What I look at first in a tech stack audit

When I audit an advisory firm's technology, people expect me to start with the software list. Which CRM, which planning tool, which custodian portal. I collect that list, but it tells me almost nothing. Two firms can own the exact same stack and one runs like a machine while the other runs on heroics and memory. The difference is never the tools. It's the seams between them.

The first question: walk me through a lead

The single most revealing exercise in any audit takes fifteen minutes. I ask the team to walk me through, step by step, exactly what happens when a prospect fills out the website form. Not what should happen. What actually happens, named humans and all.

The seams show up immediately. "The form emails Sarah, and she usually adds them to the CRM." Usually. "Then Mike is supposed to call within a couple days." Supposed to. Every "usually" and "supposed to" is a place where revenue leaks out of the practice, silently, with nobody at fault and nobody accountable.

The other four things I check

After lead flow, I look at four things. First, the licenses nobody uses. Almost every firm pays for at least one tool that quietly died eighteen months ago. That's found money. Second, the shadow systems: personal spreadsheets and sticky notes doing jobs the real systems should do. Wherever a spreadsheet thrives, a workflow failed. Third, single points of failure. If one person's two-week vacation would break client service, that process lives in their head instead of in a system. Fourth, the calendar: how reviews, follow-ups, and recurring service actually get scheduled. If the answer involves anyone's memory, that's the next automation.

Why this order matters

Notice what's not first: AI, new software, anything shiny. There's no point pouring AI on top of processes that leak. Fix the seams and the same tools you already own start compounding. Most firms don't need a bigger stack. They need the stack they have, actually connected, with nobody's memory as a load-bearing component. That's what an audit is really for: finding the places where your practice depends on luck, and replacing the luck with plumbing.