An interim COO for accountancy firms
Andy Jackson works in your firm through Optivo two or three days a week for a fixed term of three to six months, to cover a seat, finish a programme or bring an acquired firm in. The last month is the handover.
- Rate
- From £1,200 + VAT a day
- Days
- Two or three a week, in the firm
- Term
- Three to six months, fixed at the start
- Start
- Usually within two weeks
- Invoicing
- Monthly, on the days worked
- Contract
- Business to business, direct with Optivo
- Who
- Andy Jackson, in person
When firms bring in an interim COO
An interim COO is for a firm with a gap or a deadline: a practice manager who has resigned, a move to new job and client software that has stalled, or a firm that has been bought and needs bringing onto one way of working by a date.
Covering an empty seat
Workflow, capacity and the team held by someone senior while the permanent replacement is found, and the seat left in better order than it was found.
Finishing a stalled programme
A software move, or any project nobody inside the firm has two clear days a week for, owned to completion and handed over with the team trained.
Bringing in an acquired firm
Taking on clients, workflow, systems, roles and pricing brought onto one operating model by a date, keeping the people and clients who came with the firm.
How a six-month term runs
The brief and the decision rights
The owner writes a handover brief. Terms are signed, an end date is agreed, and the decisions the interim can take alone are set down in writing.
In the seat
Systems access, the team met, and the live issues listed and owned. A leadership fact find and a staff diagnostic run in the first fortnight.
The plan is fixed
A 30, 60 and 90 day plan agreed with the owner, with the workstreams, an owner inside the firm for each and what done looks like. The weekly operating log starts.
The work lands
The operations meeting chaired, stuck work unblocked and the agreed decisions taken. Processes go into the SOP library as they change, and the partners get a monthly progress report.
The handover
Every workstream has a named owner inside the firm, the operating plan is theirs, and the handover pack records what was done, what is open and what to watch.
A three-month term runs the same stages closer together.
The weekly operating log
The decisions taken, the problems dealt with, the risks and what needs the owner, in a log the owner can read in five minutes.
Decision rights are agreed in writing at the start: what the interim decides, what the owner decides and what the partners decide together.
Decisions taken
- Year-end jobs move to a weekly cut-off from Monday
- Payroll clients move to the new job system first
Problems dealt with
- Three overdue VAT returns reassigned and filed
- Duplicate client records merged before the migration
Risks
- Two seniors booked on leave in the January peak
Needs the owner
- Sign off the revised engagement letter
The handover pack
- A named owner inside the firm for every workstream
- The operating plan handed to the firm's own team
- What was done, what is still open and what to watch
- Processes written into the SOP library as they changed
After the term
A permanent appointment
The new COO or practice manager starts with a working function and a plan, in place of a vacancy.
The Monthly COO
Andy carries the work on at a lower intensity, a weekly session and a monthly review, so nothing is learned twice.
The fractional COO →Questions about an interim COO
What does an interim COO cost?
From £1,200 plus VAT a day, two or three days a week, invoiced monthly on the days worked.
How long is the term?
Three to six months, fixed at the start. The final month is the handover.
How soon can it start?
Usually within two weeks of agreeing the term.
What happens at the end?
The seat is handed back to the firm, or the Monthly COO carries the work on at a lower intensity.
Who decides what?
Decision rights are agreed in writing at the start: what the interim decides, what the owner decides and what the partners decide together.
Is this through an agency?
The contract is business to business, directly with Optivo, and Andy Jackson does the work in person.
