The Eight Foundational Steps to Creating Your CAS Practice

The owner of a full-service accounting firm from Cincinnati, Ohio, which won the best accounting firm award in their region for many years, always introduced himself as:?

"I am an entrepreneur. And my business is accounting".?

If you noticed carefully, NONE of your clients could say the second part of this expression. Only you, the accountant, can say -?my business is accounting.?

As accounting is your business, you own (and are accountable for) the accounting processes and their outcomes. Based on my experience and years of analysis of the services offered by hundreds of accounting firms across the country, I found some foundational first steps that successful CAS firms take.

In the?previous edition of The CAS Newsletter, we discovered the fundamental #1?requirement?to start with client accounting services (CAS) or enhance your CAS practice.

This edition will discuss the?first foundational (practical) steps?to getting (actually) started with your CAS offering. If you are already offering CAS, these steps will help you revisit the foundations of your CAS practice.

• Are you already offering or looking to start offering CAS? You can find many strategies and actionable insights to enhance your CAS practice in the best-selling book?Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide.

The eight foundational steps to creating your CAS practice:

In my CAS book, Chapter 8 - "Your CAS Practice: The How-To," I have provided a bird's eye view of the important eight steps (each discussed in detail in the other chapters in the book) to create your CAS practice. These eight key steps (there is a logic to the sequence) proven by several successful CAS firms are:

1. Get partners and staff on board with CAS
2. Adjust your technology stack
3. Look for integration and automation possibilities
4. Create your CAS packages and decide on pricing
5. Plan your staffing/re-skilling of current staff
6. Make your clients aware
7. Refine your client service/collaboration/communications
8. Identify CAS-fit clients

But BEFORE these eight steps......

These are NEW insights that I gained after my CAS book was published. It took many individual discussions with firm owners to revisit their starting points in their CAS practices.

The most apparent and common observation? To find success in CAS, you cannot simply start with the steps mentioned above if you don't do the following?before?you embark on your CAS journey.

The "Why CAS" conundrum:

Fear of missing out (FOMO) on the CAS-mania sweeping the accounting profession cannot be the reason why your firm should want to offer CAS.

CAS is a serious business. It can create a new, enhanced business destiny for your clients. It is a serious responsibility. And unless you have total clarity on why you want to offer CAS and are fully convinced that it is the best thing to do for your clients and your firm, your CAS foundation will be fragile. CAS offering emerges from your own core beliefs, which define your firm's core values, which in turn manifest into the services you provide to your clients.

The key takeaway:?Writing down your core beliefs and your firm's core values will later help you implement CAS effectively and help you articulate it effectively to your clients and prospects, thereby increasing the chances of your CAS success.

• Practical tip:?HOW do you get clarity about core beliefs and values? Just start writing down. Don't discard any thought initially. Then for each belief/value statement, ask yourself the question "Why" five times. After you answer the first why, ask "why" again. Continue this till you reach the answer of the fifth time you ask "why." Trust me; most firms find it challenging to get past the third why. That is when you should not give up because the answers to the fourth and fifth why truly uncover your core strengths.

Need help in uncovering your core strengths for CAS Success? Click here to ask me.

The view from your clients' eyes:

Once you have crystallized the articulation of your core beliefs and values, now is the time to connect them to your clients' needs, wants, dreams, goals, and even fears. Unless your firm's core values genuinely resonate with clients, it won't be easy to truly succeed in CAS. But it is?not?about just creating value statements.

The key takeaway:??In fact, you may not even need to state your core values as long as your CAS clients can practically experience the impact of those values. Let me give you an example.

• Practical tip:?Let's say one of your firm's core values (which emerges from your personal core belief) is?"We feel professionally fulfilled when our clients are more successful."?Even if you tell this to your clients/prospects, with honesty, sincerity, and integrity, it will come across as marketing-speak. But, if you state the impact of this core value, your clients/prospects can quickly connect with it. E.g.,?"We will feel professionally fulfilled when our services lead to <measureable value> (e.g. an X% increase in your profitability, or Y% reduction in the cost of goods sold, etc.). We are happy to share that Y% of our clients experienced similar results in the last three years".?This is just an example to get you started on viewing your core beliefs and values from your clients' eyes.

Connect the why with your actions to implement CAS in your practice:

Now scroll up, and re-read the eight essential steps I mentioned above.

• You will find that without the clarity in your core "why," it will be a considerable challenge to get past the first milestone of getting your firm's partners, leaders, managers, and staff onboard the CAS journey.
• If your team does not wholeheartedly embrace the impact of your "why," you are at risk of making a risky investment into adjusting your technology stack (just because you want to start somehow offering CAS) that ultimately will not get fully utilized because your team does not believe in the value of your CAS objectives.
• And so on...

What next:

CAS has enhanced the practice performance of many firms. CAS does turn into more CA$H for accounting firms. Others have done it, so can you.

In the next edition (March 2022)?of The CAS Newsletter, I will share some?new?insights on why your clients need and want CAS. Stay tuned......

• In the subsequent editions of The CAS Newsletter, I will share many more new, practical insights to make it easier for you to achieve greater success in CAS.
• If you have not yet subscribed to this newsletter,?please subscribe now, so the new, fresh editions with new, fresh insights get delivered to your email inbox, and you also get notified of it here on LinkedIn.
• If you want to get a head-start in your CAS journey, please see?Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide.
• ?If you were to ask just one, all-important CAS question, what will it be? I will answer that question - just?send me your CAS question by clicking here.?
• If you are a professional accountant interested in developing/enhancing your CAS practice, please connect with me on LinkedIn.

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About The CAS Newsletter:

This CAS Newsletter is a monthly publication by Hitendra R. Patil, one of?Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting from 2017 to 2021. The CAS Newsletter will uncover insights for success in Client Accounting Services (CAS) - the new revenue & growth segment for accounting firms.?

Hitendra is the author of the best-selling, accounting profession's first-ever book on CAS:?Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide.