Financial storytelling: far more than ‘once upon a time’
Peter Towers
Founder of ESS BIZTOOLS Pty Ltd | Certified Public Accountant | Business Advisor | Mentor and Coach
ACCOUNTING NEWS
Financial storytelling: far more than ‘once upon a time’
By Peter Towers – ESS BIZTOOLS Pty Ltd
Ask yourself – what will your accountancy firm do in 2023 to help your clients navigate the future?
No...that’s not a rhetorical question!
Over the last three months, we at ESS BIZTOOLS has shared with you our thoughts and recommendations on the type of services that your practice could offer to your SME clients.
Accountants servicing SME markets need to become “Financial Storytellers”
This is our strong recommendation in Issue 331 of Accountants Minute.
Why?
Because many SME clients are “babes in the woods”.?They need a storyteller to show them what the long-term results could be of the decisions they are making today.
The “storyteller role” is no different from what happens in larger businesses, which have a CFO on staff.
When you take on the role of the “financial storyteller”, you’ll help your SME clients understand the impact, risks and potential benefits of their decisions.
They need to know what the decisions they’re thinking about making today may look like in five years’ time.?Will those decisions benefit their company?
CLICK HERE to read the full article of Accountants Minute 331.
“It’s a new business model – I think it’s going to revolutionise the sector globally!”
We looked at those types of situation within Issue 324 of Accountants Minute with Australian Accounting Industry Guru, Andrew Geddes.
Andrew has an impressive track record and knows what he’s talking about, having been Chair of then ASX top ?200 company Green Cross Ltd for ten years.?It’s well worth a read.
Another person worth listening to is American Accountant, Adam Hale, a partner of Summit CPA in St Louis, Missouri.?Adam has pioneered virtual CFO services for American accounting firms to deliver to SMEs.?We’re recommending his approach to Australian accountants who want to start diversifying their businesses.
Adam indicated that the new business model for proactive and progressive accountants is set around three key components:
The client then has a choice of:
However, the client can decline the offer of back-office accounting and compliance work if they wish.?Not many do.
The product offering is available as:
Find out more in Accountants Minute 324.?CLICK HERE to read the full article.
Financial Forecasting – will this service revolutionise your firm?
Financial forecasting is a further evolution of the “business advisory services” concept.?It gives SME clients the opportunity to hire a virtual CFO to help them in their day-to-day business operations and to analyse problems and make decisions that will start to add value to the business.
The key concept is that accounting services, covering a wide range of business-related matters, will be delivered over 52 weeks rather than being confined to occasional discussions during the year.?Many SMEs just rely on heavy activity from your firm at the end of the financial year relative to the preparation of financial accounts and income tax returns.
Christian Wielage, Managing Director of PlanGuru USA, indicated that their PlanGuru accounting software had seen a significant bump in the sales of its Budget and Cash Flow Forecasting Package (three in one financial forecasts as required by banks) to accountants across America, who are keen to offer the types of services pioneered by Adam Hale’s firm.
Wielage indicated that this trend likely to be repicated in Australia in 2023.
CLICK HERE to read the full article in Accountants Minute 325.
Want to know more about the accounting revolution?
Christian Wielage also believes Adam Hale has become the “rock star” of the American accounting industry, due to his pioneering work with the evolution of virtual CFO services and the way those service have been taken up by SME clients.
The concept discussed by Adam Hale will provide interesting and challenging work for your accounting team members if you’re prepared to open the door to these new ideas.?Providing more rewarding work has another benefit: the attraction and retention of talent.?The recent CommBank Accounting Market Pulse Report described this as the biggest single problem confronting today’s accountants.
CLICK HERE to read the full article in Accountants Minute 326.
Do you want to diversify your accounting firm?
We are certainly living in uncertain times.
For most people, that’s not a good thing.
However, for accountants, uncertainty presents us with significant opportunities, even though it may mean we have to reconsider the way we currently work with our clients.
Financial Forecasting is a strategy that has the potential to help your firm to:
This is real accounting work, which many of your clients may need right now!
CLICK HERE to read the full article in Accountants Minute 329.
Sometimes we’ve just gotta take the lead from Uncle Sam
Like it or not, accountancy is now in a global market.
I’d like to take a few minutes to outline where I see the accountancy market in Australia heading.?Let’s look at where I believe we are now, compared to the changes that have already swept through the US.
