Ten operations numbers worth watching at a small RIA
A small RIA can see how well its operations are running with about ten numbers it counts once a month: billing run time, billing corrections, IPS documents past review, suitability reviews overdue, accounts without a strategy, unassigned custodian accounts, days to onboard a client, open complaints and incidents, time to produce a client's records, and recurring compliance tasks done on time. The point isn't a perfect score; it's spotting the number that's getting worse before it causes a problem.
Most small firms track assets and revenue closely and their operations hardly at all, until something goes wrong. A short monthly count of the right numbers shows trouble early: a billing run that's taking longer each quarter, or IPS documents quietly drifting past their review dates.
Which ten numbers should you watch?
| # | Number | How to count it | A rise usually means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billing run time | Hours from start to fee file sent | More manual edits, more exceptions |
| 2 | Billing corrections | Bills changed after review, or refunds, per quarter | Rates or exclusions not kept current |
| 3 | IPS documents past review | Count past their review date | Reviews slipping; IPS drifting from the model |
| 4 | Suitability reviews overdue | Households past their review date | Client changes not being captured |
| 5 | Accounts without a strategy | Managed accounts with no strategy assigned | New accounts not being set up |
| 6 | Unassigned custodian accounts | Accounts in the custodian file not linked to a client | The account list is drifting from the custodian |
| 7 | Days to onboard | Signed agreement to first account funded and set up | Paperwork or setup bottlenecks |
| 8 | Open complaints and incidents | Open items in the log, and their age | Issues not being closed out |
| 9 | Time to produce a client's records | Minutes to pull everything for one client, tested monthly | Records spread across too many places |
| 10 | Recurring tasks on time | Compliance calendar items done by their due date | The calendar isn't being worked |
A worked example
Take a hypothetical two-person RIA that starts counting in January.
| Number | January | April | What they did |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing run time | 12 hours | 7 hours | Wrote the method down, moved exclusions onto the record |
| IPS past review | 14 | 4 | Scheduled reviews at each annual meeting |
| Accounts without a strategy | 9 | 0 | Added "assign strategy" to the monthly reconciliation |
| Time to produce records | 90 minutes | 20 minutes | Moved notes and documents onto the client record |
Illustrative figures for a hypothetical firm. The point is the direction, not the values.
How do you start?
- Copy the ten numbers into a spreadsheet with one column per month.
- Count them once, honestly, even if some are embarrassing.
- Pick the worst one and fix its cause this month.
- Count again next month and see if it moved.
When is this overkill?
A solo adviser with a few dozen households can start with three: billing run time, IPS past review and time to produce records. Add the rest as the firm grows.
How Advorra fits
Several of these numbers are visible in Advorra directly: the IPS review clock, the suitability-review clock, unassigned custodian accounts, the strategy each account follows, the incidents and complaints log, and the billing blotter. See the product page, or read the compliance calendar and reconciling custodian data.
One thing to do this week: time how long it takes to pull every record for one client. Write the number down. It's your baseline.
A practical operations scorecard, not compliance advice. Figures in the example are hypothetical.
Questions advisors ask
How often should I count these?
Monthly for most, and right before each billing run for the billing numbers. It should take less than an hour once the habit is set.
Are there industry benchmarks for these numbers?
We don't quote benchmarks here because reliable public ones for small firms are hard to find. Compare your firm with itself, month over month.
Which number matters most?
Whichever is getting worse. A rising count of accounts without a strategy, or IPS documents past review, usually shows up later as a billing or records problem.
Do I need software to track them?
No. A simple spreadsheet works. Software that keeps the records in one place makes the counting faster.
Is this compliance advice?
No. It is a practical operations scorecard.
See it on a demo firm
Advorra is practice software for independent RIAs: clients, models, IPS, billing and compliance records in one place, on top of the custodian you already use. Built by The CollabHub.
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