why “busy” is the wrong metric in audit
and the planning assumptions firms get wrong.
by william englehaupt
walk through almost any accounting firm during busy season, and the signals are familiar: calendars packed wall-to-wall, inboxes filling faster than they can be cleared, and professionals praised for constantly stepping up to meet demands. in many firms, this visible intensity is taken as proof of productivity. if people are busy, the thinking goes, work must be getting done.
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but “busy” is not a productivity metric. it is a symptom. and when firms mistake it for performance, they quietly undermine quality, predictability, and morale.
accounting is not alone in this trap, but the profession is especially vulnerable to it. long hours and constant responsiveness feel reassuring in high-risk environments. they create the appearance of control. what they rarely produce is a reliable flow.