The instinct that gets solos in trouble
When a solo decides to bring on their first full-time staffer, the instinct is usually to buy better software or hire a bookkeeper on day one. Neither actually solves the problem, because the problem is not software and it is not staffing.
The problem is that the intake and billing workflows that worked when one person held everything in their head do not survive contact with a second person. The new hire arrives, asks where the engagement letter template is, gets pointed at a Google Drive folder from 2019, and starts building their own version from scratch. Within three months, the firm has two versions of everything and nobody knows which one is current.
What you send
A short intake form describing your practice, your planned hire date and role, your current intake process, your current billing setup, how you store and name documents, how you manage matters, and one open question: what part of your workflow are you most worried about handing off.
What you get back in 48 hours
A 6-to-8 page written report assessing your intake process, your billing setup, your document storage conventions, and your matter management approach. Each section identifies what needs to be documented or standardized before the hire arrives.
The report ends with a pre-hire checklist organized as the four weeks before day one.
What this saves you
A botched first hire — one who quits or gets replaced inside ninety days — costs the firm roughly half of the hire's first-year salary in rework and lost matter time, plus 200 hours of partner time spent re-explaining workflows that should have been written down before day one. Even a smooth handoff eats 80 to 160 hours of partner time at the desk instead of in front of clients — at $250 an hour that is $20,000 to $40,000 of billable work displaced.
The audit's job is to compress that runway: documented intake, billing, and matter conventions before the hire arrives, so the partner time spent during onboarding goes to judgment calls rather than rebuilding the basics from memory.
What this is not
This is operational consulting based on patterns from solo-to-two-person transitions. It is not employment law advice, HR advice, or tax advice. Any hiring decisions should be reviewed with appropriate counsel for your jurisdiction.