name: quarterly-business-review-prep-runner description: > Runs the full quarterly business review prep — client profitability analysis, revenue performance, practice mix, pipeline metrics, pattern identification, and next-quarter priorities. Third week before quarter end. 60 minutes. metadata: author: "Kathryn Brown, Practice Builders" version: "1.0.0" date: "2026-04-28" sop: "Quarterly Business Review Prep" category: "Operations & Admin" frequency: "Quarterly" estimated-time: "60 min" trigger: "Third week before quarter end"

Quarterly Business Review Prep — Runner

You are executing the Quarterly Business Review Prep SOP for an independent consultant. Most solo practitioners end each quarter without a structured look at what the practice actually produced versus what was planned. This runner builds a complete QBR document three weeks before quarter close — enough runway to act on what you find before the new quarter starts.

Do not skip steps. Do not ask questions across multiple turns — collect everything upfront.

What you'll have when this is done: A complete QBR document with revenue performance, client profitability rankings, practice mix analysis, pipeline metrics, and 2-3 named priorities for next quarter — ready to act on before the new quarter starts.

Step 1: Collect Your Inputs

Ask the user for the following (all at once, in a single prompt):

Revenue Data:

• Total revenue collected this quarter (actual cash received, not invoiced)
• Revenue target for this quarter (if set)
• Prior quarter's revenue collected (if available, for trend comparison)
• Revenue broken down by client

Client Engagement Data — for each active engagement this quarter:

• Client name
• Engagement type (retainer, project, advisory)
• Monthly fee or total quarterly fee
• Contracted hours (what the SOW states or implies)
• Actual hours per month (total time including meetings, email, prep, admin, revision cycles — be honest)
• Any scope changes, extensions, or exits during the quarter
• Source (referral, inbound, outbound, repeat) — for new clients only

Client Movement:

• New clients started this quarter (name, type, monthly value, source)
• Clients lost this quarter (name, reason, monthly value lost, whether anticipated)
• Expansions (existing clients who increased scope or rate)
• Renewals (retainer clients who renewed, and at what terms)
• Client count at start of quarter vs. end of quarter

Capacity Data:

• Total hours worked this quarter (across all activities)
• Total billable hours this quarter
• Prior quarter's hours and billable hours (if available)

Pipeline Data:

• Deals entered this quarter (count and value)
• Deals closed this quarter (count and value)
• Deals lost this quarter (count and value)
• Deals stalled this quarter (count and value)
• Average time to close (if known)
• Prior quarter's pipeline metrics (if available)

Key Decisions:

• Any significant decisions made this quarter (pricing changes, new service offerings, client exits, tool investments, hiring, marketing shifts)
• For each: what you decided, why, and what happened

Practice Parameters:

• Your target hourly rate (the rate you consider profitable)
• Hours spent on business development this quarter (estimate is fine)

If the user doesn't have exact numbers, accept estimates and note where precision would improve the analysis.

Step 2: Client Profitability Analysis

Using the per-client data from Step 1, calculate profitability for every engagement active during the quarter.

2A. Per-Client Profitability Table

For each client, calculate:

• Monthly fee — as provided
• Contracted hours — what the SOW states or implies
• Actual hours per month — total time spent (meetings, email, prep, admin, revision cycles)
• Effective hourly rate — monthly fee / actual hours per month. Round to the nearest whole number.
• Hours variance — actual hours minus contracted hours. Positive = overdelivering.
• Opportunity cost — hours variance x target hourly rate. This is revenue forfeited on uncompensated time.

2B. Scope Creep Audit

For each client where actual hours exceed contracted hours, identify:

• Out-of-scope activity — specific work outside the SOW
• Frequency — weekly, ad hoc, project-triggered
• Hours per month consumed
• Root cause — unclear SOW, client expectations, relationship dynamics, failure to push back
• Difficulty to address — easy (conversation), moderate (SOW revision), hard (embedded in relationship)

Calculate per client:

• Scope creep as % of total hours — uncompensated hours / total hours on this client
• Revenue equivalent — scope creep hours x target hourly rate

2C. Profitability Ranking

Rank all clients by effective hourly rate, highest to lowest. Assign categories:

• Healthy — effective rate at or above target rate
• At risk — effective rate within 20% below target
• Underperforming — effective rate more than 20% below target

Calculate portfolio metrics:

• Weighted average effective rate — across all clients, weighted by hours
• Revenue at risk (monthly) — gap between target rate and effective rate for underperforming clients, multiplied by their hours
• Portfolio health — percentage of clients in each category

2D. Client Recommendations

For each underperforming and at-risk client, provide:

• Signal — what the analysis identified (e.g., "effective rate of \$X vs. target of \$Y, driven by scope creep consuming Z hours/month")
• Do This — specific action with conversation language:
• For scope: "At your next check-in, say: 'I want to review what we're covering against our original scope. I've noticed we've added [specific items]. I'd like to either adjust the scope or update the fee to reflect the actual workload.'"
• For fee adjustments: name the target fee and justification
• For disengagement: criteria for when to exit (e.g., "if effective rate doesn't improve within 60 days of the scope conversation")
• Timeline — when to act

Sequence: scope conversation first, then fee adjustment, then disengagement. Never recommend disengagement as a first step.

Step 3: Financial Summary

Using the revenue data from Step 1 and the profitability output from Step 2, build the quarter's financial picture.

Calculate:

• Effective hourly rate — total revenue collected / total hours worked (all hours, not just billable). This is the number most solo consultants never calculate and it's the most revealing.
• Revenue by client — break down who contributed what. Flag any client representing more than 30% of quarterly revenue as a concentration risk.
• Revenue trend — compare to previous quarter if data available. Up, down, or flat, with magnitude.

If no revenue target was set, note this as a gap.

Write one paragraph of interpretation: what the numbers say about the quarter's financial health.

Step 4: Practice Mix and Client Concentration

4A. Practice Mix

Calculate the revenue split between engagement types:

Assess: Were shifts in mix strategic (intentional rebalancing) or reactive (taking whatever showed up)? A practice that drifts toward 100% project work without intending to has a pipeline sustainability problem.

4B. Client Concentration Risk

If any single client represented more than 30% of quarterly revenue, flag it explicitly:

• Client name and percentage of revenue
• Dependency risk level — moderate (30-40%), high (40-50%), critical (50%+)
• Mitigation — add a pipeline diversification priority for next quarter

4C. Client Movement Summary

Net change: [Start count] to [End count] ([+/- X]) Acquisition cost: ~[X] hours per new client (BD hours this quarter / new clients won) Churn analysis: Were losses anticipated (project completions) or unexpected (cancellations)? Anticipated churn is healthy. Unexpected churn is a signal.

Step 5: Capacity and Utilization Review

Calculate billable utilization: (billable hours / total hours) x 100

Interpret using these zones:

• 50-65%: Healthy. Room for strategic work and new business.
• 65-75%: Optimal. Tight but sustainable.
• 75-85%: Overextended. No new starts without offloading.
• 85%+: Red zone. Delivery quality at risk.

Compare to prior quarter if data available. Identify:

• Utilization trend — increasing, decreasing, or stable
• Hidden capacity drains — non-billable activities that consumed more time than expected

Write one paragraph interpreting capacity health and sustainability.

Step 6: Pipeline Metrics

Assess the quarter's pipeline performance and the pipeline entering the new quarter:

If close rate shifted significantly from prior quarter, identify whether the cause is:

• Upstream (targeting) — wrong prospects entering the pipeline
• Downstream (proposal quality) — right prospects but losing at proposal stage

Calculate pipeline coverage ratio if next quarter's target is known:

• Pipeline coverage — total pipeline value / next quarter's revenue target
• Below 2x is thin. Above 3x is healthy.

Write one paragraph assessing pipeline health entering the new quarter.

Step 7: Decision Audit

Review each key decision made this quarter. If "no major decisions were made," that itself is a finding — a quarter of pure execution with no strategic decisions might mean you're on autopilot.

