FirmMetrics™ vs. WorkSight Metrics™: Which One Does Your Firm Need?
Both are accounting BI dashboards from AccountingTek BI, and both are built on Microsoft Power BI — but they read from different CCH systems and answer different questions. Here’s the side-by-side breakdown, and when a firm needs both.
The Short Answer
FirmMetrics™ connects to CCH Practice or Practice CS and answers financial questions: realization rate, WIP aging, AR aging, and billing performance. WorkSight Metrics™ connects to CCH Workflow and answers operational questions: where jobs are stuck, how long they take, and who’s overloaded. Many firms running both CCH Practice and CCH Workflow use both products, because a healthy realization number and a healthy workflow can mask problems in the other — billing discipline doesn’t tell you a manager is buried, and a clean workflow doesn’t tell you write-downs are compounding.
| FirmMetrics™ | WorkSight Metrics™ | |
|---|---|---|
| Source system | CCH Practice or Practice CS | CCH Workflow |
| What it answers | Realization rate, WIP aging, AR aging (DSO), and billing performance | Workflow status, cycle time, bottleneck stages, and staff capacity |
| Who uses it | Managing partners, firm administrators & COOs, CFOs & finance leaders | Managing partners, directors & managers, firm administrators |
| How data reaches us | Built using Power BI’s own connectivity directly against your CCH Practice or Practice CS data — no bulk copy into an AccountingTek BI database | Your firm submits CCH Workflow exports through the authenticated customer portal; held in a US-hosted Azure SQL database while your account is active |
| Best for diagnosing | Write-downs, collections lag, and profitability erosion before they compound | Where jobs are stuck, whose queue is backed up, and who’s over capacity |
For the full data-handling picture behind this table, see Security & Data Handling.
When You Need Both
Firms running both CCH Practice (or Practice CS) for billing and CCH Workflow for production are a large share of AccountingTek BI’s customer base — and for those firms, the two products are complementary, not a choice. FirmMetrics™ and WorkSight Metrics™ are purpose-built around a different CCH product each, so pairing them puts financial KPIs and workflow execution in the same weekly review instead of two disconnected reports. A firm can have strong realization and still lose a manager to burnout that never shows up in a billing number; a firm can have a smooth workflow and still be quietly writing down margin that never shows up in a cycle-time report. Together, they cover both sides.
Only Run One CCH Product?
If your firm runs CCH Practice or Practice CS but not CCH Workflow, FirmMetrics™ alone covers your KPI reporting. If your firm runs CCH Workflow but not CCH Practice or Practice CS, WorkSight Metrics™ alone covers your workflow visibility. Neither product requires the other — they’re priced and deployed independently, and each stands on its own for the CCH system it reads from.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need both FirmMetrics and WorkSight Metrics?
Only if your firm runs both CCH Practice (or Practice CS) and CCH Workflow. Each product reads from a different CCH system and stands on its own — FirmMetrics for realization, WIP, and AR KPIs from CCH Practice or Practice CS; WorkSight Metrics for workflow and staff capacity visibility from CCH Workflow. Firms running both source systems typically use both products together.
What's the difference between FirmMetrics and WorkSight Metrics?
FirmMetrics™ answers financial questions — realization rate, WIP aging, AR aging, and billing performance — from CCH Practice or Practice CS. WorkSight Metrics™ answers operational questions — where jobs are stuck, cycle times, and staff workload — from CCH Workflow. They're complementary views of the same firm, not competing products.
Do FirmMetrics and WorkSight Metrics handle data the same way?
No. FirmMetrics is built using Power BI's own connectivity directly against your CCH Practice or Practice CS data, so there's no bulk copy of your firm data into an AccountingTek BI database. WorkSight Metrics does take custody of data: your firm submits CCH Workflow exports through the authenticated customer portal, and it's held in a US-hosted Azure SQL database while your account is active. See our Security & Data Handling page for the full picture.