Predictive Accounting Services Required By Businesses

Many businesses are facing an uncertain economic future and will be looking to their accountants/business advisors/bookkeepers to give them advice as to what the future holds for them.  The key to this advice is for accountants to have the confidence and ability to offer “Predictive Accounting Services” so that their clients have an awareness of the financial implications of the decisions that they are now making.

Paul Barnaby, the Australasian Representative for PlanGuru and an experienced Chartered Accountant and Predictive Accounting Consultant, together with Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS are the presenters of the ESS BIZTOOLS’ Business Advisory Services Update Webinar/Conversation on Wednesday 3rd March at 11.30am AEST (12.30pm AEDT).  To register for this free webinar click here.

This conversation will alert accountants, who are keen to be offering Business Advisory Services/Chief Financial Officer Services, to the tools that are available to assist them to talk to clients about the “key drivers” for the planning of future business operations:

• Employee numbers.
• Rates of Pay.
• Customer Trading Terms.
• Creditors’ Payment Terms.
• Inventory Investment Levels.
• Debtors’ Days Outstanding.
• Production Levels of Various Products.
• Electricity Usage.
• Raw Material Purchases and Delivery Requirements.
• Capital Expenditure Program.
• Dividend or Drawings Payments.
• “Gearing up” business operations by planning for turnover growth and ensuring that adequate consideration has been given to what the effect on cashflow will be, especially in the early stages of business growth where it is possible for the business to be showing profits but experiencing severe cashflow problems.

Once the “key drivers” budgets, which are based on those key driver imports and not merely adding a percentage to last year’s figures can be prepared, the cashflow forecast is then able to be completed with realistic assumptions being made relative to the “key drivers” that relate to the cashflow projections.

The “3 In 1 Financial Projections” are then completed by the preparation of a Projected Balance Sheet which is a clear illustration to the client’s directors and leadership team on what the business’ position will be, based on certain decisions and assumptions that are being made now.

Smaller Accountancy Firms Can Benefit by Delivering Business Advisory Services

Amanda Gascoigne, Amanda Gascoigne Consulting and Peter Towers had an interesting discussion in our last Business Advisory Services Update Webinar/Conversation relating to the service opportunities that are available for smaller accountancy firms that are prepared to offer a broader range of services than taxation and other compliance services.

It was agreed that the majority of accountants wish to pursue a range of additional services for their SME clients, but many of them are worried about capacity – do they have the time – do they have the right tools and do they have the right support structure in place?

ESS BIZTOOLS has developed a range of packages to assist accountants to get ready to deliver Business Advisory Services and then actually to deliver fee paying services to their clients.

The SME Needs’ Analysis was developed by ESS BIZTOOLS based on an original concept developed by Andrew Geddes, Joint Founder of FMRC, to assist accountants to be able to communicate with SME clients to gain an understanding of the matters that were of concern (waking them up at 3.00am) or interest to business owners and leadership team members.

The SME Needs’ Analysis acts as a marketing tool which accountants can utilise to inform their clients that they are interested in providing additional services which will assist the business to survive and add value, something that taxation services are not accepted as achieving by business operators.

Some of the extra work that accountants could consider might initially be fairly basic, but the delivery of these services will get the client to a position where they appreciate that their accountant can offer them services which will help them in their day-to-day business operations including:

• Benchmarking Comparisons – comparisons to the Tax Office Benchmarks, but also to the benchmarks prepared for over 200 industry classifications by Australian Benchmarking.
• Key Performance Indicators, in particular making sure they are relevant to the particular business’ requirements and that the leadership team understand the information that is being conveyed.
• Are charge out rates sufficient for tradies and professional service organisations taking into account employee costs, productivity, working hours, external purchases mark-ups, and desired profit – when all this is put together, will the charge out rates being utilised generate the targeted profit?
• Succession Planning is another ongoing item that accountants should be raising with their clients on an annual basis.
• Research and Development – there is an expectation that thousands of business people may have undertaken research projects over the last 14 months during the COVID-19 lockdown periods and working from home.

Now is the time to be talking to clients to give them an indication that, if they have been undertaking research activities, there is a pathway for them to be able to claim attractive taxation benefits by undertaking legitimate research and development activities.

These businesses need to be companies to gain full advantage of the taxation incentives for research and development, so the quicker that you’re talking to those clients and making them aware of the situation, the greater the opportunity for them to gain some attractive taxation benefits.

You can listen to the webinar recording of the conversation by Amanda and Peter by clicking here.

Brad Smart’s Second Tip Of The Week (“Selling the Message”)

“Last week we talked about using email newsletters as an inexpensive way of restarting your post-COVID marketing.

This form of marketing communications can work very well with your existing client base as top-of-mind promotion, but you may have to explore other strategies, if you’re looking to expand your client base.

A good way to branch out is to use social media.  With a LinkedIn company page, you can start posting blogs on tax and accountancy issues that are likely to affect potential clients, who previously, may never have heard of you.

Blogging is a very effective way of establishing yourself as an expert in your field.  It gives you credibility.

Your LinkedIn articles could be anywhere from 300-2,000 words, but the key to successful writing is to

• establish a threat or an issue people may be facing
• provide a solution that will minimise the impact; and finally
• make it clear this is a service your company offers 

If you need assistance writing your article, email me or give me a call - 0418 311 011.

Upcoming Webinars

Challenges Ahead

You are most welcome to visit our websites – www.essbiztools.com.au or www.essbizgrants.com.au where you can obtain information on government grants that are available for an individual client.

If you are interested in obtaining a free, no obligation overview of the Business Advisory Services Product Packages developed by ESS BIZTOOLS to assist accountants to deliver a wide range of Business Advisory Services without you having to reinvent the wheel by spending hundreds of hours in writing the material, please “Book A Demo” on the ESS BIZTOOLS homepage – www.essbiztools.com.au or contact Peter Towers:

Email:

Telephone: 1800 232 088

Stay safe!

Have a great day.