Posted: 24 June 2025

Stand Out with R&D Advisory Services
Accountants Minute 412
Are you looking for a powerful way to differentiate your firm and deliver real value to your SME clients?
Research and Development (R&D) advisory services offer one of the most significant opportunities for accountants, bookkeepers, and business advisors to diversify beyond compliance and become trusted innovation partners to SMEs.
Every year, thousands of SMEs begin work on innovative ideas – many without understanding the tax incentives available or how to turn their idea into a successful product. Unfortunately, a lack of support leads many to give up too early.
That’s where you come in.
Help Your Clients Turn Ideas Into Innovation
With the ESS BIZTOOLS R&D Package, your firm can confidently guide clients through the entire R&D process – from concept to potential commercialisation. You’ll be able to:
✅ Explain eligibility for the R&D Tax Incentive (43.5% refundable offset for companies under $20M turnover).
✅ Guide clients in forming a company structure to access the incentive.
✅ Help clients identify eligible expenses, such as wages and external consultants.
✅ Introduce key processes like prior art searches, hypotheses, R&D planning and budgeting.
✅ Navigate AusIndustry registration and ATO compliance reporting.
The R&D process may begin with a simple idea. But with your guidance, it could become a product that changes an industry.
Tools That Make Advisory Easy
The ESS BIZTOOLS R&D Package includes:
✅ 13 flowcharts to clearly explain R&D processes to clients and team members.
✅ 46 ready-to-use forms to document R&D activities, track costs, and support claims.
✅ Templates and guidance for preparing R&D plans, conducting prior art searches, and structuring projects for success.
Whether your client is inventing machinery, developing software for external sale, or testing new systems, you’ll have the tools to support their journey.
Why Offer R&D Advisory?
Offering R&D services is more than a niche – it’s a gateway to long-term advisory relationships, capital raising conversations, and innovation funding support. Plus, it’s engaging and rewarding work that will help you attract and retain talented team members.
Take Advantage of Our EOFY Offer
Now is the perfect time to expand your advisory services.
Until 8 July 2025, we’re offering 50% off all ESS BIZTOOLS product packages – including our comprehensive R&D advisory toolkit.
For example, our flagship Financial Forecasting Package, which includes the R&D module, is available for just $3,990 (inc GST) for 12 months (normally $7,980).
Act now and equip your firm to offer high-value, future-focused services.
FIND OUT MORE 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 .
Free Webinar by ESS BIZTOOLS
From Idea to Incentive: Unlocking R&D Success
📅 Thursday 26 June 2025
🕚 11:00 AM AEST
💻 Live and Complimentary
Great ideas are just the beginning. Learn how to guide your clients from R&D concept to commercial success - using government grants, tax incentives, and early-stage funding options like Early-Stage Innovation Company Capital Raising and Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising.
We’ll walk you through a proven R&D process - from identifying innovation opportunities to lodging claims with AusIndustry and the ATO. You’ll also discover how to position your firm as a key advisor in capital raising and business growth strategies.
Help your clients innovate, grow—and get funded.
ESS BIZTOOLS Podcast
In this powerful episode Accountants Minute Podcast, Peter Towers, Founder and Managing Director of ESS BIZTOOLS, urges accountants, bookkeepers, and business advisors to reflect on a vital question: Are you really helping your clients grow, or just lodging their tax returns?
Peter shares compelling insights from his journey—ranging from CFO of a public company to advisor on innovation and capital raising—highlighting how traditional compliance work is rapidly losing value in today’s tech-driven world. With AI, value-based pricing, and government-backed funding options reshaping the landscape, firms that fail to diversify will be left behind.
Tune in to learn:
✅ Why most SMEs don’t see their accountants as advisors
✅ How to break free from the “compliance-only” trap
✅ The real-world benefits of offering services like R&D support, cash flow forecasting, and capital raising
✅ What you can learn from corporate finance that applies to SME clients
✅ How ESS BIZTOOLS packages are built to help you stand out—and scale up
If you want your firm to thrive, not just survive, this episode is your wake-up call. It's time to differentiate—or disappear.
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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