US accountant Adam Hale has given us an overview of the rapid changes that have occurred for a number of reasons, including:
Ever improving and sophisticated software is now reducing the amount of time that American accountants are spending on the preparation of income tax returns.
Firms are often faced with losing key staff unless they can offer greater intellectual challenges, such as a broader range of interests, like virtual CFO services to help their SME clients.
Discovering that the SME marketplace is receptive, and in many cases expects, to be offered a broader range of value add in services by professional accountants.
If you stand back and take a look, you can see that these changes are also happening in the Australian market.?Sure, we may be 12 to 18 months behind, but I believe it is inevitable that these changes will take hold here and your firm needs to be at the forefront.
CLICK HERE to read the full article in Accountants Minute 330.
As you can see, Financial Storytelling is serious business…it’s not about fairy tales.
We all know that it’s been a bumpy year across most business sectors.
Now, as we close out 2022, each of us needs to seriously think about where we’re heading as the New Year approaches.?2023 could be even more challenging.
You could be staring down several options.
Perhaps you’re ready to throw in the towel and say it’s all too hard.
You could decide to change nothing in your business and continue with tax work until you realise that Tax Commissioner wasn’t kidding when he said that some compliance work won’t be viable in three years’ time.
Neither of those two choices sounds really appealing.
What we, at ESS BIZTOOLS, hope you’ll do, is relax over the holiday period.?That’s the time to think about how you can profitably diversify your business next year by offering your SME clients those “business advisory services” that they need.
As part of your research, check out our website www.essbiztools.com.au , and find out how easy it is to start offering these new services at a highly professional level, thanks to the industry packages we have available.
Season’s Greetings to you, your family members and your clients from all of us here at ESS BIZTOOLS.
We look forward to seeing you back and ready to take on the world in 2023.
ESS BIZTOOLS Promise
The challenges of 2023 are only weeks away.?There is a lot of chatter about “Advisory Services” and how Accountants, Bookkeepers, Business Advisors and CFOs servicing SMEs can deliver those services.
Over the last three months, ESS BIZTOOLS’ Accountants Minute editions have highlighted the opportunities for this group of professionals to be able to play a significant “Storyteller” role in assisting SME businesses to achieve their vision.
领英推荐
From the time you sign on, ESS BIZTOOLS promise to assist our members to a range of services to assist you to deliver “value adding services” to your SME clients.?These services will be welcomed by your clients and your accounting team members.?Your team will be involved in the delivery of interesting and challenging services which will assist your professional firm to retain and attract talent.?Furthermore, your firm will generate fees from a new revenue source which will enhance your firm’s financial position.
Our promises to our members are:
We can definitely help you deliver these services to your clients.
Peter Towers – Managing Director
ESS BIZTOOLS and ESS BIZGRANTS
Why lockdown DPNs put accountants in jeopardy
Tax professionals could find themselves in the firing line if a director becomes personally liable for company debts.
With the increasing willingness of the ATO to pursue enforcement activity and the credit crunch from interest rate rises, inflation and falling property prices, it’s unsurprising that more and more directors are finding themselves personally liable for their companies’ debts through the receipt of a Director Penalty Notice (DPN).
Sometimes, the first time a director becomes aware that the ATO is pursuing or may pursue the director personally is when the DPN lands in his or her lap. The big shock comes when the director learns that the DPN is a so-called lockdown DPN, which essentially means that unless the company pays the ATO debt, the director will become personally liable. And that could eventually lead to his or her bankruptcy. Under a lockdown DPN, directors are unable to avoid personal liability by placing the company in the hands of an external administration, such as a voluntary administrator or liquidator.
CLICK HERE to read more from Accountants Daily.
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW ARTICLES
Telstra ditches NDAs related to sexual harassment
Telstra will no longer ask employees affected by sexual harassment in the workplace to sign non-disclosure agreements that ban them from talking about the incident, the company’s chief people officer has announced.
Alex Badenoch, Telstra’s group executive of transformation, communications and people, said in a note to staff on Thursday that the company does not have a practice of seeking NDAs in such circumstances and had “very rarely” used NDAs in the past.
But the company wanted to take its “commitment one big step further”, she said.
CLICK HERE to read more.
CBA’s plan to lure Queensland’s best techies
Commonwealth Bank is hiring another 100 software developers and data scientists in Queensland to join at its newly opened Brisbane tech hub, which will house staff seeking sunnier lifestyles and be used to train recruits.
