on the firm's time, then you shouldnt be working on anything that you can't bill for. I worked in public accounting, and I know from experience how hard it is to keep track of your time when you have multiple engagements going on, and then you have that work friend you havent seen in weeks because you've been out of town and you get caught up chatting, and sometimes things just take you longer than they should and you bill the hours, but the partner ends up having to write some of it off because they cant really bill the client for your inefficiency because it took you longer to do the task than it should have, etc. At my firm, they ranked every person in the firm by the number of monthly billable hours, and posted the list for everyone to see. Every six months they would fire people, and it was usually the people at the bottom of that list. And the staff person that had the same (and sometimes more) billable hours than managers or partners? That person was on the fast track and got promoted every six months.

[mandy8041]

Wow- I guess things just work differently here!! It is a very small firm so everyone has to do everything. We dont have seniors/juniors and everyone works together. If the receptionist needs help folding letters, we all help (even the CPA's with 20 yrs experience) I meet with new clients a lot and that is not billable so that does take away time and we do a lot of staff meetings and training on updates, webinars….so that takes time too.

FAR- 75
REG- 82
BEC- 73, 79!! Its over. Am I dreaming?
AUD- 74, 74, 88

[Anonymous]

@Katie — Same with our firm; 90% billable at a minimum. Unfortunately, the problem with public accounting firms is that you are rated across several metrics (utilization [% billable / total hours possible], new customer development, and progress towards goals to name a few) and some metrics (e.g. utilization and new customer development) cannibalize one another. New customer development, for example, is not billable time, but you are required to bill a certain amount to that area per year. So ultimately, you have to spend a few 70 – 80 hour weeks here and there to make up for the “dud” time you spend doing new cust development or facilitating new hire on boarding, etc. I will definitively say, however, that billing time worked and maintaining cognizance of the budget is the most stressful part of working in public accounting. The work itself is easy…the time…PAIN IN THE BUTT!

[yankeeaccountant]

The last two firms I worked at they really wanted you be over 80% for sure..with always striving for zero admin time. It was up to to the partner on the account to write off any hours, etc. that were over the budget.

I would say that billable hours was always hanging over my head.

[Author]

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