Documentation / QueryTek Review glossary / Turnaround Time
Turnaround time is the elapsed span from work being accepted to an outcome being delivered. The figure is only meaningful once both endpoints are defined, which is why most disagreements about turnaround turn out to be disagreements about when the clock started and whether it ever paused.
Three definitional choices determine what a turnaround figure means, and they should be settled before any number is quoted.
When the clock starts. At submission, or at acceptance? These diverge whenever material arrives incomplete, in the wrong format, or without the context a reviewer needs. Acceptance is the honest basis, provided it is prompt and its criteria are stated.
Whether the clock pauses. Work blocked awaiting a client answer is elapsed time the provider cannot influence, so commitments usually exclude client-blocked periods — a reasonable exclusion that becomes a dispute if never agreed.
Which calendar applies. Business hours in whose timezone, and which holidays. "Two days" can mean anything from 48 hours to a week.
The statistic matters as much as the target. A mean turnaround conceals the tail, and it is the tail that damages a client relationship — most work delivered quickly and a small fraction taking weeks produces a good average and unhappy clients. A percentile commitment ("90% within two business days") describes the experience far better.
Turnaround also trades against depth. A shorter commitment means less time per document, which shows up as reduced thoroughness rather than as a missed deadline — a trade worth recording in the engagement, since it is otherwise absorbed silently by reviewers.
Turnaround is measured over the review cycle, which is why bounding that cycle is a prerequisite: without defined start and end, turnaround is an estimate rather than a measurement.
Review sits inside someone else's schedule. A publication date, a filing deadline, or a release depends on the review completing, so predictability often matters more to a client than raw speed.
Defining the endpoints is what makes a commitment enforceable rather than aspirational — and what prevents the common failure where both parties believe they met or missed a target that was never the same target.
QueryTek Review measures turnaround across the bounded review cycle, from acceptance to recorded outcome. Specific targets, exclusions, and measurement bases are established in the engagement agreement rather than stated in public documentation.
