by Chris Williams | May 12, 2025 | Blog
There are so many different paths to buying a small business. How big do you buy? How long do you search? Do you raise capital for your search? Partner or go at it alone? How many investors?
Often, the most common choice is this – self funded vs. traditional search
Both have their pros and cons. You need to educate yourself, and do what’s best for you. That’s what this conversation will accomplish.
While many of his peers raised traditional search funds – targeting larger business with more security and 25% ownership, Chris Williams went down a different path. He self-funded his search, took out an SBA loan, and ultimately owned 70%+ of the business he acquired – System Six – an outsourced accounting firm he’s doubled in 4 years.
I recently sat down with Chris to discuss his journey from Stanford MBA to successful acquisition entrepreneur. For those considering the entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) route, his story offers practical wisdom on finding, purchasing, and growing a business while maintaining meaningful ownership.
Traditional vs. Self-Funded Search: Choosing Your Path
“There are a lot of different ways to go buy a small business,” Chris emphasized. “Take in a bunch of information and decide for yourself what’s best for you.”
When Chris graduated from Stanford Business School in 2018, he faced the same choice many aspiring acquisition entrepreneurs confront: raise a traditional search fund or pursue a self-funded approach. The differences proved significant:
Traditional Search
- Raise hundreds of thousands upfront to fund your search
- Target larger businesses ($2M+ EBITDA)
- Typically results in 25% ownership for the searcher
- More investor interactions
- Less personal financial risk (no personal guarantee)
Self-Funded Search
- Limited or no fundraising during search phase
- Target smaller businesses ($500K-$2M EBITDA)
- Can retain 70-90% ownership
- More control over decisions
- Requires personal guarantee on SBA loans
First, Chris chose to self-fund his search. Like many MBAs, he loved his optionality, and he knew self-funding gave allowed him the chance to look at the widest variety of deals. He could look at small and large deals, and ultimately use the capital structure that made the most sense for the deal he found. Chris focused on businesses that matched his background in finance, and ultimately used an SBA loan to finance most of his acquisition of System Six, allowing him to maintain maximum ownership and control.
Finding the Right Business Through Direct Outreach
Rather than relying solely on brokers, Chris built a systematic approach to contacting business owners directly. Using specialized databases and targeted email campaigns, he reached out to approximately 50 companies weekly. His process yielded a 20-30% response rate across email campaigns, with roughly 5-6 conversations per week.
“I was looking for high percentage of repeat, consistent revenue in a growing industry,” Chris noted. His cold email to System Six’s owner sparked a conversation that eventually led to acquisition.
The power of direct outreach? It allowed Chris to build relationship capital with the seller over months, creating trust that proved invaluable throughout the transaction.
Structuring the Deal: SBA Loans and Smart Equity
Chris structured his acquisition with:
- 75% SBA loan financing
- Seller note on standby (with no immediate payment requirements)
- 10% investor capital earning 8% preferred return, converting to 20% equity
This approach enabled him to maximize his ownership while satisfying the seller’s price expectations. His investors weren’t looking for immediate distributions—they sought long-term growth and provided valuable guidance along the way.
“I was very convinced that because I’ve never run a business before, I needed professional, small business-oriented, growth-minded investors around me. If that means I have to pay them a little bit more than if I had raised from friends or the stereotypical “doctors and lawyers”, I’ll do that all day,” Chris explained.
These relationships proved invaluable. His investors serve as board members, providing strategic guidance and helping Chris navigate complex decisions without pressuring him for quick returns.
Post-Acquisition Growth: Finding Your Niche
Since acquisition, Chris has doubled System Six’s revenue through two key strategies:
- Vertical specialization: “Finding a vertical that you have traction in and pounding that vertical.” For System Six, that meant focusing on serving other acquisition entrepreneurs who inherited messy financial operations.
- Service expansion: By expanding complementary services like payroll, bill pay, controllership and advanced financial reporting, System Six increased its average customer value while solving more problems for clients.
This growth didn’t happen by accident. Chris invested in management talent, creating a team structure that could scale beyond the CEO’s capacity. While this temporarily reduced profit margins, it positioned the business for sustainable growth, freeing up more of Chris’s time to focus on strategic growth and step away from the day to day.
Key Lessons for Searchers
Looking back on his journey, Chris offers this wisdom to fellow searchers:
- Industry quality trumps everything: “You can change everything in your business when you buy it, but you can’t change the industry you’re in.” Seek industries with consistent revenue and growth potential.
- Seller quality matters immensely: “Buy a business from someone that’s fundamentally decent who’s not going to try and screw you.”
- There’s no single “right” path: The choice between traditional and self-funded search depends on your personal circumstances, risk tolerance, and ownership goals. And the deals you find.
- Be realistic about SBA timelines: “Set expectations with your seller and don’t overpromise.” SBA deals almost always take longer than anticipated.
- Trust your due diligence: “If you do not feel more comfortable about the personal guarantee after diligence than you do now, walk away.”
For Chris, the journey from MBA to business owner has been transformative. “Search has changed my life,” he reflects. “I’m running and trying to grow a small business. Some days for the better, some days, you know, it might be nice to have that sort of cushy W2 life again—but search is a really interesting path for the long run, and I’ve never been this energized in my life.”
Whether you pursue a traditional search fund or choose the self-funded route, Chris’s experience shows that with proper preparation, direct outreach, and industry focus, acquisition entrepreneurship can offer both meaningful ownership and significant growth potential.
Want to connect with Chris? Find him on Twitter at @ctw_SMB or email him at chris@systemsix.com
by Chris Williams | May 9, 2025 | Blog
A desk lamp casts a lonely light on its scattered receipts and expense reports. It is 9 PM, and Marcus, the owner of a thriving environmental consulting firm, is fighting reconciliations instead of preparing for tomorrow’s client presentation. Even though his client list has grown and his reputation is stellar, episodes of not having enough money have become all too familiar.
Sound familiar?
For a consulting firm, there is a gulf between business success and finances clarity. You know how to crack tough client challenges, but your cash flow is perpetually frustratingly opaque.
Why is that?
Understanding of Cash Flow & Its Importance for Consulting Firms
Challenges for cash flow: Similar to consulting businesses, Big corporate customers frequently want longer payment terms — Net-30, Net-60, or even Net-90. In the meantime, your staff expects to be paid every two weeks, and contractors expect on-time payments so you can maintain good relationships.
This misalignment puts pressure on your working capital.
But a deeper, darker problem lies beneath it: the fixed-fee project trap. “It felt like we were making money on every project until we looked at the numbers,” explains Tom, a strategy consultant who partners with a financial services company. We didn’t really maintain any time against our projects reliably, so we couldn’t see what our engagements were making.”
If you cannot visualize your financial data globally, you are flying blind. In today’s crowded space, that’s a luxury no consulting firm can afford.
These are all signs of cash flow issues, but their root cause is often poor visibility.
Impact of poor cash flow management costs go well beyond late payment fees or emergency loans. What’s actually at stake is this:
Professional Reputation: You cannot hide from reputational damage among your professional peers after you are unable to pay contractors on time. “We lost a couple of good contractors before we started managing our cash flow because we fell behind on paying them,” said one owner of a consulting firm. It takes months to rebuild those relationships.
Growth Opportunities: You cannot take on new ventures without a steady cash flow. Imagine passing on a dream project because you can’t staff up fast enough. “One big contract we had to pass on last year — we didn’t have the cash buffer to bring on the specialists required,” says another consulting company owner.
Team Morale: Seeing cash flow concerns as a constant lasts bleed into your team. When project managers obsess over budgets rather than deliverables, quality suffers.
The Best Tools for Financial Visualization in Consulting Firms
Progressive consulting firms are addressing these issues directly with practical visualization tools. Here are the standouts:
1. Fathom
Fathom turns QuickBooks or Xero data into beautiful visual reports and dashboards. That’s what it’s good at: tracking performance metrics tailored to consulting businesses.
We find Fathom invaluable for consulting firms because it can build custom KPIs for project profitability, consultant utilization, and cash flow forecasting. Plus, its clean, professional-looking reports make it easy to share insights with stakeholders or team members.
” One of our System Six clients says, “Since we started using Fathom, I feel I understand the numbers. “Instead of grappling with someone’s basic bookkeeping, I’m applying financial insights to inform decisions.”
2. Spotlight Reporting
For example, Spotlight Reporting multidimensional analysis is ideally suited for consultancies that manage multiple clients and projects simultaneously. Its forecasting capabilities are particularly strong, enabling firms to model various scenarios and visualize how they can affect cash flow.
I absolutely love that the tool has consulting-specific templates and can add immediate value without spending weeks customizing. Thanks to Spotlight’s visual forecasting functionality, some users say they’ve been able to spot cash crunches months in advance and reevaluate their business development or billing strategies in the meantime.
3. Tableau
Tableau delivers unmatched flexibility and integration capabilities for consulting firms with complex data needs. Its learning curve is steeper than some alternatives, but connecting to just about any data source means you can visualize financials, project management, CRM, and time-tracking data.
This holistic perspective is powerful for spotting correlations and trends that might otherwise be missed. One consulting firm found that its most profitable projects had several unexpected traits — enabling it to fine-tune its strategy for targeting clients.
4. Float
Float, which is exclusively developed for cash flow forecasting and visualization, is an excellent tool where cash flows are tight and changes in cash flows are frequent. Its intuitive interface makes it simple to visualize the effects of late payments, new projects, or hiring decisions on your cash position.
“Float saved us from a potential crisis,” a consulting firm owner writes. “We could see months in advance that a bunch of projects would finish simultaneously, and we would experience a temporary cash crunch, so we had time to finance and arrange it before it became an emergency.”
How to Successfully Implement Visualization Tools
Having the right tools is only half the battle. To maximize their impact:
First, ensure data quality. Financial visualization tools are only as good as the data behind them. Have financial experts clean up and organize your accounting data.
Define key metrics. Common examples in consulting firms are project profitability, consultant utilization rates, cash runway, and average collection period.
Create a rhythm. Set up your review schedule, frequent enough to get you points that matter: weekly for operational dashboards, monthly for strategic numbers.
Democratize access, but selectively. And consider how to improve decision-making across your organization by determining which financial visualizations should be shared with your project managers, partners, or team members.
As one System Six client says, “They’ve fully automated our financial workflow. I can generate pro forma invoices in one click, and the system automatically checks if they have been paid. “This is now showing exactly where we are at any time.”
The Ability to Write a Clear Financial Theme
Now, picture arriving at your office tomorrow, firmly aware of your cash flow, which projects are profitable, and when you’ll receive every payment. This is not a fantasy—it is the reality for consulting firms that have taken their cash flow issues seriously.
“Since visualizing our cash flow better, I’ve brought in three new big clients,” one consulting firm owner reported. Most deals got done because I focused on relationships — not reconciliations.”
Your company’s financial well-being shouldn’t provide a never-ending source of anxiety, however. The right visualization tools and support can help you turn cash flow management from a constant source of worry into a key competitive advantage.
After all, you initially became a consultant to solve complex client problems—not to dread Sunday night as an amateur accountant battling the spreadsheet.
Are you using any financial visualization tools? Are they helping you arrive at what you need to confidently decide the fate of your consulting firm?
About System Six
System Six is a bookkeeping and financial management firm located in Seattle, WA, that simplifies the financial operations of small and mid-sized businesses. We help consulting firm owners grow their businesses with proper monetary management, technology solutions, cash flow, payroll, compliance issues, etc. With a team of 35+, we average 10+ years of accounting experience per client relationship, serving over 175 businesses around the U.S. From accurate bookkeeping to buzz of cash flow forecasting, we provide consulting firm owners with the financial clarity and peace of mind they need to succeed. Learn more at www.systemsix.com.
by Chris Williams | May 7, 2025 | Blog
Fellow entrepreneurs, the world is changing — fast. For most of the owners of consulting firms out there, the answer to when your firm needs to change as well is probably ” long ago.”
The consulting market has shifted underneath you as you’ve been wrangling projects and seeking invoices. The irony is not lost here — counseling clients on strategy when there’s no time to think about it for your business.
But this is also natural. Running a great firm is consuming. Serving clients, managing team, and handling all the admin work leaves very little time to think big picture. The good news is…solutions exist!
Today’s Consulting Landscape
The global management consulting industry will be worth ~$400 billion in 2025. Such growth continues despite the economic uncertainties and reflects how vital consultants are in helping businesses navigate complexity.
There are three layers of the ecosystem:
At the highest level, the “MBB” firms — McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group — sell top-tier strategic advice to Fortune 500 clients.
The mid-tier includes the Big Four (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG), which has moved beyond accounting into technology and operations consulting.
By far the most numerous, though, are the boutique specialists. So, it’s no surprise that 75% of consulting firms have fewer than five employees. These are specialized practices that marry domain expertise with our culture of agility and personal service.
This dynamic presents a straightforward challenge for the owners of small and mid-sized firms: you’re never going to compete with the giants on breadth, but you can do well via deep expertise in specific markets where your experience matters most.
Forces Reshaping Consulting
Here are several trends that are reshaping the practice of consulting:
1. AI Changes Everything
AI is fundamentally changing the consulting business. Top firms have begun harnessing AI’s potential to generate insights, decode complex data, and generate client deliverables—all in ways never dreamed of years ago.
“Consultants do in hours what used to take weeks,” writes one industry expert. This is not simply efficiency—it is even picking up in analysis.
Progressive companies are using machine learning to identify trends in large datasets and quickly experiment with many strategic scenarios. These tools don’t eliminate consultants—they enhance human capabilities, enabling them to tackle harder, high-margin problems.
2. Remote Work Becomes Strategic
In recent times, remote consulting has meteorically risen from a pandemic necessity to a competitive advantage. Modern collaboration tools also allow consultants to work with clients located all over the world without them having to hop on a plane every day, thus democratizing client access to their expertise.
This provides benefits for all involved. Clients get expertise without boundaries, consultants get reduced burnout , and service offerings are expanded. As a small company owner said, “I now review insights on my phone between meetings. We’ve increased 40% because I can work with clients instead of filling out forms or waiting in airports.”
3. Specialists Win
The generalist consultant is a dying breed. Today’s boutique firms that stand out target specific industries or functions where they have developed true mastery. This specialization allows smaller firms to compete effectively by providing more profound expertise in narrow areas.
Specialists can charge higher rates in healthcare compliance, sustainability strategy, or digital marketing because they solve complex problems that generalists cannot efficiently address.
