Here’s what you’re looking for: William Englehaupt

AUDIT & ASSURANCE

The Hidden Factory in Accounting: Why Rework Is Quietly Eating Your Capacity

The question firm leaders often ask is simple: Where did the capacity go?

By William Englehaupt

Accounting firms rarely struggle because they lack plans, tools, or capable professionals. Most engagements begin with detailed project plans and clear milestones. Yet despite all of that structure, work still arrives late, review pressure spikes at the end, and teams feel chronically overextended.

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The answer usually isn’t visible on the plan. It sits in what many firms experience but rarely name—the hidden factory.

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AUDIT & ASSURANCE

Why “Busy” Is the Wrong Productivity Metric in Accounting

Many firms get planning assumptions wrong.

By William Englehaupt

Walk through almost any accounting firm during busy season, and the signals are familiar: calendars packed wall-to-wall, inboxes filling faster than they can be cleared, and professionals praised for constantly stepping up to meet demands. In many firms, this visible intensity is taken as proof of productivity. If people are busy, the thinking goes, work must be getting done.

But “busy” is not a productivity metric. It is a symptom. And when firms mistake it for performance, they quietly undermine quality, predictability, and morale.

Accounting is not alone in this trap, but the profession is especially vulnerable to it. Long hours and constant responsiveness feel reassuring in high-risk environments. They create the appearance of control. What they rarely produce is a reliable flow.

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AUDIT & ASSURANCE

The Post-Audit Debrief Most Teams Get Wrong

 

Why most debriefs fail to change the next audit—and how to turn them into real design inputs

By William Englehaupt

As one audit cycle closes and the next begins, most teams go through some form of debrief. In theory, this is where learning happens, where teams step back, reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and carry those insights forward.

In practice, it rarely works that way.

Debriefs are often rushed or treated as closure rather than input. The questions are familiar—what went well, what didn’t—but the discussion stays at the surface. Late nights, difficult clients, tight deadlines. The symptoms are easy to identify. The underlying causes are not. READ MORE →

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Tactical Empathy and the Auditor’s Greatest Leverage Point

What a former FBI hostage negotiator can teach us about audit conversations that actually move things forward

By William Englehaupt

By the time an auditor walks into a difficult conversation—a pushback on a finding, a tense remediation discussion, a stakeholder who has “been through this before”—most of the outcome has already been shaped by what happened in the first few minutes of listening.

Or the failure to listen.

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Chris Voss spent decades negotiating hostage releases for the FBI. His book, Never Split the Difference, distills that experience into a single governing idea: the fastest way to move any high-stakes conversation forward is to make the other person feel genuinely heard. He calls it tactical empathy—understanding the other person’s perspective well enough that they stop defending their position and start engaging with yours.

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AUDIT & ASSURANCE

The Post-Audit Debrief Most Teams Get Wrong

Here’s why most debriefs fail to change the next audit—and how to turn them into real design inputs.

By William Englehaupt

As one audit cycle closes and the next begins, most teams go through some form of debrief. In theory, this is where learning happens, where teams step back, reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and carry those insights forward.

In practice, it rarely works that way.

Debriefs are often rushed or treated as closure rather than input. The questions are familiar—what went well, what didn’t—but the discussion stays at the surface. Late nights, difficult clients, tight deadlines. The symptoms are easy to identify. The underlying causes are not. READ MORE →