Professional Services Accountants

Industries · Professional Services

Accountants who understand how a professional services firm actually runs.

Law, consulting, engineering, architecture and the advisory practices alongside them carry a particular kind of financial pressure. The money is earned long before it is billed, the value sits with the partners, and the decisions that matter most tend to involve people, ownership and the long arc of the practice. We work with the partners and principals running those businesses, on the numbers that decide how the firm is owned, paid and passed on.

Talk to us→How we work→
In short

Prime Partners advises established professional services firms on the financial decisions that come with running and growing a practice. That covers partner profit allocation and drawings, equity buy-ins and partner admission, work in progress and lockup, structure reviews, and succession when an owner steps back. We bring the technical depth of a specialist practice and the accessibility of a team that knows your business by name.

We work with law firms, consulting and advisory practices, engineering and architecture firms, accounting and financial services practices, recruitment and agency businesses, and other partner-owned professional services firms.

The pressures you carryWhat we doHow we workMoments that matterCommon questions
The pressures you carry

The financial questions that sit underneath every services practice.

A professional services firm earns its income through the time and judgement of its people, which makes the financials behave differently to a product business. Cash arrives late, value concentrates in the partners, and the most consequential decisions rarely show up on a standard set of accounts. These are the recurring pressures we help firms hold.

Profit allocation and drawings
How profit is split between partners, how drawings are set against it through the year, and how the reconciliation lands at year end. Get this wrong and it strains the partnership long before it strains the numbers.
Work in progress and lockup
Unbilled work and slow debtor recovery tie up cash the firm has already earned. Measuring lockup honestly, and reporting it where partners can see it, is often the single biggest lever on the firm’s cash position.
Bringing partners in and out
Admitting a new partner means a valuation, a buy-in, funding and a tax position on both sides. A retiring partner means the reverse. Both deserve to be structured properly rather than agreed in principle and resolved later.
Structure as the firm grows
A structure that suited three founders rarely suits twelve partners and a service company. We review whether your structure still fits how the practice operates, who owns what, and what you are exposed to.
Compliance that carries weight
Trust account obligations, professional indemnity, and the regulatory expectations of your profession all sit on top of the usual tax and reporting load. We keep that obligation managed rather than left to the last fortnight before lodgement.
What we do

The same journey we take every client on, told for a professional services firm.

Most firms come to us for one thing and stay for the rest. The work tends to follow a natural order, from getting the foundations right through to planning how the practice is eventually handed on. Each step below is a service in its own right, and each one links through to the full detail.

Accounting clean-up→
Where the books have fallen behind growth, we bring them back to a standard the partners can rely on, so the numbers tell the truth before any decision is made on them.
Business accounting and tax→
Year-end accounts, tax and the profit allocation mechanics, prepared with the structure of your practice properly understood. The foundation everything else sits on.
External finance team→
The monthly reporting partners actually need to see, including lockup, profitability by service line and the position against budget, run by a team alongside the practice rather than a once-a-year file.
Business structure review→
A structure that suited three founders rarely suits twelve partners and a service company. We review whether yours still fits how the firm operates, who owns what, and what you are exposed to.
Business growth→
The decisions that come with scaling a practice, from admitting partners and funding buy-ins to the financial planning that keeps growth from outrunning the firm’s cash position.
Business succession→
Planning the path for owners stepping back, including retiring partner payouts and the transfer of equity, so the practice continues without disruption when leadership changes hands.
Private client advisory and SMSF→
The personal side of partnership, including individual tax position, investment structures, self managed super and the planning that comes with a substantial equity stake in a firm.
R&D tax incentive→
A specialised area in its own right. Where your practice develops new methods, tools or technical solutions, we assess eligibility and prepare the claim properly.
How we work

A senior-led relationship, not a once-a-year file.

Every engagement is led by a senior practitioner who knows the practice and stays close to it. The way we work follows the same shape, whatever the firm.

1
Understand the practice
We start with how the firm is owned, how partners are paid, where the cash sits, and what the partners are trying to build over the next few years.
2
Get the foundations right
Compliance, reporting and the profit allocation mechanics brought to a standard the partners can rely on, so the routine work stops being a source of friction.
3
Advise on the decisions that count
Partner admissions, structure and lockup addressed as they arise, with the analysis to support a real decision rather than a hunch.
4
Stay alongside the firm
A continuing relationship where you can pick up the phone before a decision rather than explain it after the fact.
5
Plan the handover
When the time comes to step back, we plan the succession well ahead of it, from retiring partner payouts to the transfer of equity and leadership, so the practice carries on and the partners who built it leave on their own terms.
Moments that matter

The decisions that shape a practice deserve more than a once-a-year accountant.

Admitting the partner who will carry the firm forward. Funding a buy-in without straining the people involved. Restructuring as the practice grows past the shape it started in. Handing the firm to the next generation of owners and stepping back well. These are the moments where good advice is worth far more than the work that surrounds it, and they are the moments Prime Partners exists for.

Common questions

Questions professional services firms ask us.

What does an accountant for a professional services firm actually do?
An accountant for a professional services firm handles the work that comes with a practice owned and run by its partners. That means partner profit allocation and drawings, work in progress and lockup, partner buy-ins and exits, structure as the firm grows, and succession. At Prime Partners we cover the routine accounting and tax as a matter of course, and focus the relationship on the ownership and structure decisions that shape the practice.
What is lockup in a professional services firm and why does it matter?
Lockup is the cash a firm has earned but not yet collected, held in unbilled work in progress and in debtors waiting to pay. It matters because it ties up money the practice has already worked for, which constrains drawings and growth. Reducing lockup is often the single biggest lever a services firm has on its cash position, and we build the reporting that lets partners see it month to month rather than discovering it at year end.
How is a partner buy-in usually funded?
A partner buy-in is usually funded through a combination of personal contribution, bank lending, and sometimes vendor finance from the existing partners paid out of future profit share. The right mix depends on the valuation, the incoming partner’s position, and the tax treatment for both sides. We work through all of it so the admission is structured properly rather than agreed in principle and resolved later.
How does profit get split between partners in a firm?
Profit is split according to the partnership’s agreed method, whether that is fixed shares, a points or lockstep system, or a performance-based allocation. Drawings are set against expected profit through the year, then reconciled at year end. Getting the allocation and the drawings policy right matters as much to the partnership as it does to the numbers, and we prepare the profit allocation statements and distribution mechanics with the structure of your firm properly understood.
Do you work with firms structured as partnerships?
Yes, we advise firms operating as partnerships, incorporated practices, and trust or company structures. Much of our professional services work concerns the financial mechanics of how a practice is owned and run, including profit allocation, drawings, and admitting or retiring partners.
Where is Prime Partners located?
Prime Partners has offices in North Sydney and Orange, NSW. We work with professional services firms across both metropolitan and regional New South Wales, and nationally where the relationship calls for it.
Talk to us

Start a conversation about your practice.

If you are weighing a partner admission, a restructure, a succession plan, or simply want a finance relationship that keeps up with the firm, we would be glad to talk it through.

Get in touch→