As an accountant, I’m trained to take a critical look at other people’s data. Every audit is about completeness, accuracy, and reliability. I want to verify any estimates in the figures with factual evidence. How many times have I had to explain that while the client may be the expert, I can’t just take their word for it?
But what do we actually do with our own data? These days, we measure everything, because “to measure is to know.” But if we measure everything, what do we really know?
In practice, I see that important decisions at the office are still often made based on experience and gut instinct. That instinct is often right, too. But if a client presents us with an estimate based solely on gut instinct, we document it as a finding. Among ourselves, we call it experience.
More data does not equal more insight
The instinct is often to start recording more. An extra field, an extra entry, an extra list. As long as we have it written down somewhere, we can use it later. In practice, this rarely provides more insight. It just generates more data, and that’s not the same thing.
All that extra data often leads to a classic case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. I often find myself asking, “What am I looking at right now?” And if I can’t find the answer quickly, I set it aside and fall back on my gut feeling. Not because the data isn’t there, but because I can’t make sense of it quickly enough.
The problem is almost never about quantity. It’s about quality, texture, and consistency.
What we measure isn’t always what we want to know
What strikes me most is how often we talk about improvement without really knowing what we’re actually doing. We want to work more efficiently, reduce peaks, and shorten turnaround times. Those are noble goals. But if you don’t know how things are going right now, you can’t determine what needs to be improved. And you certainly can’t tell whether things have actually gotten better afterward.
Take the deadline. Let’s be honest, that’s usually the only thing an accountant actually knows for sure. It’s in every calendar. More and more often, we also know how many hours were spent on an assignment and how that compares to the budget. But that still doesn’t tell us what happened during those hours. How much of that time went toward actual work, and how much toward searching, waiting for documents from the client, or redoing something that wasn’t properly prepared the first time? Were all those hours productive? Quantity is simply easier to measure than quality. On the timesheet, an hour is an hour, whether it was well spent or not. Fortunately, it did feel right.
Insight, then, is not a luxury you can afford when things are quiet. It is the prerequisite for being able to steer the course.
Good management information starts with a good organizational structure
Here comes the least exciting part of the story—and at the same time, the part that makes all the difference. Reliable reports don’t originate in the reporting layer. They originate in the processes and systems beneath it. If everyone records data in their own way, if assignment types aren’t clearly defined, or if employees don’t log their hours until the end of the month, you won’t be able to generate an accurate report afterward. You can always make a chart look nice. But reliability can only be ensured at the source.
That means making agreements that sound boring but yield great results. One central location for customer data. Consistent naming conventions for projects and assignment types, because if one employee calls an assignment “2025 Financial Statements” and another calls it “FS25 Compilation,” you end up with duplicate information and no usable overview. Standardization may feel like a limitation, but it’s exactly what makes data comparable. And comparability is the foundation of every insight.
Steering starts with daring to look
Software and data alone won’t solve this problem for you. A system highlights where the friction lies, but it doesn’t make decisions for you, and it doesn’t change the culture. We have to do that ourselves. Be critical—even of your own feelings. We don’t let a customer get away with those blue eyes. So why should we let ourselves?
