We recently sat down with Alexandra Hayter, Marketing Director at Workiro, and Ciprian Diaconasu, Adfin's founder and CTO, to talk about the admin that still fills accountants' days. Workiro handles documents and client communication, and Adfin handles getting paid, so between them they cover most of the chasing a practice does. Here are the key insights from the conversation.
In short
- Two hours of admin a day, five days a week, for 45 weeks comes to 450 hours a year per accountant.
- Most of that time goes on chasing documents, signatures and payments, plus reconciling what comes in.
- Each task looks too small to matter, but across hundreds of clients it adds up to months of non-billable time.
- Time won back is best spent on client relationships and advice, the work AI is least likely to replace.
Where 450 hours a year comes from
Accountants tell both teams they spend around two hours a day on admin: chasing a document, finding a missing receipt, reconciling a payment, chasing an invoice. Over five days a week and 45 working weeks, that's 450 hours a year, or roughly three months of working time.
What is non-billable time?
It's time spent on work you can't charge a client for, such as admin, chasing and internal tasks. It still has to be done, but it doesn't bring in fees.
You can work out your own version. Pick a few routine tasks and note how long each takes. A chase email might take a minute, and you might send two per client per quarter. Multiply that by your client list and the four quarters, add the other tasks, and the total climbs quickly. Remembering who to chase, when and how also carries a mental load that never shows up on a timesheet.
Small changes compound
The same maths works in reverse. Cycling coach Dave Brailsford popularised the idea of marginal gains: improve lots of small things by 1% and the combined effect is large. Small improvements to how you collect documents and payments add up the same way across a client base.
What are marginal gains?
It's the idea that many small improvements, each too minor to notice on its own, combine into a significant overall gain.
Chasing documents is a fragmentation problem
Most paperwork is digital now, so the bigger issue is fragmentation. Files sit across OneDrive, Xero, practice software and email, often in several versions, and it's hard to be sure which is current. Clients forget portal passwords, so documents end up going by email anyway. Preparing for a client meeting or an HMRC query means opening folders and threads across several systems.
If that adds up to three hours per client a year, a practice with 200 to 300 clients is looking at 600 to 900 hours of non-billable time.
It helps to have one place for client documents, with version history, and requests sent by a link the client can open on their phone without logging in. If they don't respond, reminders go out automatically, then a task is created for someone to call, then it escalates to a partner. Workiro customer Serenity Accounts reported a 40% reduction in overall admin time and 50% less time chasing signatures after setting this up.
Cash in the bank changes how you run the business
Late payment is widespread. Ciprian cited government figures showing 65% of UK payments are made late, 38 businesses closing every day as a result, and a cost to the UK economy of around £112bn. For practices running on tight margins, one late payment can mean a supplier or an employee waits too.
"When you don't have the cash in a bank account, you're in survival mode."
Ciprian Diaconasu, Adfin
Cash flow affects how you think as well as what you can afford. With money coming in, you plan for growth. Without it, you're managing the next few weeks.
Collecting payment as one connected flow
Payment methods work best when they're aware of each other. If a direct debit fails, Adfin tries a saved card. If there's no card, it sends a reminder with a link to pay. Reminders adapt to each client, so if someone tends to pay on a Friday afternoon after a WhatsApp message, that's when they'll hear from you.
Late fees have had the biggest effect. Clients get a reminder that a fee will apply after a five-day grace period, and average days late have fallen from around 25 to less than one, because most people pay before the fee applies.
Clarity Counts is a good example. Before Adfin, its clients paid on average 40 days late. Now it's three to four days, and instead of reviewing a debtors list every other day, the team meets once a month to discuss three or four clients.
What to do with the time back
Time saved on admin is best spent on relationships: regular catch-ups, understanding a client's growth or exit plans, and helping them get there. That's what makes an accountant a trusted adviser, and it's difficult to automate.
It also means you can serve more clients, in more depth, connecting the numbers in the management accounts to what's happening in the business. One example from the session was an accountant spotting that a client's recruiter fees were high enough to justify an internal hire. With recruitment in accountancy as difficult as it is, time back can also mean not needing to hire for admin at all.
Getting there takes some change management. Before introducing new software or a new service, define the goal, work out who it affects, plan the training and ongoing support, and track what's working once it's live.
A few things you could try
- Do the 450-hour sum for your own practice using three or four tasks you repeat every month.
- List every place a single client's documents live.
- Check whether your document requests and invoices send reminders automatically.
- Pick one admin task to remove this quarter, and plan who needs to know and how they'll be trained.
Common questions
How much time do accountants spend on admin?
Around two hours a day, according to what accountants told Workiro and Adfin. Over five days a week and 45 working weeks, that's around 450 hours a year per person.
How can I work out the admin time in my own practice?
Time a few routine tasks, such as writing a chase email or pulling files together for a meeting, then multiply by how often you do them and how many clients you have.
How can I spend less time chasing clients for documents?
Keep documents in one place, send requests clients can open without a portal login, and set reminders and escalation steps to run automatically.
Will AI replace accountants?
The view from both companies was no. AI and automation take on the admin, while client relationships and advice remain the accountant's job, and that's where the time saved is most valuable.
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