The SME Needs Analysis package contains three distinct client-needs tools: BAS017 – SME Needs Analysis, BAS017A – SME Needs Analysis Excel Spreadsheet and BAS017B – Simple SME Needs Analysis.
Each serves a different level of client conversation — from an extensive whole-of-business review, through a topic-by-topic Excel format, to a shorter annual questionnaire with action and review tables.
SME Needs Analysis gives accounting firms a structured way to discover what SME clients actually want help with before recommending business advisory services.
The package includes three complementary client-needs tools that allow your firm to vary the depth of the conversation according to the individual client:
- BAS017 – SME Needs Analysis – a comprehensive whole-of-business client review
- BAS017A – SME Needs Analysis Excel Spreadsheet – a sectioned format that allows individual business topics to be explored separately
- BAS017B – Simple SME Needs Analysis – a shorter review suitable for regular or annual client conversations
Together, these resources provide a practical front end for business advisory services: start with the client’s priorities, identify the issues that matter to them and then determine what assistance should be explored further.
Start with the Client’s Needs
One of the strongest features of SME Needs Analysis is that the conversation begins with the client rather than with a list of products your accounting firm wants to sell.
The resources help your firm explore:
- What is happening within the business
- What concerns the owner
- Where management wants improvement
- What the owner wants to achieve in the future
- Which financial or commercial issues require attention
- Where professional assistance may be valuable
This can create a more relevant advisory conversation because subsequent recommendations are connected directly to priorities the client has identified.
Three Levels of Client Conversation
Not every SME client requires the same depth of review.
The three formats allow your firm to select an approach appropriate to the relationship, available meeting time and complexity of the business.
A client requiring a broad strategic review may benefit from the comprehensive version, while another client may be better suited to reviewing individual topics progressively or completing a shorter periodic needs discussion.
BAS017 – Comprehensive SME Needs Analysis
BAS017 provides the most comprehensive client-needs review within the package.
It is designed to help the adviser take a broad look at the SME owner’s business, financial and longer-term objectives rather than concentrating only on taxation and annual financial statements.
The review spans major areas including:
- Current Business Performance
- Financial management
- Working capital
- Customers and markets
- People and management
- Research and Development
- Export activities
- Capital Raising and Finance
- Taxation Planning
- Future Planning
- Wealth Creation
- Risk Management
- Succession and Estate Planning
- Business Improvement
- Business Advisory Services
- Other professional-service requirements
This breadth makes BAS017 particularly useful where the objective is to understand the wider circumstances of the client before deciding which advisory issues deserve more detailed investigation.
Current Business Performance
The detailed Needs Analysis helps your firm open conversations around how the business is performing today and whether management is satisfied with the results being achieved.
This can involve broad areas such as:
- Profitability
- Cashflow
- Margins
- Business value
- Management reporting
- Key Performance Indicators
- Financial targets
- Operational performance
Where an issue is identified, the accountant can then determine whether a more detailed advisory assignment should be discussed.
Working Capital and Cashflow
The Needs Analysis also helps identify whether the client has concerns around the amount of cash tied up in the normal operating cycle.
This can create discussions involving:
- Debtors
- Stock and inventory
- Work in Progress
- Creditors
- Banking
- Cashflow Forecasts
- Other funding requirements
These discussions may lead into more detailed Cashflow Management, Debtors Management or forecasting work where required.
Budgets and Forward-Looking Financial Information
The resources help identify whether management has sufficient forward-looking financial information for running the business.
This provides a natural opportunity to discuss:
- Budgets
- Cashflow Forecasts
- Financial targets
- Performance monitoring
- Management reporting
Customers, Markets and Competitors
SME Needs Analysis extends well beyond financial reporting.
The client conversation can also explore commercial issues involving:
- Customers
- Customer relationships
- Markets
- Competitors
- Marketing
- Business positioning
- Sales development
This can help uncover causes of financial-performance issues that may not be visible from the accounting records alone.
People and Management
The Needs Analysis can identify concerns involving the people responsible for operating and growing the business.
