Navigating The Transition To Business Advisory Services

How long have you been discussing the implementation of a diversification strategy to introduce Business Advisory Services to your accounting firm?

It is nearly 10 months since the CommBank Accounting Market Pulse Report was produced which indicated that 95% of the accounting firms that the CommBank had interviewed had indicated that in 2021 and 2022 they would be “diversifying services”.

Admittedly, there have been a lot of challenges since May 2021 but, as we can see from recent events in Europe, there is always going to be challenges, but are they enough reason not to embark on a strategy that you think might be right for your firm?

The month of March is a great time to launch a “3 Month Strategy” to implement the “TRANSITION TO BUSINESS ADVISORY SERVICES!”

If you’re interested in joining us on this journey, we are going to prepare for you an interesting article and a series of social media posts each week, to assist Accountants, Business Advisors, Chief Financial Officers Servicing SMEs and Bookkeepers, who wish to launch “Business Advisory Services” for the benefit of:

• your CLIENTS, who will be receiving services that many of them are looking for which they perceive will add value to their businesses;
• your TEAM, who will be undertaking interesting and challenging work that many have described as “real accounting work” – this should assist you in the retention of accounting team members and in attracting any additional staff that you require; and
• your FIRM, which will be earning income from a range of diversified services from activities involving happy team members and happy clients, a WIN, WIN, WIN situation!

A word of warning – this will not just happen.  I know that you appreciate this and that is one of the reasons you may have been putting off the transition to a range of Business Advisory Services over the years.

We are not advocating that you desert compliance work involving the preparation of income tax returns, quite the contrary.  This is important work and its part of the link you have with your clients, but these days, many of your clients are anxious to receive additional, commercial information and their first thought is to try to get that advice and information from their current advisor.

But, you must be sending them the signals that you’re able to supply these services, otherwise they’ll seek out that advice from other people and you then run the real risk that, over time, you’ll also lose the taxation work.

I use the word “lose”.  It was not a slip of the tongue.  It was quite deliberate because, if you haven’t taken the opportunity to seriously examine the additional services that a business, which is currently your clients, would like you to provide and they then move onto another firm, that will provide that service, I count that as a “loss” for your firm.

So, where do we start on the “TRANSITION TO BUSINESS ADVISORY SERVICES”?

• Weeks 1 and 2 - develop strategies for your firm. They don’t have to be overcomplicated, basically that the partners and senior managers resolve that you’re going to offer this service and you start putting the strategy together – we will guide you on this journey.

• Week 3 - have a team meeting and brief your team members on the diversification strategy that you’re going to implement over the next 3 months, which is basically to provide a range of business services to assist your clients to grow and add value to their businesses, as if you were all engaged as the internal Chief Financial Officer for that client. Now, I assume most of your clients cannot afford a full-time CFO and they probably wouldn’t have enough work for one in any case, but with today’s technology, software and communications you should be able to operate a range of “virtual services” to assist your clients.

• Week 4 – team training can commence – ESS BIZTOOLS includes a complete set of modules to assist you with the training and development of the skills that your team is going to need. Our suggestion is that you start working through it to get the team ready.

You’ll need to raise some aspects of supplying a “commercial accounting service”, as distinct from the preparation of annual accounts and income tax returns which are different, including:

• Key Performance Indicators – these are very important for most of your clients, however when you’re concentrating on the preparation of income tax returns, you probably don’t take much notice of them (I found this out when I moved from the accountancy profession into a commercial operation when I became the Chief Financial Officer of a public company). Your team needs to develop an understanding of how businesses use their Key Performance Indicators

• Profitability Reports for Individual Markets – some of your clients who are exporting, or who have widespread business locations, may be very interested or may already be trying to prepare profitability reports for individual markets.

• Profitability Reports for Individual Customers – in my experience, I have found quite a number of businesses prepare these types of reports internally and, in many cases, the external accountants don’t know that they do this or tried to do this, but it can be very important for them.

• Business Health Comparisons – these are the comparisons of Key Performance Indicators and some benchmarking data, whereby management is able to compare performance from one week or month to another to try to determine any abnormal items or trends that could be further investigated.

• Format of Financial Reports – many of your clients are not very excited about the traditional format of a Profit and Loss Account and if, your accounting team are going to be preparing financial data for them to help them better run their businesses, they may be interested in discussing a changed presentation format for their monthly financial report which gives them more direct information including Key Performance Indicators and various business costs.

You can still prepare the traditional profit and loss account for taxation purposes!

Next week, we’ll consider the development of “Product Champions” within your firm and the selection of the right clients with whom to commence this new range of services. 

Also next week, we’ll be announcing a new ESS BIZTOOLS’ Product Strategy which, we believe, will assist your firm to embark on the “TRANSITION TO BUSINESS ADVISORY SERVICES”. 

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 and I’ll be happy to organise a complimentary 45 minute Zoom meeting to discuss the implementation of Business Advisory Services by your firm to suit your clients and your accounting team; or visit www.essbiztools.com.au to review our product information and a lot more.

The recent social media posts that we’ve prepared are all centred on assisting accountants to get ready to offer an enhanced range of business advisory services:

Click on “Business Advisory Services, the Journey Starts with Training”, or you can watch the video recording click here.

Click on “Webinars Are an Important Communication Tool”.

Click on “Supplying SMEs with a Library of Articles Differentiates Accountants”.

Click on “Seminars/Webinars Are a Great Communication Tool”.

Click on “Regular Newsletters Keep SMEs Informed”.

Click on “Sending Samples Introduces New Services to SMEs”.

Click on “Navigating the Transition to Business Advisory Services”.

Want to know more about ESS BIZTOOLS?

Please visit our upgraded websites – www.essbiztools.com.au and www.essbizgrants.com.au to review the product packages.

Free Strategy and Demonstration Session?

You are invited to “Book A Free Strategy and Demonstration Session” on ESS BIZTOOLS with Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS to gain a better understanding of the services that are available within ESS BIZTOOLS and ESS BIZGRANTS?

You can book a demo at www.essbiztools.com.au or contact Peter Towers:

• Email:
• Telephone: 1800 232 088