Book of Business Analysis
You have 20 advisory conversations sitting in your client book right now. You just can't see them yet.
Most accountancy practices review clients one at a time. The book of business diagnostic looks at the whole portfolio — and public company filing data tells a very different story than the fee schedule.
In most accountancy practices, client review is sequential and reactive: annual accounts, tax return, done. Nobody looks at the whole book as a portfolio. The result is that director succession conversations never happen until the director calls with the news, long-established clients who have been with the firm for fifteen years have never been offered a service beyond compliance, and cross-sell opportunities are invisible because nobody has connected the dots across the client base.
The national company registry contains structured public filing data on every registered Irish limited company — director names and ages, company formation dates, filing status, share structures, and associated directorships. That data, layered across your client list, produces a portfolio view your practice management system cannot generate. Because your system only contains what you have already sold.
What the diagnostic surfaces
- Director age analysis — identify succession and exit advisory conversations before they happen to you
- Company longevity flags — long-established clients who have never been offered advisory
- Dormancy and strike-off risk — proactive intervention before a client is embarrassed
- Cross-sell detection — payroll-scale headcount with no payroll service on record
- Multi-directorship mapping — high-value relationships worth protecting across your book
- Output: company cards, opportunity matrix, and engagement recommendations
Proven in practice
We have run this diagnostic with Irish accountancy practices and the findings consistently match what partners already suspected — but could not previously quantify or act on. The value is not uncovering surprises. It is giving the practice a structured, data-backed basis for conversations they wanted to have but could not prioritise without the evidence.
Who this is for
Managing Partners, Senior Partners and Practice Managers in accountancy firms with 5 to 50 staff — particularly firms that have grown by adding clients without reviewing the portfolio strategically. Also relevant for firms being evaluated for acquisition, where a clean view of client quality and advisory potential supports valuation.
The intelligence gap
Most practices we talk to have never looked at their client book as a portfolio. The fee schedule shows what you charge. Public filing data shows what is actually happening in each business. Those two pictures, aligned, reveal the advisory opportunity your practice is sitting on.
Common questions
What is a book of business diagnostic for an accountancy practice?
A book of business diagnostic analyses your entire client portfolio as a single dataset rather than reviewing each client in isolation. Using public company filing data layered across your client list, the diagnostic surfaces patterns invisible in the fee schedule: director age and succession risk, company longevity and underservicing, dormancy and strike-off risk, sector clustering, cross-sell gaps, and high-value multi-directorship relationships. The output is an opportunity matrix showing what the portfolio contains and where the advisory conversations should be starting.
What data does the book of business diagnostic use?
The primary data source is public company registry filings, which are available for every registered Irish limited company. This gives us director ages, company age, filing status, share structures, and associated directorships. Layered against your client list and fee schedule, this creates a picture of your client base that your practice management system cannot produce — because it only contains what you have already sold, not what the client actually needs.
What opportunity types does the diagnostic identify?
The diagnostic flags five categories of opportunity: director succession and exit advisory (older directors approaching typical exit age), long-established underserviced clients (companies with strong filing history who have never been offered advisory), dormancy and strike-off risk (clients who may need proactive intervention), cross-sell flags such as companies with payroll-scale headcount but no payroll service on record, and high-value multi-directorship relationships worth protecting and developing.
How long does the book of business diagnostic take?
The diagnostic can typically be completed within one to two weeks for a practice with up to 200 limited company clients, depending on data quality and the size of the client base. The output is a structured report with a company-level opportunity matrix, engagement recommendations, and a conversation guide for the partner team.
How does the book of business diagnostic connect to communications automation?
The diagnostic is often the entry point for the communications automation conversation. It gives the practice a concrete, data-backed view of client value and opportunity — which makes the case for investing in systems that preserve and develop those relationships. The diagnostic lands with intelligence; automation follows with infrastructure.
Request a Book of Business Diagnostic
We pull the public filing data, layer it across your client list, and show you what's there. Fixed-fee. No obligation to proceed further.
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