These can include broad areas such as:
- Management capability
- Team development
- Human Resources
- Training
- Leadership
- Business systems
- Management structure
Where employment, workplace or other specialist issues arise, appropriate professional advice can be coordinated.
Business Planning and Future Direction
The resources encourage SME owners to consider where the business is heading rather than concentrating only on current-year results.
This can open discussions involving:
- Business Planning
- Growth
- New locations or activities
- Buying another business
- Future sale of the business
- Business valuation
- Financial forecasts
- Longer-term strategy
This can provide a natural pathway into a formal Business Planning engagement where the client wants more detailed assistance.
Business Valuation
Business value can become relevant across several different client conversations — whether the owner is planning for retirement, considering a sale, assessing personal wealth or simply wanting to strengthen the business.
The Needs Analysis helps identify when valuation should become a more detailed professional discussion.
Risk Management
The resources also provide a framework for discussing the risks affecting both the business and its owners.
Broad areas can include:
- Business continuity
- Owner dependence
- Insurance
- Financial risk
- Commercial risk
- Cyber security
- Legal and governance considerations
The accountant can identify the issue and involve appropriate legal, insurance, financial or other specialists where necessary.
Succession and Estate Planning
SME Needs Analysis can help raise succession issues well before the owner is preparing to leave the business.
This can include conversations about:
- Future ownership
- Future management
- Retirement
- Business value
- Successor development
- Estate-planning considerations
Where these issues are significant, they can form the basis for a more detailed Succession Planning engagement.
Wealth and Personal Objectives
The shorter and more comprehensive Needs Analysis resources recognise that an SME owner’s business objectives are often closely connected with their personal and family objectives.
The review can therefore help identify broader issues involving:
- Personal financial goals
- Retirement
- Wealth outside the business
- Business value
- Family objectives
- Risk and financial security
Where regulated financial advice is required, the matter can be referred or coordinated with an appropriately qualified adviser.
Taxation Planning
The Needs Analysis also provides a way to identify whether the client wants more proactive taxation discussions rather than dealing with taxation only after the financial year has ended.
The purpose of this section is to identify issues requiring further professional consideration rather than provide taxation advice through the questionnaire itself.
Research and Development
The comprehensive Needs Analysis includes R&D as one of the specialist business areas that may warrant further investigation.
This can help identify innovative clients that may require assistance with Research and Development systems, record keeping or consideration of the R&D Tax Incentive.
Current legislative and ATO requirements should always be used where R&D advice is provided.
Export Activities
Exporting is another specialist area that can be identified through the broader client review.
The Needs Analysis can help establish whether a client is considering international markets or requires further assistance with export planning, financial preparation or government export programs.
Capital Raising and Finance
The resources help identify whether clients expect to require additional debt or equity capital to support their business objectives.
This may create further discussions involving:
- Bank finance
- Financial forecasts
- Capital Raising
- Investment readiness
- Business Planning
- Company valuation
Government Assistance
The client review can also identify whether government grants or assistance may be relevant to future business activities.
Government programs and eligibility requirements can change frequently, so the value of the Needs Analysis is in identifying the opportunity for investigation rather than relying on historical program information.
PPSR and Commercial Risk
PPSR considerations can form part of the wider risk-management discussion where the client supplies goods on credit, owns assets held by other parties or has commercial arrangements that may require further review.
Where PPSR issues are identified, current legal advice and specialist PPSR assistance should be obtained where appropriate.
Business Improvement Opportunities
The Needs Analysis can help management identify areas where the business itself needs strengthening.
These might include:
- Leadership
- Management capability
- Team development
- Technology
- Business systems
- Financial controls
- Operating capacity
This can lead to a broader improvement program rather than addressing financial symptoms in isolation.
BAS017A – Excel-Based SME Needs Analysis
BAS017A provides an Excel-based alternative to the comprehensive questionnaire.
The material separates the Needs Analysis into individual subject areas, allowing your firm to work progressively through the topics most relevant to the client rather than conducting the entire review in one sitting.
This can be useful where:
- The client wants to concentrate on one particular issue
- Different advisers within the firm are responsible for different areas
- The review will be conducted over several meetings
- Individual topics need to be revisited later
BAS017B – Simple SME Needs Analysis
BAS017B provides a shorter alternative for clients who may not initially require a comprehensive whole-of-business review.
