Rowleys Audit and Accounting Using Beeye to Match Capacity to Workload

 Rowleys, a DFK International member firm offering audit, accounting, advisory and tax from their office in Leicester, UK, has gone live with Beeye. 41 people across Audit and Accounts now have a shared view of capacity, workload and fees.

Supporting growth through better visibility 

Rowleys runs audit and accounting as one combined department under six partners, with billable managers scheduling teams. The firm was using a spreadsheet for planning but has grown steadily for several years and with future growth ambitions to support, the spreadsheet had reached breaking point. Every new hire added more boxes to move around. “Occupied vs. free” formulas helped but were imperfect. Nobody could answer the question that mattered most: does the department have the capacity to take on more work, or does it need to hire?

Claire Wright, Senior Manager in Audit and Accounts was the driving force of the project, from researching solutions, presenting the costed recommendations to the partner team, and leading the internal change management.

With responsibility for recruitment and department management activities Claire felt the weight of, “staff not having any work to do or not having any staff to do any work. It was really difficult to see how much capacity we have versus what we need. The visibility of who is working on what, when, will help us prioritise and deliver better client outcomes”.

With Beeye, Rowleys can now:

• See capacity against committed workload in days and hours
• Compare scheduled time to fee value, and catch jobs heading past their recovery rate
• Prevent managers overbooking engagements
• See quiet and busy periods far enough ahead to plan around them
• Support recruitment decisions with capacity data instead of gut feel
• Rebook people quickly when a job moves or a client timeline shifts
• Save 1-2 hours a week of each manager’s time

“As a manger, I don’t always feel like I have the metrics and the data that I want. The dashboards in Beeye will change that"

— Claire Wright, Senior Manger, Audit & Accounts, Rowleys

Beeye as a DFK International partner carried weight with the firm’s decision makers. Not only did Rowleys initially find Beeye through DFK International, where the firm’s managing partner first heard about it at a conference, but Claire was able to speak with another DFK member firm already running it.  

"DFK International is committed to helping member firms access the knowledge, relationships and tools they need to thrive. We are pleased to have Beeye as a conference sponsor and valued partner, giving our members the opportunity to explore solutions that can improve planning, visibility and operational efficiency. Bringing together firms and trusted providers who can support more efficient ways of working is an important part of the value DFK delivers across our global community."

— Caroline Cassidy, Global Executive Officer, DFK International

"Rowleys has been growing for years, the time was right to have real engagement capacity data to support and continue that growth,” said Adrien Sicard, CEO of Beeye. "That is what resource management is for, and we look forward to supporting Rowleys.