Posted: 07 July 2020

Business Advisory Services - Crowd Sourced Funding - The Action Areas

Accountant's Minute 239

83 days to go to the end of JobKeeper – will your clients be ready?

Business advisory service expected to be the most in demand!

The CommBank Accounting Market Pulse for June 2020 has identified that a majority of firms expect Business Advisory Services to experience the greatest demand in the coming 6 to 12 months.

The survey questionnaire asked the participants “Which services in the accounting and consulting marketplace do you anticipate will be in highest demand in the next 6 to 12 months?” The response was “Business Advisory Services” – 70%.

By identifying “Business Advisory Services” the accountancy firms that participated in the survey have clearly identified that those firms intend to offer clients a broader range of professional services which will relate to clients' requests for ongoing assistance in a broader range of services than those traditionally supplied by accountancy firms.

This response is not surprising and follows on from the observations made in the “Financial Review” 18th June 2020 “Accountants Become the 'Centrelink' of Business World” which stated:

“The accountant of the future will need to be a compliance expert who can grapple with fast changing rules while providing broader advice to clients about their business”.

In this week’s “COVID-19 Survival Panel" webinar Matt Vitale Co-Founder and Managing Director of Birchal (a Crowd Sourced Funding Intermediary) will comment on “Equity Crowdfunding – Getting Investment Ready”.

Matt Vitale, an experienced financial services lawyer and entrepreneur, will comment on:

Overview of the Crowd Sourced Funding Regime
Birchal’s Philosophy and Process
Common Legal/Structuring Considerations
Recent Case Studies

The second keynote speaker on Friday, 10th July 2020 at 12-noon AEST is Amanda Gascoigne, Amanda Gascoigne Consulting, who will utilise her experience as a professional accountant and consultant to small practices and sole practitioners all over Australia, as they relate to the problems of COVID-19 coronavirus and the marketplace challenges to offer “Business Advisory Services” and the need for an awareness of business funding opportunities that are now available for small businesses and medium-sized enterprises.

In last week’s webinar, Mark Holton, Director, Smithink Pty Ltd outlined some of the challenges facing accountants.

“When it comes to advisory services, we tend a look at advisory as something that we generally do as well as compliance. Well, I think that needs to change.”

“I think we have got to be doing advisory as part of the entire service offering by accountancy firms”.

“Helping a client work out what happens in the future, I see this as one of the sweet spots for an advisor”.

“Accountants need to embrace action planning, which is budgeting, cashflow forecasts, board of advice meetings, holding the client accountable to the big picture plan that they want to achieve”.

“Another thing that is paramount is stress testing – looking at things like the power of one with a client".

“But the first stage in smart advisory services is working out what you want to offer and how you’re going to offer it. Who in your firm is going to do it, how much you’re going to price it for and then guys step off the curb and get out there and do it!”

“I suggest that you should be reading the CommBank Accounting Market Pulse June 2020 report which indicates on page 8 that accountants had identified that they increased by 79% proactive communication with clients during the coronavirus – why did it take a virus to have this level of contact with clients?”

“So, I’d like to leave you with the challenge today – get yourself organised – get yourself ready and get your implementation plan in place to be able to deliver more Business Advisory Services in 2020/21”.

Dale Crosby commented on the Chief Financial Officer Course that he is conducting. There are about 190 participants who are learning a wide range of matters relative to CFO services.

Dale indicated that he was going to refer to information extracted from a report on the CFO Training Programme – if anyone would like to see the full report, please contact and we will arrange for the report to be sent to you.

Dale indicated that with the current financial and accounting software, accountants should be clearly identifying to small businesses and medium-sized enterprise clients that you are in a position to help them and focus on essential strategic, operational and financial planning.

Accountants need to step outside the traditional paradigm or approach and say there is much more that we can do to help you, then we are doing at the moment.

“There’s value in using the virtual CFO description to describe clearly what it is that you can offer to support the client with their business operations. This is part of the transition product process".

Firms need to develop internal champions on various aspects of business advisory services.

You can obtain a link to the recording of the webinar featuring Mark Holton and Dale Crosby by clicking here.

Want to know more about the presentations that were made in last week’s webinar? If so, please click on to “Want To Know More” where you can find the PowerPoint slides that were utilised by Mark Holton and Dale Crosby.

Would you like to know more about the services provided by ESS BIZTOOLS to assist accountants to get started on the development of a “business advisory service” section within your accountancy firm? We invite you to register for a free no obligation 30 day trial of ESS BIZTOOLS by clicking here.

If you would prefer an exclusive webinar presentation on the challenges confronting accountants relative to business advisory services and how you could get started on delivering services to your clients, please contact us for a free webinar booking for you and your colleagues whereby you will be able to ask questions about the various service packages included within ESS BIZTOOLS.

You can also obtain additional information by going to ESS BIZTOOLS' website è Survival In Difficult Times è Learn More.

A reminder…. ESS BIZTOOLS and our Affiliates are presenting this special webinar series “COVID-19 Survival Panel” each Friday at 12-noon AEST until 30th September 2020. If you'd like to register in advance for upcoming webinars please click here.

If you'd like to view the recordings for the past eleven webinars - (click here).

We look forward to hearing from you relative to the free no obligation 30 day trial of ESS BIZTOOLS or booking a free no obligation webinar to discuss the challenges of offering business advisory services and how you could utilise the products developed by ESS BIZTOOLS.

If you would like to contact us about any aspect of ESS BIZTOOLS or ESS BIZGRANTS' products and services, please do not hesitate to contact us: