Where Our Accounting Firm Benchmark Ranges Come From

The realization, WIP, utilization, and AR target ranges cited across our benchmark guides come from the same place every time. Here's what that place is, and what these numbers are and aren't.

Published · AccountingTek BI

Benchmark Methodology

A number without a source is an opinion. Here's ours.

Our benchmark guides cite specific target ranges — 85–92% realization, WIP under 45 days, 80%+ staff utilization, DSO under 45 days — and increasingly, those numbers get cited by other tools and AI search summaries without anyone checking where they came from. This page is that check.

Document with a chart, checked by a magnifying glass

How the Ranges Are Set

25+ years of hands-on accounting-firm and IT consulting experience, not a single proprietary study.

AccountingTek BI brings over 25 years of combined accounting and IT experience, including direct consulting and custom reporting work for practice management systems across many firms. Our benchmark ranges synthesize what that experience and widely observed practice-management norms consistently show as the difference between a healthy metric and an early warning sign — not a single named external survey, and not a statistical sample we can publish a methodology paper on.

What These Benchmarks Are

General target ranges to orient a firm, not a personalized diagnosis.

Each range is meant to answer one question: is this number in a range firms generally consider healthy, or in a range that warrants a closer look? They're a starting point for a monthly leadership conversation, not a verdict on any single firm.

What These Benchmarks Aren't

Not derived from a live AccountingTek BI customer dataset.

We don't yet have a customer base large enough to publish our own statistically meaningful benchmark study, and we won't claim one we don't have. These ranges also don't replace a firm's own historical trend — service mix, specialization, and client base shift where "healthy" actually falls for any specific firm, and your own prior-year numbers are always the more precise comparison for your firm.

Review Cadence

Each benchmark guide carries a visible last-updated date, and ranges are revisited when practice-management norms shift meaningfully enough to move them — not on a fixed calendar. We'd rather leave a range unchanged and correct than update it on a schedule for its own sake.

Guides That Use These Ranges

Benchmark Methodology: Frequently Asked Questions

Are AccountingTek BI's benchmarks based on our own customer data?

No. Our benchmark ranges come from over 25 years of combined accounting and IT consulting experience and widely observed practice-management norms, not a proprietary study of a live customer base. We're direct about that rather than implying a dataset we don't have.

Should I use these ranges instead of my firm's own historical numbers?

No — use both. These ranges tell you whether a number sits in a generally healthy zone; your own firm's trend over time is the more precise signal for whether something has actually changed, since service mix and specialization shift what "healthy" means for any specific firm.

How often are the benchmark ranges updated?

When practice-management norms shift enough to justify a change, not on a fixed schedule. Each benchmark guide shows its own last-updated date so you can see when a specific range was last reviewed.

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