Delivering the services that the market needs!
Peter Towers
Founder of ESS BIZTOOLS Pty Ltd | Certified Public Accountant | Business Advisor | Mentor and Coach
In 2023, we believe it is reasonable that accounting firms should accept that your role is to deliver a virtual CFO service to your SME clients. Whether this is actually expressed in those words or not is your choice.
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If you are not prepared to embrace that this is the service delivery that you should be offering, you will probably find nothing of interest in this article. However, if you are keen to deliver services that today’s technologies and product packages give you the resources to deliver, we believe that you will be interested in the matters that we have discussed in this article.
Getting started – have a discussion with 1 or 2 clients.
Andrew Geddes suggested that you should visit your selected clients with the SME Needs Analysis. Utilise the questionnaire to facilitate a conversation with your client about what concerns they have that worries them at night.
Read the SME Needs Analysis beforehand and select the questions to ask. Listen, take notes and try to identify what help the client needs.
SMEs are receptive to this approach – it’s just about asking questions and listening to the answers!
You don’t have to have all the answers to your clients’ questions. What you may be able to do is to organise other people to answer specific questions.
Your role is to identify the issues and then help the client identify people with the skills and knowledge to assist them in a particular area.
This is what happens in a public company. Whilst the CFO might be the focal person for a lot of these general matters, the CFO’s role is to assist if they can., If not, to find someone with the expertise who can solve a particular problem. The key outcome is that the problem has been identified and that someone has been allocated, hired or appointed to fix that problem for your client.
Learning from the USA experience
The concept of accountants offering a broader range of professional services is now well-established in the USA, where accountants found that some of the work that they had traditionally performed was no longer required due to the ever improving updates to technology and software.
The pioneer of this concept in the USA, Summit CPA, discovered that when they approached their clients to ask them if they were receptive to the accountants providing additional services, they were welcomed with comments like, “Why has it taken you so long to ask?”
Summit CPA offers three (3) levels of service:
1.???? Predictive Accounting: utilising Plan Guru Predictive Software which we use and endorse at ESS BIZTOOLS – budgets – key drivers – projected balance sheet – key performance indicators and metrics
2.???? Back Office Services: including payroll, payment of creditors, debtors ledger, general ledger
3.???? Tax Return Preparation
Summit CPA have decided that the Predictive Accounting Process is compulsory for clients. Their client can elect whether Summit CPA will be involved in back-office and tax return preparation. We understand that 94% of their clients have elected that Summit CPA will be appointed for all three professional components.
You need to understand the business
For most of us, a different level of knowledge on the clients’ affairs is required, if you are going to perform the virtual CFO role, as compared to the preparation of an annual set of accounts and the income tax return.
Summit CPA have identified this knowledge requirement as having a knowledge of the client’s business that is “an inch wide and a mile deep”, NOT “a mile wide and only an inch deep”!
Getting some early wins!
ESS BIZTOOLS has developed the Tradie Charge Out Rate Calculator , which enables you to deliver a great service to your Tradie clients.
Tradie clients like all businesses need to prepare budgets and calculations relative to:
By utilising the ESS BIZTOOLS Tradie Charge Out Rate Calculator , you will be able to accurately calculate the required charge out rates for individual team members.
The ultimate objective is to ensure that the targeted profit was earned for the year.
Our suggestion is that this service should be presented to clients, on the basis that financial accounts will be prepared on a monthly basis, with a comparison back to the original budget.
A business review meeting should be held on a monthly basis, to consider the results and to decide whether there should be some adjustments made to the charge out rates, because of the results that have been determined in that month’s performance.
Compare this approach to what normally happens with a Tradie client. It is probably six to nine months after the end of the financial year that a set of financial accounts are prepared and the Tradie is then informed that they did not charge enough money during the year to generate the profit target.
This approach is to provide a level of experience and due diligence, to assist clients in their day-to-day business operations, just as a CFO does in a larger business.
There is a similar package within ESS BIZTOOLS for Professional Service Firms and an allied package for retailers and wholesalers that evaluates the various stock components being purchased for sale and the mark-up percentages that are applicable, to see whether the resulting gross profit will be sufficient to generate the targeted profit for the business.
Strategic Planning Meetings
Andrew Geddes has commented previously on the success that two of the accounting firms that he consults to have had utilising the ESS BIZTOOLS “product packages to deliver strategic planning facilitation services” for their clients.
The key questions are as follows…
What do you want this business to look like in three to five years’ time?
What changes need to be made?
What has to be improved in the next quarter?
Is the pattern of meetings suitable for this business?
