Be The Change You Want To See
Accountants Minute 439
In 2026, your clients don’t just want compliance.
They want clarity. Direction. Confidence.
They want an accountant who is genuinely recognised as their Key Strategic Partner.
Imagine your SME clients saying:
“Our accountant is a key partner in our business and our go-to professional for advice. They are extremely valuable to our business’ growth and success.”
Yet according to the Intuit QuickBooks’ SMB Navigator Report 2025, only 15% of the 500 small business owners surveyed currently recognise their accountant as providing a Key Strategic Partner service.
That figure should concern – and motivate – every accounting and advisory firm.
What the data tells us
The report highlights how recognition varies by business size:
✅ Sole traders: 9%
✅ Small businesses (1–19 employees): 19%
✅ Medium businesses (20–199 employees): 25%
✅ Larger businesses (100+ employees): 30%
These results tell a powerful story.
Yes, larger businesses are more likely to value strategic advice – but the overall 15% result strongly suggests the survey included a large proportion of sole traders. That means SMEs cannot be ignored when building advisory offerings. In fact, they represent one of the biggest untapped opportunities for firms willing to offer structured, practical advisory support at the right level.
The opportunity for your firm in 2026
Here’s the real question:
What if 80% of your clients recognised you as their Key Strategic Partner by the end of 2026?
Achieving that level of recognition doesn’t happen by chance. It requires:
✅ Structured advisory systems
✅ Clear financial and commercial frameworks
✅ Predictive, forward-looking reporting
✅ Practical tools that translate data into decisions
Most importantly, it requires repeatable advisory services that work across sole traders, SMEs, and growing businesses.
How ESS BIZTOOLS can help
ESS BIZTOOLS provides a comprehensive range of Financial, Commercial, and Management Accounting Advisory Service Packages designed specifically to help accounting, bookkeeping, and advisory firms deliver enhanced advisory services in 2026.
Our solutions are built to help you:
✅ Move beyond compliance with confidence
✅ Deliver structured, profitable advisory services
✅ Support sole traders through to established SMEs
✅ Position your firm as a trusted strategic partner
✅ Help your clients thrive – and clearly see your value
Whether through our Starter Package, Advanced Package or Financial Forecasting Package, our focus is simple:
Helping your clients recognise that you are a key partner in achieving their business vision.
Be the change in 2026
If you believe your firm should be valued as more than a compliance provider…
If you want your clients to truly recognise your strategic contribution…
If you are ready to lead change rather than react to it…
We would be honoured to assist your firm in achieving “Key Strategic Partner” recognition in 2026.
EXPLORE ESS BIZTOOLS AND SUBSCRIBE HERE
Visit our website – www.essbiztools.com.au – to discover the detailed overview of the services provided by ESS BIZTOOLS. You are also welcome to contact us on 0418 190 181 or email .
Insights From Our Affiliates
The TaxFitness 5-Minute Business Benchmarking System
Most accountants know benchmarking should be valuable.
In practice, it often isn’t — because it takes too long to do properly and too much effort to repeat.
If benchmarking takes an hour, it becomes an annual exercise.
If it takes five minutes, it becomes part of how you work.
That’s the thinking behind the TaxFitness 5-Minute Business Benchmarking System.
The system is built on one simple shift: stop benchmarking clients against industry averages and benchmark them against the top 20% of performers. Averages explain where a business sits. Top-20% benchmarks show where it could be — and that difference matters.
The 5-Minute Framework
Minute 1 – Import the numbers
Bring in the client’s financials directly from their accounting system or upload the profit and loss. No spreadsheets, no reworking.
Minutes 2–3 – Compare to Top-20% benchmarks
The system automatically compares results to industry-specific Top-20% benchmarks across the key drivers — gross profit, labour, overheads, owner remuneration, and net profit.
Minute 4 – Identify the gaps that matter
You can immediately see where performance is off, where the business is already strong, and which one or two areas will have the biggest impact. Not everything needs fixing.
Minute 5 – Recommend a 12-month advisory package
This is where benchmarking earns its keep. The gaps point directly to the priorities. Instead of one-off advice, you can recommend a structured 12-month advisory engagement focused on improving those drivers, reviewing progress quarterly, and steadily moving the business closer to Top-20% performance.
