Connected client onboarding, recurring work, time, WIP, and billing

Client Overview

Company Name

Galloway & Reid Chartered Accountants Ltd.

Company Address

4 High Street, Perth, PH1 5TZ, Scotland.

Industry Details

Chartered accountancy practice providing accounts preparation, corporation tax, personal tax, VAT, payroll bureau, and advisory services to approximately 680 clients.

Entity Size

Around 34 employees including chartered accountants, tax specialists, payroll administrators, and practice support.

Product/Solutions Implemented

Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Duration of Project

5 months.

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We deployed Dynamics 365 Sales and Business Central at Galloway & Reid to connect client onboarding, recurring engagement scheduling, time recording compliance, WIP visibility, and monthly billing.

A practice where partners knew every client personally but the system knew almost nothing about the relationship. Without automated scheduling, time tracking, and billing, partners were managing process instead of advising clients.

Professional Services - Chartered AccountancyDynamics 365 SalesDynamics 365 Business Central
Dynamics 365 implementation for accountancy practice operations

Alistair Galloway, Senior Partner, Galloway & Reid Chartered Accountants Ltd.

The Challenge

  • Recurring engagement scheduling for accounts, tax returns, VAT, and payroll was managed on a wall planner and Excel file.
  • Deadline oversights caused 14 HMRC late filing incidents in the prior year.
  • Time recording used paper timesheets that were transcribed manually, causing missing data and billing errors.
  • WIP was calculated monthly and circulated as a printed report, leaving partners with stale visibility.
  • Client onboarding involved paper engagement letters, manual take-on forms, and separate AML files.
  • Monthly billing took 16 working days with paper bill approvals and multiple revision cycles.

Our Solution

Client Relationship Management and Engagement Scheduling

  • Dynamics 365 Sales was deployed as the practice-wide CRM with client records, engagement type, fee level, referral source, and key relationship contact.
  • Recurring engagement scheduling generates work items for year-end accounts, tax returns, VAT, and payroll deadlines at configured lead times.
  • AML verification records and engagement letters are stored against the client record.
  • A D365 Sales onboarding checklist requires regulatory steps before a client record can be marked active.
  • Referral tracking attributes new client instructions to their source in real time.

Time Recording, WIP, and Billing

  • Business Central was deployed as the finance and billing platform.
  • Fee earners record time directly in BC against the client and engagement record daily.
  • Automated exception reports identify fee earners with unrecorded time.
  • WIP by client and engagement is visible in real time, with aged WIP prompts at 60 and 90 days.
  • Draft bills are produced from BC time records and digitally approved by partners, reducing billing to 5 working days.

The Impact

Galloway & Reid connected CRM, engagement scheduling, onboarding compliance, time recording, WIP visibility, and billing.

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Monthly Billing Days

BC billing workflow and daily time recording reduced monthly billing from 16 working days to 5.

0k

WIP Reduction in First 6 Months

Real-time WIP visibility and aged WIP alerts reduced unbilled WIP by GBP 67,000.

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HMRC Late Filing Incidents

Automated engagement scheduling eliminated the 14 annual deadline misses that had driven HMRC penalties.


We knew when clients needed to be billed eventually. The problem was eventually meant the client had already chased us, the WIP had been sitting there for three months, and the partners had been approving paper bills on a Friday afternoon for thirty years. That is not a way to run a modern practice.

Alistair Galloway
Senior Partner
Galloway & Reid Chartered Accountants Ltd.

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