The Client Readiness Gap: What’s Really Slowing Down Your Engagements

There’s a reason so many engagements start late, go over budget, or frustrate everyone involved—and it’s not just staffing, scoping, or even the client.

It’s a deeper, structural challenge we see across firms of all sizes and service lines: teams can’t move forward because clients aren’t fully prepared to collaborate when the engagement begins.

At Suralink, we call this the Client Readiness Gap—and our CEO Evan Fitzpatrick recently made the case that it’s the #1 problem in accounting today. You can read his perspective here.

But this article takes things further.

We’re going deeper into the day-to-day. You’ll see the latest research, hear how the best firms are adapting, and walk away with real ideas to help your team reduce delays, boost realization, and finally fix the back-and-forth that slows everything down.

What Is the Client Readiness Gap?

The Client Readiness Gap is the delay created when an engagement should move forward and when it actually can—because the right information isn’t in place yet.

Maybe the engagement team’s request was not properly communicated. Maybe the client is understaffed. Or maybe they’re juggling your request alongside 100 other priorities.

Regardless of the cause, the outcome is the same: an engagement stalls and everyone has to play catch up.

It’s not a one-off issue. It’s a recurring workflow issue. 

The Stats Don’t Lie: This Is a Widespread Problem

In our latest industry research report, backed by data collected through surveys of auditors in the public accounting industry, the patterns were crystal clear:

• 93% of firms cite staffing and retention as a top challenge

• 89% report inaccurate client data as a major blocker

• 87% face frequent client delays

That’s the surface layer. Dig deeper, and you see where the engagement really starts to stall:

• 65% say requesting support documentation is a major challenge

• 71% struggle with assessing and validating client-provided info

• Only 36% of requests are complete and correct the first time

This is the heart of the Client Readiness Gap. It’s not just causing delays. It’s increasing back-and-forth between teams and clients, driving up engagement costs, frustrating everyone involved, and reducing productivity across the board. 

Over time, it wears down margins, burns out staff, creates missed growth opportunities, and even chips away at client trust. What starts as a few missing documents quickly becomes a firm-wide bottleneck that teams are forced to work around instead of through.

This Isn’t Just an Operational Problem—It’s a Financial One

• 25% of engagements fail to meet realization targets—even when those targets are conservative

• 22% exceed their originally quoted fees

This is where the Client Readiness Gap starts costing real money.

And that’s not including the hidden costs:

• Time lost chasing incomplete data

• Team members juggling overlapping engagements

• Rework caused by back-and-forth

• Burnout from overextended staff

Firms feel this pressure every day. And so do their clients.

This Isn’t Just the Client’s Fault

This isn’t just an operational hiccup. It’s the #1 challenge facing accounting firms and their clients.

Our research shows that the Client Readiness Gap is the single largest driver of engagements failing to be completed on time and on budget—regardless of firm size or practice area.

It impacts everyone:

• Partners and managers lose time and team efficiency

• Staff get stuck chasing down documents

• Clients get frustrated by repeated follow-ups, requests, and unclear expectations

• Firms suffer from lower margins, missed deadlines, and rising employee burnout

And to be clear: this isn’t primarily the fault of clients.

Clients don’t want to ignore requests. They don’t want to upload the wrong file. They don’t want to go back and forth ten times to answer one question.

Often, the problem comes from the firm’s side:

• Vague requests with unclear language

• No explanation of why a document is needed

• Scattered communications and fragmented workflows

Blame doesn’t solve the problem. Collaboration does.

Why the Problem Is Getting Worse

In many ways, firms are doing their best with the resources they have. But several compounding trends are making the Client Readiness Gap harder to close:

• More client demand: Engagements are only growing in volume and complexity

• Fewer internal resources: Staffing shortages mean tighter capacity and no room for delays

• Rising expectations: Clients want faster, easier, more responsive service—and less back-and-forth

• Compounding timelines: One delayed engagement pushes into another, creating a domino effect

There’s no “quiet season” anymore. Every week matters. So every delay compounds.

How Firms Can Close the Client Readiness Gap

The Client Readiness Gap isn’t going away on its own. But firms don’t have to accept the status quo.

With the right systems in place, teams can reduce delays, improve collaboration, and deliver work more efficiently—without burning out their people or drowning in back-and-forth.

Here’s what’s possible:

1. Centralize requests and collaboration in one place

Instead of juggling Excel trackers and email chains, firms can streamline their entire PBC process.
Suralink’s Request List Management offers a single source of truth for request tracking, helping teams stay organized and aligned with clients from kickoff to wrap-up.

2. Improve first-time accuracy through contextual communication

Over half of client requests aren’t fulfilled completely the first time. But that can change.
With tools like Suralink’s new Assessment Hub, firms can leave pinned comments directly on documents—reducing miscommunication and helping clients respond correctly the first time, not the fifth.

3. Eliminate back-and-forth with connected follow-ups

When requests aren’t fulfilled perfectly (and they often aren’t), context matters.
Our newest product offering: Workpaper Suite, integrated directly with Request List Management, allows team members to ask follow-up questions right from the workpaper environment in Excel. Eliminating guesswork and keeping everything in context.

4. Automate repetitive prep and review work

Too much time is spent on tasks that don’t move the needle. With Workpaper Suite, teams can streamline workpaper preparation and automate routine steps. Reducing hours spent on admin work and accelerating engagement delivery.

5. Protect people, boost margins, and scale smarter

When the Client Readiness Gap shrinks, everything works better: fewer late nights, clearer workflows, less stress, and happier clients.

That’s how firms retain top talent, protect their margins, and scale without overloading their teams.

Firms using Suralink already report 40%+ time savings across their engagements—and now, with a more connected platform from request to review, the opportunity to improve is even greater.

Our research shows firms have the potential to reduce the number of hours to complete an engagement by at least 25% and increase realization rates by 15 percentage points by using Suralink's fully-integrated Request-to-Test solution. 

A Better Way Forward

You can’t eliminate every delay. But you can design your process to absorb them without going over budget, missing deadlines, or burning out your team.

In short, closing the Client Readiness Gap looks like this:

• Clearer requests

• Smarter workflows

• Purpose-built collaboration tools

• Shared accountability between firm and client

With our new Workpaper Suite, we’re building the first truly integrated request-to-test platform, bringing client collaboration and workpaper prep together into a seamless workflow.

We believe the firms that win the next decade will be the ones who collaborate best. Not just internally, but with their clients.

The Client Readiness Gap isn’t just an annoyance. It’s a fixable problem that’s holding firms back in measurable ways.

If your team is ready to spend less time chasing documents and more time delivering value—there’s a better way forward. Book a demo today.