4. ESG Moves Mainstream
ESG—Environmental, Social , and Governance Consulting—has swung from a niche to a necessity. Firms today question how to earn more revenue and how to do it in an environmentally friendly and ethical manner.
There’s a strong demand for firms that assist clients with ESG regulations and sustainability practices and communicate their impacts.
The Road Ahead
Moving forward, several forces will help reflect consulting’s evolution:
1. Technology Integration
Successful consulting firms embed technology into their core offerings—they don’t just recommend solutions; they powerfully implement them. As Digital Transformation remains a top client priority, the line between tech companies and management consultancies continues to blur.
For firm owners, this means developing deeper technical capabilities or partnering with technology specialists. It also entails employing contemporary tools within your operations to achieve maximum effectiveness.
2. The Human Element Is More Important Than Ever
Even though technology has and will continue to change & disrupt facets of consulting, , this is a fundamentally human business. Clients want consultants who have equal doses of technical skill and emotional intelligence—who know not just data but organizations and human effects.
“This is the age where AI has democratized information, so the data itself isn’t valuable, but the inference is,” says one industry leader. “Where information is useless—insight comes in.”
3. Flexible Models Emerge
Tomorrow’s consulting companies will be built on much more flexible business models. They will keep core teams but bring in networks of independent experts as needed for specific assignments.
It opens opportunities for collaboration for small firm owners. Forming a character-forming consortium with complementary boutique firms enables you to take on bigger projects without compromising on the specialist skills and personal attention that set you apart from larger competitors. If a client needs expertise across three niches – and you only know one – relationships with other firms will allow you to still win that engagement.
What This Means For You
So today, if you are at the head of a consulting firm, you should prioritize the following:
Leverage advanced technologies: Consider how AI tools can augment your services to enable more capabilities and differentiate your firm. Emphasize how these technologies further compound your unique value.
Go deep instead of wide: Determine what you do best and market there. Don’t try to be everything to every client.
Lay technology foundations: Develop in-house technology expertise or partnerships to assist clients in managing technological change.
Build adjustable capacity: Before you take on more significant projects, build networks of trusted collaborators to fill in beside your core team as needed, helping you execute larger projects without permanent overhead.
The future will be won by consultants who combine genuine expertise with technological sophistication. Leveraging these tools will yield different insights and allow you to provide more substantial recommendations.
After all, you became a consultant to solve complex problems, and the evolution of the industry is providing you with some exceptionally powerful tools to accomplish that mission.
About System Six
System Six streamlines financial operations for consulting firms using technology and our finance expertise, enabling owners to concentrate on serving clients rather than dealing with back-office work. With a well-seasoned team of 40+ professionals with 10+ years of accounting experience focused on 175+ businesses across the country, we give you time back through handling your bookkeeping, payroll, bill pay, invoicing and other diverse finance needs. Learn more at www.systemsix.com
by Chris Williams | May 3, 2025 | Blog
Actionable financial reports transform raw data into strategic insights that drive consulting firm growth. In this article, you’ll discover how to create and leverage financial reports that reveal profitability patterns, optimize resource allocation, and support confident business decisions. Learn which reports matter most for consulting businesses, how to implement them effectively, and how to overcome common reporting challenges that prevent many firms from achieving clarity.
The Reporting-Growth Connection
Elena checks her phone during a client meeting break, stomach tightening at what she sees: three overdue invoice reminders from contractors, urgent messages about upcoming payroll, and an email from her biggest client requesting a project extension—with payment terms to match. Despite her strategic consulting firm’s growing reputation, these moments of financial anxiety have become routine.
This scenario plays out daily in consulting firms worldwide. The gap between client success and financial clarity often feels insurmountable. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Financial reporting isn’t just about tracking numbers—it’s about surfacing insights that drive strategic decisions. Proper financial reporting becomes particularly crucial for consulting firms, whose primary assets are people and time.
“Before implementing structured financial reporting, we were essentially guessing about which projects and clients were profitable,” admits Chris, founder of a healthcare consulting practice. “We’d celebrate landing big clients without understanding if they contributed to our bottom line.”
Essential Reports for Consulting Firm Growth
Transformative financial reporting starts with focusing on the metrics that matter most. For consulting businesses, these include:
1. Project Profitability Reports
These reports break down each engagement’s true profitability by comparing actual hours and expenses against estimates and fees. They reveal which projects deliver the best margins and consistently drain resources.
The key is tracking not just direct costs but also overhead allocation. A project might seem profitable until you factor in the partner oversight time, business development costs, and administrative support.
“We discovered our mid-sized projects were more profitable than our largest engagements,” a System Six client notes. “The large projects carried hidden costs in coordination time and scope management that weren’t properly billed.”
2. Utilization and Capacity Reports
These reports track billable versus non-billable time, showing resource utilization across your team. They reveal:
- Which consultants consistently exceed utilization targets
- Where capacity constraints might prevent growth
- Seasonal patterns that affect your staffing needs
Effective utilization reports should compare targets to actuals and highlight trends over time. This allows you to identify underutilization early and make proactive adjustments before profitability suffers.
