Related Posts
Mentor
More Posts
Community Builder
Additional Posts in Accounting
Human Resources or accounting as a career ??
Did EY get rid of bravo awards?
Had 2 hours of billable work today 💀
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Chief
Auditors also tend to have a very loose definition of what is chargeable since most audits are fixed fee.
All those times you charged 8 hours a day during a slow season when nothing was going on but you had a client and so you slow walked something? Yeah, that wouldn’t be chargeable in tax and it’d be questioned.
Basically the audit number is higher because the definition of what partners and managers consider chargeable is significantly lower.
Exactly what KPMG2 said. Also even at the lower levels tax has more PD type work and admin that’s not chargeable to our clients.
Advisory’s goals are literally way higher than that and everyone is working at 100% or more right now and have been for a while so maybe do your research first. Also, directors and above maybe need to focus on selling but it’s mostly P/MDs that sell so no one is being weighed down by selling activity.
Tax person here. Not sure what level you are but as an associate, my utilization goal is 85%
Im a 6th year tax senior manager. My utilization goal was 85% and I hit 90% (I’m done for the year - out on paternity leave). That’s by far the highest I’ve ever hit (I’m in high demand and trying to make partner next year). I also have a lot of nonchargeable work, though I don’t really have busy or slow times - I’m usually at a fairly consistent busy but not too busy.
I do wonder if the percentages are comparable across firms. Nowadays EY uses “effective utilization” that is based only on working days (excludes holidays, vacation and sick leave).
I work over 100+ hours/week during tax busy seasons. I’m an associate, everyone above me works even more.
Sorry to disrupt your pity party, but I highly doubt you’re working 50% more hours than any tax or consulting group.
Gt4 you are right, but most tax compliance jobs don’t have budget for a associate to hit the code 8 hours/day for an entire year. The fixed fee is based (roughly) on the hours it takes to get the job done, so if an associate is charging more than that, they’ll be questioned.
Who in tax has utilization in low 60s?
I’m in tax consulting and my utilization goal is 90%. I don’t know any group in public whose goal is in the 60s.
Minimum for my tax group is 80%. Also goals and actual numbers aren’t the same as I’m at 120%.
Minimum for tax staff is 95% also auditors make more than we do.. so not sure what you are talking about
Starting salary of tax is higher nowadays.
FYI- advisory utilization targets are not even close to what you’re talking about.
Utilization and billable is not the same as not working. Tax and audit by their nature have a lot of recurring work, whereas advisory a lot of work is put into getting the work to begin with. Just one example, but viewing utilization as a measure of amount of work is not accurate.
In risk advisory (IT/ internal audit). Staff goal was like 98%, I think average was 100-105% though.
Lol 60s for tax? I wish
Im in tax and envy auditors because you don’t have to work across 30+ jobs… you have less clients to keep happy and juggle, and FAR less admin and BD to do.
The grass is always greener...
My utilization has always been in the 90s (3yrs +).
Not sure why my title is so weird here but many of us are above 100%... our goal is 85 I think
Tax is hiring!!!
I am including all levels so I think the tax and advisory goals are weighted down by the managers/partners who need to sell a lot more work than audit because their clients are not annuities. But my point still stands because GTM activities are much better than actual work
I'm in advisory and my util goal is 90% and I'm currently over 110%.
I’m in tax and my utilization is 88%... I’m a 2nd year too
The only targets that low are on the consulting side of tax and you’re talking basically SM/director level where a lot of work is selling new projects.
I do hundreds of hours of BD a year. And even though my target is 50% on the chargeable side… no one is that low, it’s unofficially expected to be 60-65% and given deal flow most SMs are running in the 74-80 range