Utilisation rate, realisation rate, lock-up days — the language of a firm that bills time, not units. Realisation rate averaged around 85% across CPA firms per the 2018 Rosenberg Survey. Lock-up — WIP days plus debtor days — averaged 77 days across the AU accounting profession per a 2017 profession-wide review (24 days WIP, 53 days debtors).
Xero supports only two tracking categories, which multiple AU advisory firms flag as insufficient for real-time, per-job margin visibility — most firms end up patching the gap with spreadsheets. WIP write-up and write-down happens off to the side of the GL, not inside it.
On the backlog: WIP aging / lock-up day reporting, and a third tracking dimension for real per-job P&L beyond Xero’s two-category ceiling.
Connect your Xero account and see what it finds on your actual last close, not a demo.