3. Cash Flow Forecasting Reports
Perhaps the most critical reports for consulting firms, cash flow forecasts protect you from the timing mismatches between outgoing payments and incoming client fees.
These reports should show:
- Projected cash position for the next 6-12 months
- Early warnings of potential shortfalls
- The impact of different payment scenarios
One advisory firm owner shares: “Our cash flow forecasts helped us see eight weeks in advance that we’d face a crunch when several large projects wrapped simultaneously. We accelerated invoicing and adjusted payment terms with vendors to navigate through without stress.”
4. Client Profitability Analysis
These reports examine profitability at the client level rather than by project. They help identify which client relationships deserve additional investment and which may need restructuring.
Look for:
- Profitability trends over the relationship’s lifetime
- Average collection periods by client
- Scope creep patterns
- The ratio of business development time to revenue
Turning Reports into Growth Actions
Reports alone don’t drive growth—actions do. Here’s how to transform insights into growth strategies:
Identifying Your Most Profitable Service Lines
Use project profitability data to identify which service offerings deliver the best margins. Then, make strategic decisions:
- Double down on marketing high-margin services
- Restructure or sunset underperforming offerings
- Adjust pricing on services with inconsistent profitability
“We realized our technology implementation services were far more profitable than our strategic assessments,” notes Jamie, an IT consultant. “We reorganized our marketing to emphasize implementation, growing that service line by 40% within six months.”
Optimizing Resource Allocation
Utilization reports reveal where your team’s time creates the most value. Use these insights to:
- Shift top performers to high-value client work
- Identify training needs for underperforming team members
- Make objective promotion decisions based on performance data
Making Confident Hiring Decisions
Combined capacity and forecast reports provide clarity on hiring timing. They show:
- When to bring on new consultants ahead of demand
- Which specialties need additional resources
- Whether to hire full-time employees or use contractors
One System Six client credits these reports with transforming their hiring approach: “Instead of reactive hiring when we’re already drowning in work, we now can see three months ahead when we’ll need additional capacity in specific practice areas.”
Implementation Guide
Creating effective reports requires thoughtful implementation. Follow these steps:
1. Set Up Your Reporting Framework
Start by defining your essential metrics. For most consulting firms, these include:
- Utilization rate (billable hours ÷ available hours)
- Realization rate (billed revenue ÷ potential revenue at standard rates)
- Project margin (revenue – direct costs – allocated overhead)
- Average collection period (days from invoice to payment)
2. Automate Data Collection
Manual reporting creates inconsistency and consumes valuable time. Implement systems that automatically gather data from your:
- Time tracking software
- Project management tools
- Accounting system
- CRM platform
“Our financial reporting used to take 3-4 days each month,” shares a consulting firm owner who partnered with System Six. “Now it’s largely automated, providing real-time insights through dashboards we can check anytime.”
3. Create a Review Cadence
Different reports require different review frequencies:
- Daily: Cash positions and urgent receivables
- Weekly: Utilization and project status
- Monthly: Comprehensive profitability and pipeline analysis
- Quarterly: Strategic reviews and service line performance
4. Share Insights Strategically
Financial clarity benefits your entire organization when shared appropriately:
- Give project managers visibility into their project profitability
- Share utilization reports with team leads
- Review client profitability with account managers
- Keep cash flow projections with key decision-makers
Overcoming Common Reporting Challenges
Even with the best intentions, consulting firms face several challenges in implementing effective financial reporting:
Data Quality Issues
The most sophisticated reports fail without clean, consistent data. Common problems include:
- Inconsistent time tracking
- Delayed expense submission
- Missing project data
- Inaccurate client information
Solution: Implement transparent processes and accountability for data entry. Consider tools that make compliance easier, like mobile apps for time tracking and expense submission.
Report Interpretation
Having data isn’t the same as understanding it. Many consulting leaders struggle to extract actionable insights from financial reports.
Solution: Start with simple reports focused on key metrics. Gradually add complexity as your team becomes comfortable. Consider working with financial advisors specializing in consulting businesses to help interpret trends and anomalies.
Implementation Bandwidth
The daily demands of serving clients often push reporting improvements to the backburner.
Solution: Treat your reporting system as a critical client project with dedicated resources and timelines. Consider outsourcing implementation to specialists who can set up systems without distracting your core team.
Your Path to Financial Clarity and Growth
Creating financial reports that drive growth isn’t about producing more numbers—it’s about generating better insights. These reports transform anxiety-inducing unknowns into confident, strategic decisions when done right.
As one consulting firm owner says, “Good financial reporting didn’t just improve our profitability—it reduced our stress. Instead of lying awake wondering if we’re making the right decisions, we now know where we stand and are headed.”
What financial reports are you using to guide your consulting firm’s growth? Are they providing the clarity you need to make confident hiring, expansion, and service development decisions?