The aim isn’t academic perfection. It’s consistency. A benchmark used every quarter — even if it’s not perfect — is far more valuable than a perfect benchmark used once.
When clients can clearly see the gap between where they are and what top performers achieve, longer-term advisory work stops being a hard sell. It simply makes sense.
Benchmarking doesn’t need to be complex.
It just needs to be fast enough to actually get used.
More info: www.taxfitness.com.au
Make sure to use the Referral Code: ESS100 for $200 off your annual subscription.
EXPLORE TAXFITNESS AND SUBSCRIBE HERE
Why We Need a New Way of Looking at an Age-Old Art
Selling is not only a critical part of every business, but a critical part of every society.
We need to trade products, services and ideas in order to create the world we want, and we need the skills to be able to do that effectively and ethically.
Hi, my name is Trevor Marchant …from Marchant Dallas Consulting.
Having spent the last thirty-five years of my life training salespeople, it is clear to me that one of the most critical barriers to selling is the attitude that it is somehow distasteful or dishonest.
In order to learn the skills necessary to convince anyone to buy anything, we first need to adopt a new attitude towards selling, one that is positive and practical, and sees selling for what it is: an opportunity to help another human being make a decision about a product, service or idea in a way that serves them best.
Everybody is a salesperson.
Whatever you do in life, the ability to sell is a useful skill to have. Understanding what it takes to change another person’s mind is a prerequisite for getting things done – and everyone in business needs to get things done. Being able to get someone to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an idea, an activity, or a purchase is critical. And, of course, outside of business it is equally important to be able to use your skills of persuasion.
Whether it is getting your children to eat spinach or your grandmother to come snowboarding, the ability to get a ‘yes’ is an art that helps us in every area of our lives.
In his wonderful book that has highlighted a new approach to selling, To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink argues that whatever our profession, in order to get results we need sales skills.
For you, without an understanding of what selling really is or without even the basic skills you are going to miss out on the ‘rapidly growing’ stream of revenue available to all accountants right now – the sale of advisory services and I emphasise sale because advisory services are sold – they are not bought. They are not bought because no one but you know about them.
CAN I SUGGEST ONE COURSE OF ACTION TO YOU – RIGHT NOW …
Download and READ this publication from The BOSS Factor Library (a library created for you and your clients – no one else – just for you and your clients).
This Publication will lead you to our award – winning Sales Course for Professionals.
Over 500 Accountants have now completed this course and on average 10 people start the course every week…
You will need to subscribe to The Boss Factor Library to sign up for the Sales Factor Course.
CLICK HERE For a brief INTRODUCTION to the SALES Factor Course.
CLICK HERE For a brief BIO on Trevor Marchant & Eve Dallas both of whom have been featured in the TOP 1% of Sales and Performance Coaches in Australia and New Zealand.
ESS BIZTOOLS Podcast
In this final Accountants Minute Podcast episode for 2025, Peter Towers is joined by Darren Gleeson, Managing Director of TaxFitness, to explore how benchmarking and virtual CFO services can transform struggling SMEs into top-performing businesses. They discuss why benchmarking against the top 20% (not the average) is critical, how to turn profit gaps into advisory opportunities, and why accountants and bookkeepers must move beyond compliance if they want to stay relevant in an AI-driven world. Perfect for firms ready to lead clients—and their own team—into 2026 with stronger profitability and sharper advisory services.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST
Listen to more Accountants Minute Podcast episodes here
Want to know more?
Visit www.essbiztools.com.au.
If you would like to have a discussion about how this concept of virtual CFO services can be supplied by Australian accounting firms please ring our Managing Director, Peter Towers, on 0418 190 181 and we will arrange a complimentary 45-minute Zoom meeting to discuss your firm’s position and to give you our advice.
We believe that this is the blueprint for the delivery of an enhanced range of services by Australian Accounting and Bookkeeping firms to assist SME businesses to add value to their businesses and to assist accountants and bookkeepers not only to attract but to retain outstanding talent who want to be involved in the delivery of “real accounting services”.
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