Accounting Firm Close Tracker Template
One row per client for the fortnight when every close lands at once, plus the reviewer calendar that decides which dates are still reachable.
Free download · No account needed
Capacity Note
[Month 20__] Window — for the partner group
Written on business day __. One page. What the book cannot do this window, why, and what changes it.
The position
__ of __ clients cannot make the date in their own engagement letter, worked in the order the firm currently works them.
| Client | % complete | Prep-by | Projected | Slack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Client] | __% | BD__ | BD__ | −__ |
| [Client] | __% | BD__ | BD__ | −__ |
| [Client] | __% | BD__ | BD__ | −__ |
None of these is behind on its own checklist.
Why
Not a shortage of hours. The book wants __ review hours and the window holds __. The reviewing manager carries __ a day except BD__ to BD__, where [what owns those days] leaves __.
What fixes it, this window
The one lever that costs nothing, with the order before and after, and what it costs whoever loses slack.
The judgement this note is asking for
One decision. Slack orders the work; it does not price the consequence.
Every close tracker in this category reports percent complete against a task list, one client at a time. That is a fact about work already done. Whether a date is still reachable is a fact about work remaining set against a calendar the client does not have to itself, and the shared thing is whoever reviews. So a client can be green all fortnight and still miss, because the last of its work is queued behind somebody else's. Closing one client's books is a separate job from getting fourteen out the door.
Marlstead Advisory has eight monthly clients, two preparers and one reviewing manager. Working backward from each letter date through that manager's real hours, three of the eight cannot make the date they signed. Tarrantree Logistics is the most complete client in the book at 91 percent and misses by a business day, because its remaining 1.5 hours sit behind a client with 19.5 in the same queue. Ilfracombe Marine Services is the least complete at 37 percent and makes its date, because its letter allows fourteen business days and Bexmoor's allows six.
So the constraint is a day rather than a client. That manager carries five review hours daily except the five when the extended partnership and S corporation returns fall due, where one is left. Twenty review hours go missing from the middle of the window. The book wants 31 and the window holds 55, so this is placement rather than capacity, and resequencing each preparer takes three misses to none. Getting the package itself written is the next problem.
What's in the pack
Close Status by Client sheet
The morning sheet: prep-by date, projected finish and signed slack per client, sorted by the number that decides the day.
Reviewer Day-Load sheet
The reviewing manager's real hours per business day, what owns each day that is not close review, and who is reserved against it.
Blocker Log sheet
One row per stuck item with an owner, because firm-owned responds to hours and client-owned responds to a decision with a date.
Client Register sheet
Delivery day copied out of each signed letter, the statutory date riding on the close, and which of the two actually binds.
Deadline Tracker sheet
Every date owed in the window priced: a dollar figure where the filing is statutory, a letter breach where it is not.
Escalation Procedure
The trigger, the three routes by owner, and the four lines an escalation carries. Written because procedures in effect have to be followed.
Capacity Note
One page for the partner group: the position, why, the lever that costs nothing, and the single judgement being asked for.
How Slack Is Computed
The arithmetic in full, from the firm's own business-day calendar to the backward pass that reserves reviewer hours.
At-Risk Client Alert
A weekday automation that reports only the clients whose slack went negative overnight, and stays silent when nothing moved.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Two ways in. Have the agent build the register and the projection from your own files, or take the blank Word documents and CSV sheets straight away without an account.
- 2
Send the letters and the reviewer's calendar
The letters fix each client's delivery day. The calendar is the constraint, and a projection built without it is a projection about a firm with one client.
- 3
Work backward, then forward
Walk back from each binding date through the manager's real hours to get a prep-by date, then project prep finish through the queue your preparers actually use.
- 4
Resequence, then escalate what is left
Try each preparer's queue in prep-by order and see what the miss count does. Escalate whatever the reorder cannot reach, on slack rather than on age.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes, and the download is the whole pack rather than a sample: three documents, five sheets, no account and no card. Edit with AI is the optional path for firms that want the projection built from their own letters. Other packs sit in the library.
What format are the downloaded files?
One zip holding .docx for the three documents and .csv for the five sheets. Word, Pages and Google Docs open the first set; Excel, Numbers and Sheets open the second, with no conversion step or special software required.
How is this different from a close checklist?
A checklist says what to do for one client. This says whether that client's date is still reachable given everything else the firm owes in the same fortnight, which is a question about a shared reviewer rather than about the client.
We already have a multi-client dashboard. What does this add?
A dashboard shows percent complete and overdue tasks across the book. Neither survives contact with a shared reviewer. In the worked example the most complete client misses and the least complete makes it, and one client moves six places between the two rankings.
Why not just escalate the oldest blocker?
Because age and reachability are close to uncorrelated. Here the oldest blocker sits on a client with room and the newest sits on one already two days short. A flat three-day rule and the slack rule agree on one row out of five.
How do you decide between two clients that are both short?
By what each miss costs, which for a partnership is arithmetic: 255.00 per partner per month or part of a month, capped at twelve. Nine partners prices at 2,295.00 a month. A late package prices at a phone call.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
Creates a free account, installs this pack privately, and opens it ready to read engagement letters and a reviewer calendar. Scoping the engagement first is a different exercise, and it sets the dates this tracker then measures.
Find out which dates are still reachable
Take the blank documents and sheets now, or open this pack in River and have the agent build the register and the projection from your own letters and calendar.
Edit with AI