About System Six
System Six streamlines financial operations for consulting firms using technology and
our finance expertise, enabling owners to concentrate on serving clients rather than
dealing with back-office work. With a well-seasoned team of 40+ professionals with 10+
years of accounting experience focused on 175+ businesses across the country, we give
you time back through handling your bookkeeping, payroll, bill pay, invoicing and other
diverse finance needs. Learn more at www.systemsix.com
by Chris Williams | Apr 28, 2025 | Blog
There was palpable tension in the office. Sarah had spent the morning preparing for a big presentation to a major client, only to now face a line of disgruntled employees waiting outside her office door. Three more team members noticed they were overpaid — missing overtime, different tax withholdings, and a nonexistent bonus, which had been promised weeks before. Sarah, owner of a burgeoning consulting agency, felt her stomach drop. The team had to concentrate on wrapping up deliverables for tomorrow’s deadline, not struggle with payroll problems.
Sound familiar? For small consulting firm owners, payroll snafus aren’t merely administrative headaches — they take your talent away from billable time, erode trust, and potentially tarnish your hard-won professional reputation. The good news? And all of them are entirely avoidable.
Here are the five most common payroll mistakes small consulting firms make and how to avoid them.
1. Read Manual Processing and Calculation Errors
That spreadsheet you copied/pasted from when you hired your first employee was great, but eventually, it’s fine—but manual calculations are a ticking time bomb. Just one misplaced decimal or formula error can cascade into serious trouble.
“Payroll was something we thought we could save money on by doing it in-house,” admits Tom, a strategy consultant who now uses automated payroll processing. Then, we found out we had been miscalculating overtime for months. The cost to fix those errors was ten times what we would have paid for an appropriate system.”
Solution: Adopt a cloud-based payroll solution that integrates seamlessly with your accounting and time clock software. Modern solutions automatically calculate taxes, deductions, and benefits and provide digital pay stubs accessible 24/7 to employees.
“System Six truly upgraded our entire accounting system to precise and reliable systems,” says one consulting firm owner. “Payroll now runs automatically, and I can spend my time on client considerations instead of reconciliations.”
2. Misclassifying Workers
Consulting firms usually employ a mix of full-time employees and independent contractors in those roles. However, misclassifying workers can result in severe tax penalties and legal problems.
The IRS and Department of Labor are increasingly critical of worker classification. If you classify someone as an independent contractor but control how and when the work is done—providing equipment, dictating the hours worked, directing the day-to-day work—you
may be subject to penalty amounts that are not insignificant.
Solution: Create criteria for classification by IRS guidelines. Consider these key questions:
- Are you able to regulate the way the worker does their work?
- Do you supply the tools and equipment?
- Is it an ongoing relationship instead of a project-based one?
- Is this work central to your core business?
- If you answered “yes” to these questions, you likely have an employee, not a contractor. If in doubt, seek out a payroll expert with an in-depth knowledge of the consulting industry’s distinct staffing models.
3. Poor Documentation & Record-Keeping
How quickly can you find the relevant information when an employee questions their paycheck? If the answer involves digging through email chains or searching multiple systems, you have a recipe for trouble.
“Before I had proper record-keeping in place, I would spend several hours each month just hunting through records to answer basic payroll questions,” says a management consultant. “That was time that I could have been with clients.”
Solution: Keep complete electronic records of all payroll transactions, time cards, tax filings, and employee communications. Good documentation not only assists with employee questions but is critical in the event of tax audits or inquiries from the Department of Labor.
Think of making a central digital home with these:
- Time and attendance records
- Salary adjustment history
- Authorize tax withholdings
- Bonus calculation and approval
- Leave balances and history
“With organized payroll documentation, we can answer employees’ questions in minutes instead of days,” says one SystemSix client. My team knows their compensation is in professional hands, and they can return to doing what they do best.”
4. Failing to Meet Tax Deadlines and Filing Requirements
Small consulting firm owners whom you’ve put in 60–70 hours a week are typically fully occupied managing a palace of moving parts centered around client projects, business development, and operations and are often overwhelmed by the tangled mess that is federal, state, and local tax deadlines.
Missing a payroll tax deadline comes with penalties beyond late fees — it can lead to audits and jeopardize your ability to compete for contracts that require proof of taxes owed. Such problems can be especially damaging for consulting firms, where reputation is everything.
Solution: Set up a payroll tax calendar that reminds you well before any upcoming submission deadlines. Use a payroll service that automatically files your tax forms and stands behind their work.
“I’m no longer worried about missing tax dates,” says one SystemSix client. “The system tracks everything, which gives me peace of mind, particularly during our busiest season when our clients demand the most.
5. No Visible Policies or Communication
Most payroll disputes are not due to calculation mistakes but misunderstandings about policies. When are expense reimbursements processed? How are bonuses calculated? What if an individual works across multiple client projects with different billing rates?
And employees are left to their own devices to make assumptions that frequently fall short of reality, leaving them disappointed and agitated.