It focuses on the owner’s broader business, financial and personal objectives and can provide an effective foundation for an annual or periodic client conversation.
The shorter format can help your firm explore whether the client wants assistance with:
- Improving the business
- Financial and taxation matters
- Building longer-term financial security
- Managing business and personal risk
Use the Simple Review as a Regular Client Check-In
BAS017B can provide a practical way to make business-focused client reviews part of the firm’s normal relationship-management process.
A regular review allows your firm to consider:
- What has changed since the previous meeting
- Which earlier priorities have been addressed
- Which issues remain unresolved
- What new concerns have emerged
- Whether further advisory work is now required
Turn Identified Needs into Follow-Up
The resources include practical follow-up functionality so issues identified during the client discussion do not disappear once the meeting ends.
Your firm can record agreed priorities, identify areas requiring action and retain matters that should be revisited at a future meeting.
This helps move the Needs Analysis from a questionnaire into an ongoing client-management process.
Create an Ongoing Review Cycle
Client needs change as businesses grow, ownership changes, markets evolve and personal objectives develop.
The Needs Analysis can therefore be repeated periodically rather than treated as a one-off exercise.
This creates a recurring process of:
- Understanding the client’s current priorities
- Reviewing earlier issues
- Identifying new needs
- Agreeing what should happen next
- Returning to unresolved matters at future meetings
A Front End for Business Advisory Services
SME Needs Analysis is particularly valuable as the discovery stage of a broader business advisory practice.
The client conversation can identify potential requirements involving areas such as:
- Business Planning
- Budgets & Cashflow Forecasts
- Cashflow Management
- Debtors Management
- Business Evaluation Workshops
- Business Health Checks
- Chief Financial Officer Services
- Strategic Business Mentoring
- Business Valuation
- Buying a Business
- Selling a Business
- Succession Planning
- PPSR Due Diligence
- Research and Development
- Capital Raising
- Other specialist advisory services
The key difference is that these opportunities arise from issues the client has identified rather than from the accountant simply presenting a catalogue of services.
Identify Where a Proposal Is Appropriate
Once a client identifies an area where further assistance is wanted, your firm can determine whether the next step is:
- A further discussion
- Additional investigation
- A defined advisory assignment
- A formal proposal and quotation
- Referral to another professional adviser
This provides a logical pathway from client discovery into properly scoped professional work.
Coordinate Other Professional Advisers
The Needs Analysis extends into areas that may require legal, financial, insurance, employment, estate-planning or other specialist advice.
Your accounting firm does not need to provide every service itself. The value of the process is also in recognising where the client has a need and ensuring the appropriate professional expertise becomes involved.
Strengthen Client Relationships
Asking clients about the wider business can demonstrate that your firm is interested in more than preparing financial statements and taxation returns.
The process gives partners and team members an opportunity to better understand:
- The owner’s concerns
- The business’s current challenges
- Future plans
- Financial priorities
- Personal objectives
This can support a deeper and more proactive client relationship.
Choose the Right Format for Each Client
The three Needs Analysis tools can be used independently or together.
Your firm might use the shorter version for regular client reviews, the Excel format when selected areas require deeper discussion and the comprehensive version where a full whole-of-business review is appropriate.
This flexibility makes the package suitable for clients at different stages of their relationship with the firm.
Review Time-Sensitive Questions Before Use
Some business, taxation, employment, government-program and regulatory matters can change over time.
Before using the questionnaires with current clients, your firm should ensure that any time-sensitive references are checked against current legislation, government programs and professional requirements.
A Repeatable Client Discovery System
Together, BAS017, BAS017A and BAS017B give your firm a flexible and repeatable system for understanding what matters to each SME client before deciding which advisory services should be discussed.
Your firm can use the resources to explore broad business needs, identify priorities, establish appropriate follow-up and revisit changing client requirements over time.
This creates a practical bridge between traditional accounting relationships and business advisory services because the next piece of work begins with a need the client has already identified.
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