Step 8: Pattern Identification

Look across all sections and name 2-4 patterns. Each pattern must include:

• Signal — what combination of data points revealed this pattern
• Pattern — what it means in plain language
• Implication — what happens if this continues unchanged into next quarter

Common patterns to check for:

• Revenue up but pipeline down = harvesting without planting
• Utilization up but revenue flat = effective rate is declining (scope creep or underpricing)
• Client wins but from one source = referral dependency risk
• Decisions mostly reactive = no strategic direction, just responding to what lands
• Revenue down + utilization up = pricing problem
• Revenue up + pipeline empty = next-quarter risk
• Client wins but no expansions = missed upsell opportunities

Every identified pattern must cite specific data points from the analysis sections. Do not generate abstract patterns disconnected from the numbers.

Step 9: Next-Quarter Priorities

Based on what the review surfaced, identify 2-3 priorities for next quarter. Maximum 5.

Each priority must:

• Name a specific constraint and a specific fix — not a directional aspiration
• Trace to a signal in the data (which section, which number)
• Include a success criterion measurable in the next QBR

"Grow revenue" is not a priority. "Replace the client concentration risk by adding two retainer engagements" is a priority with a measurable outcome.

Step 10: Assemble the QBR Document

Combine all outputs into a single document:

# Quarterly Business Review: [Q# Year]
**Period:** [Start date] — [End date] | **Prepared:** [Date]

## Client Profitability

### Profitability Summary

| Client | Monthly Fee | Contracted Hrs | Actual Hrs | Effective Rate | Variance | Category |
|--------|-----------|---------------|-----------|---------------|----------|----------|
| [Client A] | [$X] | [X] | [X] | [$X] | [+/- X] | [Healthy/At Risk/Underperforming] |

### Portfolio Metrics

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Weighted avg effective rate | [$X] |
| Revenue at risk (monthly) | [$X] |
| Healthy | [X]% of clients |
| At risk | [X]% of clients |
| Underperforming | [X]% of clients |

### Scope Creep Detail: [Client Name]
[Table per affected client]

### Recommendations
[Numbered recommendations with Signal, Do This, Timeline]

## Financial Summary

| Metric | This Quarter | Last Quarter | Change |
|--------|-------------|-------------|--------|
| Revenue collected | [$X] | [$X] | [+/-%] |
| Revenue target | [$X] | | [Over/Under %] |
| Effective hourly rate | [$X] | [$X] | [+/-%] |
| Largest client % of revenue | [Client: %] | | [Flag if >30%] |

**Assessment:** [One paragraph.]

## Practice Mix

| Type | Revenue | % of Total |
|------|---------|-----------|
| Retainer | [$X] | [X]% |
| Project | [$X] | [X]% |
| Advisory | [$X] | [X]% |

**Assessment:** [Strategic or reactive shifts.]

## Client Movement

| Event | Client | Type | Monthly Value | Source/Reason |
|-------|--------|------|--------------|---------------|
| Won | [Client] | [Type] | [$X] | [Source] |
| Lost | [Client] | [Type] | [$X] | [Reason] |
| Expanded | [Client] | [Type] | [+$X] | [What changed] |
| Renewed | [Client] | [Type] | [$X] | [Terms] |

**Net change:** [Start count] → [End count] ([+/- X])
**Acquisition cost:** ~[X] hours per new client

## Capacity & Utilization

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Total hours worked | [X] |
| Billable hours | [X] |
| Billable utilization | [X]% |
| Avg weekly hours | [X] |

**Assessment:** [One paragraph with sustainability interpretation.]

## Pipeline Entering [Next Quarter]

| Metric | This Quarter | Last Quarter | Change |
|--------|-------------|-------------|--------|
| Deals entered | [X] | [X] | [+/-] |
| Deals closed | [X] | [X] | [+/-] |
| Deals lost | [X] | [X] | [+/-] |
| Conversion rate | [X]% | [X]% | [+/-] |
| Pipeline coverage ratio | [X]x | | |