Solution: Create a solid payroll policy document outlining:
- Payment schedule and payment methods
- Calculating Overtime for Eligible Employees
- Submission and approval timelines for expenses
- Bonus structure & calculation methods
How to handle payroll questions
Share this document with new hires and keep it visible to all team members. Consider holding short quarterly sessions to answer common questions and reinforce policies.
Stopping the cycle of payroll errors
Payroll errors can seriously damage your bottom line, but they also affect your business’s ability to pay and retain top talent in an increasingly competitive consulting sector. When employees wonder whether they’re being compensated correctly at work, they spend less time delivering exceptional client work and more time tracking their pay.
One consulting firm owner shared: ”In automating our payroll systems, employee satisfaction scores rose by 22%. Most importantly, we allow our team to use their brainpower to solve client problems and not stress about administrative mistakes.”
The most successful consulting firms know that payroll is more than a back-office function℠ ; it’s critical to both your employee experience and your operation. By overcoming these five common mistakes, you will liberate yourself to spend your time doing what you do best —providing incredible value to your clients.
Let’s solve your consulting firm payroll nightmares! Start by reviewing your existing process against these five frequent errors. Your team — and your stress levels — will thank you.
About System Six
Founded in 2009, System Six is a Seattle-based bookkeeping and accounting services provider. We are a cloud accounting firm serving 175+ clients coast to coast in the U.S., with a niche focus on the small to mid-sized business and nonprofit sectors. We are a team of 35+ expert specialists providing services in bookkeeping, payroll processing, accounts payable, tax compliance support, technology implementation, and more. We’re on a fixed-fee basis, charging against weekly recurring work ranging from around $400 to $800, depending on the work complexity. Our clients describe us as having “revolutionized their accounting systems to become correct and reliable means,” enabling them to spend time growing their business rather than worrying about cash flow, payroll, or compliance nightmares. For further details, click on www. systemsix.
by Chris Williams | Apr 25, 2025 | Blog
“I need to get back to you on that.” Putting her largest client on hold, Sarah’s voice felt tighter. They requested last quarter’s billing breakdown, and she had no clue where to find it. As she rifled through desk drawers and clicked through endless spreadsheets, her professional image was deteriorating by the second.
Twenty minutes later, she had the information, but the damage was done. Her client’s slight tone change told the story: this was not the clinical, polished expertise they had anticipated.
This vulnerable moment is not about disorder. It’s the natural consequence of operating a rapidly scaling consulting company on manual financial systems. When you’re great at solving client problems but still calculating your finances using methods more appropriate for a lemonade stand, something’s gotta give.
Switching to automated financial systems is not solely about efficiency—it’s about reconfiguring how you function and how you’re perceived as a professional. Let’s examine how to make this leap without killing the client work that keeps paying your bills.
The Hidden Cost of Financial Management in a Hotel
When consulting firm owners add upthe cost of manual financial processes, they tend to consider only the obvious: a few hours of bookkeeping a week. But the actual price is far more profound.
Consider time first. Financial administration takes up to 15-20 hours a month for most consulting firm owners – reconciling accounts, issuing invoices, classifying expenses, and gathering tax paperwork. Assuming standard consulting rates, thatmight represent between $3,000-5,000 in future revenue that could have been generated per month.
Then there’s accuracy. One environmental consulting firm found that it had under-billed clients by nearly $32,000 in one year after going through its manual tracking, which led to billing errors. “We were leaving money on the table on every single project,” the owner said. And we didn’t find out until we automated our systems.”
However, the most significant cost may be opportunity. As you manually match up transactions or search through piles of paperwork for missing receipts, your competitors study their highest-value customer segments, identify growth opportunities, and make informed decisions about hiring and expansion based on data.
“I was good at helping clients optimize how they operated,” admits Tom, a management consultant. “But I was treating my firm like it was 1995. I thought the irony was not lost on me — I didn’t have time to fix it.”
Automation, A Gift that Keeps on Giving
When consulting firms automate their financial systems, the benefits go way beyond saving time:
Financial visibility in real-time. You’re reading the right cash position, each outstanding invoice, the exact profitability of each project, and any tax obligations as soon as you open the laptop before a client meeting. This clarity changes the way you approach decision-making about taking on new projects, hiring staff, or investing in growth.
“Now I understand our numbers,” a System Six client says. “Now that I’m not wrestling with basic bookkeeping, I’m using financial insight to drive my decisions.”
Lower error rates and compliance risks. Automated systems capture duplicate entries, flag unusual transactions, and treat income and expenses consistently. You’ll significantly lower your risk of tax penalties and audit problems.
Corporate customer communications. If a client inquires about their billing history or project costs, you can answer instantly and confidently. By acting quickly, you build a professional image and strengthen rapport with your client.
Improved cash flow. Invoices are automatically sent out on time, complete with follow-ups that don’t require your intervention. One consulting company was able to reduce its average payment time from 47 days to 23 days simply by automating its accounts receivable process.
Insights into project profit If you have the correct type of financial automation, you can clearly identify which projects and clients drive your actual profit—not just revenue. This realization can, of course, also create unexpected strategy newness.