Annual Business Valuation
As more clients raise capital for their companies, implement proper Board of Directors or Board of Advice processes, appoint auditors or develop intellectual property, there will be more interest from Directors as to what the effect of these activities has on the valuation of the business.
Andrew Geddes from his time as the chair of a top 200 ASX company was very much aware of the “instant” market valuation that a public company receives from its stock exchange listing. Andrew believes that more and more private companies who are involved in various aspects of scaling up will be interested in what the effect of these activities has had on the company’s valuation.
As companies embark on these types of strategic improvements, recognition of these improvements could be shown in the price/earnings multiplier that is being used, which will affect the valuation of the company.
ESS BIZTOOLS includes material on business valuations which could be used for this process.
How do we improve the business valuation?
This is a logical question to be asked.
The average multiplier for a company listed on the ASX is 15.
The average multiplier for a company undertaking an initial public offer on the ASX is 10 – 12.
The average multiplier for a private company is 3.5 – 4.
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As a company embarks on strategies to improve its valuation, a valuer will be more inclined to increase the multiplier from that shown for a private company to something headed towards the multiplier used for a company undertaking an IPO.
Risk Analysis
The lessons of the last few years have really emphasised that directors and leadership teams need to seriously review risks that could affect the business operations. If your firm is offering a virtual CFO service to your client, reviewing the risks and developing strategies to combat those risks are activities that you probably will be involved in.
Advisory Boards
Running a company, or in fact any type of business, can be very lonely for the CEO or Director. Corporate law allows companies to be formed with only one Director. It is not conducive to having a group of experts giving guidance to the leadership team like happens in a public company.
A strategy that has been developed to overcome this communication feedback has been the appointment of an Advisory Board.
This is an area that an accounting firm, offering a virtual CFO service, should be facilitating, so that a small group of experienced business people can meet with the CEO each month to review every aspect of the business operations.
Becoming an advisor
Andrew Geddes utilised his considerable Corporate Directors Knowledge with these words:
“As the demand for compliance services drops thanks to automation, you can start increasing your involvement with a small group of clients and evolve into becoming a successful business advisor.? You do not have to be a specialist in any particular industry. You have just got to ask insightful questions, listen to the feedback and draw on your years of accounting experience and help the person who owns and runs the business with your best advice.”
Andrew added, “A very sensible way to start is by using the programs that are constantly being developed by ESS BIZTOOLS as well as the new communication technologies and software products, like Plan Guru, to develop your skills and help your clients.”
Virtual CFO role for SMES – the new standard!
40 years ago, the University of New England made a courageous decision to create FMRC (Financial Management Research Centre). That organisation challenged accountants to supply more business related information to the SME market. The process was definitely assisted by the emergence of suitable computers and software that had been designed to supply information required by accountants to prepare annual accounts and income tax returns.
The world has moved on. Businesses needed accountants to supply more business information 40 years ago, and they still need it now! In lots of ways, trading conditions are more difficult. Businesses, banks, and all types of other organisations are all moving a lot faster. SMEs need real-time financial information now and the key group to coordinate the supply of this information is ACCOUNTANTS.
We assume that if you’ve got this far in this briefing, you are aware of the importance of virtual CFO services to your SME clients.
We look forward to being able to assist you. If you wish to supply your firm with suitable resources to enable you to deliver this new range of services for your SME clients – thus assisting your accounting team to fulfil the role as the virtual CFO, we look forward to having the opportunity to work with you and your team!
Special Upcoming Webinar
ESS BIZTOOLS is presenting a special FREE webinar, “Scaling Up Services”. This feature webinar will be held on Wednesday, 11 October 2023 at 11am AEST. Register below.
If you're a CPA Australia member, register to the link below to claim CPD point (must attend the duration of the webinar).
ESS BIZTOOLS Product Packages – Special Offer
Product packages to assist your firm to implement Business Advisory Services as outlined by Andrew Geddes.
Each new subscriber will receive a three (3) day Discounted Holiday Package for subscriptions completed by 18 October 2023. Find out more below.
Starter Package
Monthly payment: $149 including GST (normally $197 including GST)
Discounted upfront payment: $1,529 including GST (normally $2,100 including GST)
Click below to find out more and to subscribe.
Advanced Package
Monthly payment: $239 including GST (normally $596 including GST)
Discounted upfront payment: $2,519 including GST (normally $6,500 including GST)
Click below to find out more and to subscribe.
Financial Forecasting Package
Monthly payment: $578 including GST (normally $917 including GST)
Discounted upfront payment: $6,199 including GST (normally $11,000 including GST)
Click below to find out more and to subscribe.
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 1800 232 088 and we will arrange a complimentary 15-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 firms to assist SME businesses to add value to their businesses and to assist accountants 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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