Analytics Basics for Accounting Firms: The Numbers to Check Monthly That Aren't in Your Practice Software

12 September 2026·4 min read

Quick answer: Your practice software tracks fees, lodgements and client files brilliantly — but it tells you nothing about whether your marketing is actually bringing new clients in. Each month, check four numbers instead: website enquiries, Google Business Profile views and calls, your review count and rating, and your email open rate. Below is a simple checklist for tracking them, three worked examples, and the mistakes that keep firms flying blind. 📈

Most accounting firms can tell you exactly how many BAS lodgements are overdue this week and have absolutely no idea whether their website brought in three enquiries last month or zero. That gap is fixable, and it doesn't need a data analyst. 💖

Please note: general information, not legal advice — check current official guidance before relying on it.

What most firms get wrong

Confusing practice KPIs with marketing metrics — utilisation rate and lodgement turnaround tell you nothing about where new clients come from.
Only checking numbers at tax time — marketing performance drifts all year; a July-only glance misses the other eleven months.
Not knowing the baseline — if you don't know last month's enquiry count, this month's number means nothing.
Treating "no time" as a reason to skip it entirely — this checklist takes about ten minutes a month, not a day.

The four-number monthly checklist

None of these live in your practice management software — pull them from Google Business Profile insights, your website's contact form, and your email platform:

1. Website enquiries — how many contact form submissions or booking requests this month, and where did they say they found you?
2. GBP views & calls — how many people saw your profile and how many tapped "call" or "directions" (find this under Performance in your Business Profile)?
3. Review count & rating — how many new reviews landed this month, and did your average rating move?
4. Email open rate — for your last newsletter or update, what percentage opened it (a rough industry guide is roughly 20–35% for small professional services lists, though this varies by list quality)?

Write the four numbers in a spreadsheet, dated by month. After three months you'll start seeing patterns — a spike in enquiries after a review push, or a slump in GBP views after you stopped posting updates.

What this looks like for different firms

Word-of-mouth-only firm: A firm that's never tracked anything starts with just the website enquiry count and GBP calls — within two months they notice most calls come from the "directions" tap, meaning clients are finding them via Maps, not the website, and redirect effort accordingly.

Firm running Google Ads: A firm paying for ads adds a fifth line — cost per enquiry — and discovers their ad-driven enquiries are landing but not converting to bookings, pointing to a website or follow-up problem rather than a targeting problem.

Firm with a stale website: A firm whose site hasn't been touched in three years sees GBP views climbing but website enquiries flat — a sign the profile is doing the work and the website is quietly leaking the people it sends there.

How to build the habit without it becoming another job

Put a recurring ten-minute calendar block on the same day each month — straight after a team meeting works well, since the numbers are worth mentioning out loud. Keep the spreadsheet dead simple: one row per month, four columns, no formulas required at first. The goal isn't a dashboard, it's a habit of noticing trends before they become a problem.

💡 Heads up: If you advertise fees, turnaround times or outcomes anywhere in your marketing, keep those figures current and checked against your own records — check current requirements or your licensee's compliance guidance before publishing anything that could be read as a claim or guarantee.

Mistakes to avoid once you're tracking

Chasing vanity numbers — website visits mean little without enquiries; track the number that leads to actual clients.
Reacting to one bad month — a single quiet month is normal; look for a trend across three or more.
Never asking "where did you hear about us?" — this one question, asked at intake, makes every other number more useful.
Letting the spreadsheet die after month two — the value comes from the pattern, not any single reading.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Google Analytics for this, or is the checklist enough?

The four-number checklist is enough to start — it needs no setup and takes minutes. Google Analytics adds useful depth later (which pages people visit before enquiring, for instance), but it's a second step, not a prerequisite.

What's a "good" website enquiry number for a small practice?

It depends heavily on your size, location and how much marketing you're actively doing, so there's no universal benchmark — the more useful comparison is your own firm month over month, not another practice's number.

Should I track social media metrics too?

Only if social is actually part of your strategy — likes and followers rarely translate directly into new clients for accounting firms, so they're a lower priority than the four numbers above unless you're running paid social campaigns.

What if my numbers look bad for a few months in a row?

That's useful information, not failure — a genuine downward trend across three-plus months is your signal to dig into why (seasonality, a competitor, a stale website) rather than to panic or overhaul everything at once.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

Work with me ✦