Our team at ESS BIZTOOLS has created an opportunity for accountants, like you, to offer a broader range of commercial services to their SME clients in a cost effective way.
Providing professional Business Advisory Services can add a new stream of income that will flow into your practice and help grow your business.
But, for smaller firms, offering new services over and above compliance work is often seen as an uphill battle, especially with all the preparatory work involved.
That is where we come in.
In our new Business Advisory package, we at ESS BIZTOOLS have done that work for you.
Best of all, we have made it very affordable, by changing the way we have previously charged.
No more yearly subscriptions or annual contracts.
Instead, we will be supplying our extensive range of industry resources on a monthly subscription basis, so those long-term commitments to contracts are a thing of the past.
We are confident that accountants who use our service will quickly come to depend on it.
Each week, new material and updated information will be added to the online members’ package, you will always be up to date.
By being able to offer the services we’ve developed in the package to your retail clients, you will be helping them to grow and add value to their businesses. With the expanded services you will be offering from your accountancy firm, you will be creating challenging and interesting work for your accountant team members. This is sure to help you retain experienced staff and make your firm a more attractive proposition, when you are competing in the market to recruit additional accountants.
The Commonwealth Bank “Accounting Market Pulse Report in 2021” indicated that 95% of the firms interviewed from all over Australia had indicated that they were undertaking diversification of their services during 2021 and 2022.
Has your firm developed a strategy for the implementation of a range of diversified services?
One of the problems that many firms confront once they have made the decision to diversify their services is “where do we start”?
I started ESS BIZTOOLS 22 years ago following a successful career in commerce and public practice. I was convinced then, and I am still convinced today, that the SME market is looking for someone to provide additional commercial services and reliable professional advice. The most logical organisation to supply those sorts of commercial services is accountants, who have “up skilled” themselves with the knowledge to meet the business needs of today’s SMEs.
Most SMEs are not looking for more advice on the preparation of their annual financial accounts or their income tax returns. What they are looking for is advice and assistance on how to run their operations more efficiently, so they can add ongoing value to their businesses. Ultimately, that improved value will allow the owners to retire with dignity.
In my commercial career I was the Chief Financial Officer/Company Secretary of a listed public company. I learnt that larger organisations tend to run their operations as a series of small businesses with an area manager. That manager often has a small team to assist them in the management of those businesses. Usually, the team is comprised of an accountant or experienced bookkeeper and some other clerical, marketing and promotional staff.
Public companies have a great awareness of the necessity of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). They go to significant lengths to ensure that appropriate KPIs are introduced at all levels of the organisation. Some KPIs are applied on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis. The internal accountant working in one of those support teams normally has a prime responsibility for reviewing those KPIs. Any abnormal results are then raised with the area manager and the manager responsible for that particular business unit so that issues are able to be dealt with quickly and efficiently.
These types of organisations produce Budgets and Cash Flow Forecasts based on management’s realistic estimates of how the business will operate during the forthcoming 12 months. They don’t just take last year’s figures and add a percentage. Instead, they go back to the very beginning and evaluate the key components of a business:
- Production forecasts
- Labour teams to produce that production
- Raw material requirements and cost for that production
- Electricity and other fuel and energy requirements and cost to produce that production
- Estimates of inventory holdings
- Sales estimates supplied by the sales department
- Level of marketing required to achieve the sales supplied by the marketing department
- Forecast debtors levels – including targeted “Debtors Days Outstanding”
- Wages costs including wages on cost
- Detailed Profit And Loss Forecasts prepared for each operating unit of the business on a month by month basis
- Detailed Cash Flow Forecasts
- Projected Balance Sheets on a month by month basis
The commercial accountant then sits down with the management team and lays out these forecasts so that everyone understands what their performance expectations are. The team is also told what the Key Performance Indicators are going to be used to monitor the efficiency of their performance.
Detailed monthly Financial Accounts are prepared for each business unit. These show a comparison to the Budget forecast. A business review meeting each month analyses the performance to identify any structural changes that are necessary to achieve that business unit’s annual budget forecast
THESE ARE THE TYPES OF SERVICES THAT MANY SMES ARE NOW LOOKING FOR. CLEARLY, THESE SERVICES HAVE TO BE ADAPTED TO SUIT THE CLIENT’S INDUSTRY AND THE NEEDS OF THEIR OWN BUSINESS, BUT THIS IS WHERE MODERN SMEs ARE HEADING.
ARE YOU READY TO PROVIDE THIS RANGE OF INTERESTING AND CHALLENGING SERVICES TO A NUMBER OF YOUR SME CLIENTS? I CERTAINLY HOPE SO!
ESS BIZTOOLS’ new SME offering includes innovative product packages that have been developed to assist accountants to get started on this journey of diversifying into Business Advisory Services.
- The Preparation Package – monthly subscription $129 including GST
- The Starter Package – monthly subscription of $197 including GST
To view these packages, please click here.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
If you would like to see how your accountancy firm could introduce Business Advisory Services and generate additional revenue, then please go to our homepage and click on to “Free Strategy and Demonstration Session”.
Alternatively, if you would prefer to discuss the options, please give us a ring on 1800 232 088 so we can arrange a suitable time to have a no obligation 45 minute Zoom meeting to talk over the strategies and benefits for your firm.
Peter Towers | ESS Biztools
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