The Capture Gap™ Dispatch

Give recurring client questions a clear path into defined work.

A client asks whether the business can afford another hire. Someone gathers the numbers, someone interprets them, and the owner helps the client weigh the decision.

When that kind of request returns, the firm has a choice about how it will support the work. This Dispatch looks at the client promise, the team behind it, and a small pilot that can show what the service requires.

The Client Question

Which decision deserves a scheduled conversation?

Choose a question clients already bring you. Hiring is one example. Cash timing, an equipment purchase, or a change in owner compensation may reveal another recurring need.

For a hypothetical hiring conversation, the work might include reviewing current financial information, comparing payroll and cash scenarios, discussing assumptions, and recording the next step.

That gives the firm something specific to examine. Which information must be ready? Who reviews the assumptions? When does the question require additional expertise?

The service description is also the beginning of a client promise.

The Client Promise

What will the client understand they are receiving?

“Help with hiring decisions” leaves quite a lot to interpretation.

“A scheduled conversation about the cash implications of one proposed hire, supported by agreed scenarios and a written summary of assumptions” gives both sides a clearer starting point.

The firm still needs to agree on scope, timing, responsibilities, and the investment with the client. It should also explain what happens when the question changes.

If the client adds a second location to the discussion, who pauses to revisit the scope? A useful service description gives that conversation a place to begin.

Ask the client to explain the expected outcome in their own words. If they expect the firm to make the hiring decision while the firm expects to prepare scenarios, settle that difference before the work begins.

Keeping that promise requires a team with clear responsibilities.

The Owner's Desk

Who can move this work forward?

Name the person who receives the request, prepares the information, and reviews and discusses the work. One person may hold several roles. Make the handoff visible anyway.

Also decide when a request exceeds someone's authority or experience. A preparer needs to know which questions to resolve and which to bring to the reviewer.

Watch what changes elsewhere. Can staff prepare the next conversation with guidance? Does technical review keep moving? Can the follow-up be found without asking the owner?

Those observations connect an advisory service to capacity, training, and owner dependence. Technology needs an equally clear job.

AI at Work

What should the tool help prepare?

An AI assistant might organize meeting notes or draft a list of unresolved assumptions using information the firm has authorized it to handle.

The reviewer still needs to distinguish the client's decision from a scenario discussed along the way. A draft should show what remains unconfirmed and where its information came from.

Choose that specific preparation task before adding automation. Then test the whole service on a manageable scale.

One Move This Week

What would a small pilot need to teach you?

AICPA and CIMA identifies advisory work omitted from the agreed fee as a possible sign of underbilling and suggests piloting a new billing approach with a defined service. That does not establish what a particular firm should charge or what revenue it will find.

Source: https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/article/stop-leaving-money-on-the-table

For your pilot, record what the work required, where it waited, which assumptions changed, and what the client understood they were receiving.

Use those observations to refine the service and its investment before offering it more broadly. Include the team in that review; the person preparing the information may see a difficulty the owner never encounters.

Record one observation from the client and one from the team. Perhaps the written assumptions helped the client, while gathering the information took longer than planned. Both belong in the next version of the service and its delivery process.

Ask Joy Anything

Which client request is hardest to fit into your current engagements?

Enter your question in a reply, without names, account information, or confidential details. Submitting a question does not grant permission to publish it. I will ask separately before using your question in the Dispatch.

Something Light

“While I have you” rarely comes with an estimated completion time.

May the Profit be with you,

Joy Francis, CFO and Revenue Capture Architect