Research shows up to 35% of professional time goes to coordination overhead. Here's what that costs your firm and what to do about it.
Last updated: April 2026
Professional services firms know their coordination is inefficient. Most partners can point to the exact friction: chasing documents by email, updating spreadsheet trackers, sending the same reminder for the third time. Research from Ghent University and Alkmist shows up to 35% of professional time goes to coordination overhead rather than actual client work. That's not a rounding error. It's your margin.
The State of the Audit 2025 study found that audit professionals spend roughly 35% of their working hours on coordination tasks: following up on document requests, updating status trackers, sending reminders, and answering "where are we?" questions. This pattern repeats across M&A advisory, accounting, insurance, and architecture.
For a 20-person firm billing €150/hour, that's €1.57M per year in coordination overhead. Not in client work. Not in advisory. In follow-up emails and Excel updates.
Email creates a coordination tax on every engagement. Each follow-up generates a reply chain. Each reply chain creates ambiguity about who's responsible. Each ambiguity requires a call to clarify. Each call takes 15 minutes that could have been avoided with structured visibility.
Excel trackers compound the problem. They're always out of date. Multiple versions exist. Nobody trusts the numbers. The tracker itself becomes a coordination task.
The coordination problem isn't a technology problem. It's a behavioral problem. People procrastinate on document requests because the task feels overwhelming. They ignore reminders because the tone feels aggressive. They don't complete checklists because there's no visible progress.
Alkmist applies behavioral science to reduce this friction: chunked tasks (bite-sized phases instead of a 126-item wall), adaptive reminders (tone adjusts to context), visible momentum (progress rings and celebration micro-nudges), and immediate validation (uploads checked instantly).
Firms that have reduced coordination overhead by 40%+ share three patterns: they use structured workflows instead of email threads, they give clients visibility into their own progress, and they use adaptive follow-ups that protect the relationship while keeping work on track.
The tools matter, but the mindset matters more: treat coordination as a design problem, not an administrative burden.
We'll walk you through the exact flows your team would use — from client intake through completion. No generic product tour.
