A managing partner at a 12-person RIA recently ran a tech audit. Took her one hour. What she found? Disconnected systems, duplicate subscriptions, and team members manually entering the same data four times across different apps.
The cost? Over $250,000 a year in wasted time and overlapping tools.
Here’s how to find your own savings—and maybe finally take that trip to Maui.
1. Communication Overload
Your team pings across Slack, email, Teams, and CRM notes. Everyone’s guessing where the latest version of anything lives.
The cost: 3–4 hours per employee weekly just searching for information. That’s $72,000+ a year for a 10-person team.
The fix:
- Assign one tool per purpose
- Urgent = phone
- Projects = task system (Redtail workflows, Teams planner)
- Quick chat = pick Slack or Teams, not both
- Client updates = CRM only
- Set the rule: "If it’s not in the system, it doesn’t exist."
2. Tools That Don’t Talk to Each Other
New prospect? Someone enters data in Redtail. Then again in ShareFile. Then again in billing. Again in DocuSign.
That’s not secure. It’s inefficient. And it creates errors.
The fix:
- Use integrations
- Automate onboarding
- Sync key tools (CRM, billing, scheduling)
Even low-code tools like Power Automate or Zapier can do this without IT staff. A single automation saved one 15-person advisory firm $21,000 annually.
3. Subscriptions You Forgot You Had
Here’s a fun end-of-year game: Pull your last three months of credit card statements. Look at every tech charge.
You’ll find:
- Two project management tools you don’t use
- A Zoom license you haven’t logged into since July
- A CRM you tried then abandoned
- That design software your intern used once
Ask:
- Have we used it in 30 days?
- Do we already have a tool that does this?
- Would I buy this again today?
If the answer is no—cancel it.
Even small RIAs find $6,000–$18,000 per year hiding in these forgotten charges.
Do the Math
- Streamlining communication: $36,000+ saved
- Automating manual tasks: $4,000–$20,000+ saved
- Canceling unused tools: $6,000–$18,000 saved
Total: Up to $46,000+ a year in reclaimed budget.
That could fund:
- A family vacation
- Year-end bonuses
- New hires
- A buffer for slow quarters
It Starts With One Hour
The RIA partner who found these savings didn’t do a six-month overhaul. She just paused long enough to ask: Is this working?
Then she fixed three things.
You can too.
Need help running the audit? We’ll walk through your stack with you and show you exactly where the waste is—without disrupting your systems.