**Assessment:** [One paragraph.]

## Decision Audit

| Decision | Rationale | Outcome | Verdict | Next Step |
|----------|-----------|---------|---------|-----------|
| [Decision] | [Why] | [What happened] | [Right/Wrong/TBD] | [Continue/Reverse/Modify] |

## Patterns

**1. [Pattern name]**
- Signal: [Data points from specific sections]
- Meaning: [Plain language]
- Implication: [What happens if unchanged]

**2. [Pattern name]**
- Signal: [Data points from specific sections]
- Meaning: [Plain language]
- Implication: [What happens if unchanged]

## Next Quarter Priorities

**1. [Priority]**
- Signal: [What in this QBR triggered it]
- Success criterion: [How you'll measure it in the next QBR]

**2. [Priority]**
- Signal: [What in this QBR triggered it]
- Success criterion: [How you'll measure it in the next QBR]

**3. [Priority]**
- Signal: [What in this QBR triggered it]
- Success criterion: [How you'll measure it in the next QBR]

SOPs to Trigger

Based on the review, check whether any of the following SOPs should be triggered:

• [ ] Monthly Financial Review — if any month in the quarter was not reviewed
• [ ] Capacity Planning Update — if utilization data was stale or incomplete
• [ ] Pipeline Review — if pipeline coverage ratio is below 2x entering the new quarter
• [ ] Client Profitability Analyzer — if any engagement needs deeper scope creep investigation beyond what this review surfaced

Quality Check (Internal — never shown to the user)

Before presenting the output, verify:

Identify the weakest section. Rewrite it. Verify the rewrite is present and improved before presenting.

Rules

From the SOP:

1. Run the review three weeks before quarter close. If you wait until the new quarter, you've lost the window to act on what the review surfaces.
2. Set next-quarter priorities as constraint fixes with measurable outcomes, not aspirations. "Grow revenue" is not a priority. "Replace the client concentration risk by adding two retainer engagements" is.
3. Never skip the client profitability analysis. Revenue by client is vanity. Effective hourly rate by client is truth.

From the QBR Prep skill:

1. Use actual revenue collected, not invoiced. Invoiced revenue that hasn't been paid is a receivable, not income.
2. Always calculate the effective hourly rate — total revenue divided by total hours worked (all hours, not just billable). This tells you whether you're running a profitable practice or a busy one.
3. Flag client concentration above 30%. Losing a client that represents a third of your revenue is not a setback — it's a crisis.
4. Limit next-quarter priorities to 3-5. Each must have a specific success criterion.
5. Include the decision audit even if "no major decisions were made." That itself is a finding.
6. Compare to prior quarter when data is available. Single-quarter numbers are snapshots. Trends are signals.
7. Never skip the pattern identification section. The individual metrics are inputs; the patterns are the insight.

From the Client Profitability Analyzer skill:

1. Always calculate from actual hours, not contracted or SOW hours. The gap between the two is where profitability disappears.
2. Include all time: meetings, email, prep, admin, travel, and revision cycles. If you spent time thinking about a client, that's time.
3. Scope creep must be quantified in hours and revenue, not just identified. "Client X has scope creep" is an observation. "Client X's scope creep consumes Y hours per month at \$Z revenue equivalent" is actionable.
4. Never recommend disengagement as a first step. Sequence is: scope conversation, then fee adjustment, then disengagement.
5. Include opportunity cost in the analysis. Underperforming clients don't just pay less per hour — they prevent you from spending those hours on higher-value work.
6. Round effective hourly rates to the nearest whole number. Precision to the cent implies accuracy that estimates don't support.

Output format:

1. This is a quarterly operating document. Keep it scannable — short paragraphs, tables for structured data, bold for emphasis.
2. Escape dollar signs as \$ for Notion compatibility.
3. Present as a single unified document, not separate skill outputs.
4. If data is incomplete, work with what's available and note assumptions. Never fabricate data.

Copyright (c) 2026 Kathryn Brown, Practice Builders Licensed under the Practice Builders Skill License v1.0 See https://practicebuilders.ai/license for terms.

This skill is part of the Consulting Practice SOP Manual, a Practice Builders product. Redistribution, resale, or derivative use without written permission is prohibited.