Context: Audit firms rely heavily on their intellectually skilled auditors, who manage and lead the engagement team (so-called ‘lead auditors’ in this project). To deliver high-quality audit services to their clients and to offer opportunity for auditors to learn, audit firms should try to achieve proper matching between their clients and the auditors based on compatibility between them. Appropriate matching can constitute a difficult exercise as both the lead auditors and clients may have an important stake that encourages them to intervene in the allocation process. Such interventions may affect the level of audit quality that the audit firm is able to deliver when clients and auditors are not appropriately matched. Objective and method: The objective of this research is to understand how audit firms determine the lead auditor-client pair in terms of appropriate matching. Given that such allocations take place in a work environment where lead auditors and clients have their own demands and as such can intervene in this process, this research further aims to identify the lead auditors’ motivations for intervening in this process. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with lead auditors and planning department staff of audit firms to address our research questions. Contribution: This research aims to open the ‘black box’ of audit firms’ human resources management strategies by zooming in on the process of lead auditor-client matching. Given the potential impact that proper matching between auditor and client has on audit quality, understanding the allocation process in terms of which auditor is assigned to which client is important to academic research and practice. Our research could give audit firms and audit regulators guidance for regulation and best practices when it comes to workload management.