“Our biggest client turned out to be our least profitable,” explains Kelly, a marketing consultant. “Without automation, we would’ve never seen the full scope of project costs.”
Transition Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide
Moving to automated financial systems requires some planning but can be done without being overwhelming. Follow these steps to be successful with this:
1. Identify your pain points. Identify what’s not working before seeking solutions. 9 9. Are you still having the most trouble tracking expenses? Invoicing delays? Tax compliance? Analysis of project profitability? Knowing your particularities gives you peace of mind about implementing the right solutions.
2. Set clear goals with metrics. Replace an unclear goal of wanting to “improve finances” with specific goals: “Reduce bookkeeping time to two hours from 20 hours a month” or “Cut average time to collect payment from 45 to 15 days.”
3. Select the appropriate technology stack. QuickBooks Online is a framework for automating the system for most consulting firms. More expense management, time tracking, and reporting tools can plug into this core. System Six usually prescribes platforms like Gusto for payroll or Ramp for expense management based on your firm’s specific needs.
4. Plan for data migration. Decide what historical data to carry over to the new system. Scrolling back to a specific date and starting fresh may be easier than attempting to recreate history exactly. Better to do a clean cutover than to attempt to reconcile years’ worth of manual records.
5. Develop a realistic timeline. The average overall transition will take 4-6 weeks, though most of the critical work will occur in the first two weeks. Schedule this change for a relatively calm period for your business.
6. Determine who will lead the transition. This project needs a project owner. If you do not have internal capacity, bring in someone on the outside who has done these many times. As one System Six client puts it, “Having experts manage our transition spared us weeks of trial and error.”
Addressing Common Challenges
Not even the best-laid plans go smoothly. Here’s how to get past the most common ones:
Learning curve concerns. Owners of many consulting firms fear they won’t be able to master new systems. Opt for concrete platforms and suitable training to rework challenges, The answer. Once the initial learning curve is crossed, most find modern financial systems easier to use than the manual processes that preceded them.
Data quality issues. Years of manual bookkeeping often lead to inconsistent data. Instead of perfecting records, concentrate on clean processes going forward. Make a specific transition date and make sure all new transactions go through the better system.
Team resistance. * Staff used to present systems could find it difficult to adapt. Engage them early in planning, stress how automation will ease their jobs, and give them enough training. As one office manager said to me, “At first I wasn’t convinced, but now, I would never want to go back to the old way.”
Cost concerns. When considering costs, weigh them against the cost of your time doing financial activities and the opportunity cost of lost billable hours. Most consulting firms are seeing a 3-6 month return on investment in the form of time savings, improved collections, and better decisions.
How to Get the Most Out of Your New System
Once you have your automated system in place, these strategies can help you get the most out of it:
Set periodic financial reviews. Schedule a monthly date with yourself to take note of important numbers or metrics and insights gleaned from your system. This is the discipline, and it ensures that you use the data to make better decisions.
Explore advanced reporting. Most consulting firms probably use only 20% of the financial system. Once you have the basics down, explore more advanced features such as custom reporting, forecasting, and scenario planning.
Refine your processes. To be clear, automation does not mean set and forget. As you gain insight into what is best for your business, seek ways to optimize workflows further.
“We saw the real value three months after the implementation,” recalls one System Six client. That’s when we began using our financial data strategically to decide what service lines to grow and what clients to target.
From Administrative Chore to Strategic Resource
When automated correctly, financial management transforms from a burden to an asset. Rather than dreading administrative tasks, you’ll reference real-time dashboards before making key business decisions.
Picture responding confidently to client inquiries about previous work and never needing to put anybody on hold. Now imagine knowing the exact types of projects that yield the most profit and using that knowledge to inform your firm’s future. Imagine being financially literate enough to hire based on insights and not intuition.
This isn’t just about freeing up time — and rest assured, those nights and weekends will come back to you — but about the degree of quality. It’s about growing your consulting firm from a practice into a real business.” It’s about bringing internal operations to an equal level of sophistication as delivering your services to clients.
The most successful owners of consulting firms realize that financial systems aren’t just about checking a box and keeping records. They’re the bedrock for growth, strategic decision-making, and peace of mind.
Are your financial systems in alignment with your professional expertise? The transition may be less jarring than you’d expect.
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About System Six
Founded in 2009, System Six is a Seattle bookkeeping and accounting services provider. As a provider of cloud-based accounting services for small- to mid-sized consulting firms, we have over 175 clients nationwide in the U.S. We employ a team of more than 35 seasoned individuals who provide bookkeeping, payroll processing, accounts payable, tax compliance support, and technology implementation services. We work off a fixed-fee model and bill weekly for recurring work depending on your firm needs and complexity. Our consulting clients tell us we’ve “transformed their accounting systems into reliable and credible practices,” enabling them to grow their businesses without concern for cash flow, payroll, or compliance problems. For details, visit www. systemsix. com.
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