On Tuesday, the bank will unveil a new tech hub on Ann Street in Brisbane’s CBD, as well as partnerships with University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology and TAFE Queensland.
Brendan Hopper, the bank’s chief information officer for technology, told The Australian Financial Review that CBA had expanded its Queensland-based tech team from near zero to around 50 people in the last two years.
CLICK HERE to read more.
By the numbers
The median salary for a full-time chartered accountant rose 11 per cent in 2022 to $150,000 a year, the Chartered Accountants ANZ annual salary survey reveals .
People hired in company finance teams and other commercial roles earned the most, with their median pay packet coming in at $180,553 annually. They were followed by not-for-profit accounting and finance roles, which reported a median salary of $166,282; government positions, with a median salary of $150,401; and public-practice roles, with a median salary of $115,500.
The large salary bumps reflect the generous pay rises offered by accounting outfits throughout the pandemic to snare workers in a tight labour market.
CA ANZ chief executive Ainslie van Onselen said the survey showed “accounting remains an attractive and well-paid proposition” as employers bid up salaries to overcome major skills shortages.
“The constrained labour market means employers are having to step up when it comes to securing employees – increased remuneration is one of the ways they’re doing this,” she said.
“[And] conditions are expected to remain tight – there are more accounting jobs than ever and that’s expected to increase in coming years.”
Remote working made Australians less productive: survey
Australians forced to work from home at the onset of the pandemic say the experience was a hit to their productivity and led to no measurable increase in job satisfaction.
The findings are from the 2020 edition of the Melbourne Institute’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey , released on Monday.
The survey , which tracks 9500 households and 17,500 individuals, was primarily conducted in August and September 2020, during Victoria’s protracted lockdown and provides an insight into how the pandemic changed the way Australians live and work.
CLICK HERE to read more.
‘It’s cheaper to fly private’: the execs ditching Qantas
?Companies frustrated with sky-high fares, frequent cancellations and long check-in queues at airports are opting for private jets as the rising cost of travel narrows the price gap with flying commercial.
Some corporates have even been able to save money taking a private jet over a commercial carrier for group bookings, according to Travala global operations manager Radka Wilson.
The Brisbane-based executive was recently able to shave $1000 off the cost of six travellers flying to Hamilton Island by chartering a private jet.
“They were even able to avoid the two-hour stopover in Brisbane,” Ms Wilson said of the flight she arranged for cryptocurrency platform executive Daniel Alexiuc.
“We originally received a quote of $8500 for all six to fly on Qantas and that was via Brisbane. But we then looked around and we were able to put them on a private aircraft for $1000 less, and it was a direct flight … it’s just a whole other level of flexibility.”
CLICK HERE to read more.
INNOVATION AUSTRALIA ARTICLES
NSW startups share in $5m Physical Sciences Fund
Low-cost green hydrogen, construction site dust monitors, AI-based crop prediction software and a connected vehicles platform are among the solutions to receive support from the New South Wales government’s Physical Sciences Fund this year.
2022 recipients were announced at an event in Sydney on Wednesday, marking the fourth year the $5 million fund has been deployed by the state’s chief scientist to support local device commercialisation.
The companies to share in $5 million this year are Wollongong electrolyser startup Hysata, environmental management monitor, Sydney-based device and software company SiteHive, agrifood firm The Yield, and Wagga Wagga connectivity solutions provider Zetifi.
CLICK HERE to read more.
‘Lacklustre’ response to expert plan for NSW manufacturing
The New South Wales government is directing manufacturers to a $30 million grant program while it considers more strategic and costly policy changes, including its own network of manufacturing centres based on the successful UK Catapult model.
An interim government response to the recommendations of an expert manufacturing taskforce has been released, while a more detailed response will come as part of the state’s first Modern Manufacturing Strategy next year.
The interim response released over the weekend offers commitments for the Modern Manufacturing Commissioner to continue consulting, reviewing and analysing the state’s support for manufacturing, but stops short of endorsing the taskforce’s recommendations for significant change that would need increased resourcing.
The state Opposition has blasted the response as “more talk and no action” at a time when manufacturers are struggling
CLICK HERE to read more.
Grants Update
There are number of grants for which your SME clients might be eligible.
Want to know what they are??Click here for a list of current grants, prepared by ESS BIZTOOLS.
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Want to know more?
Visit www.essbiztools.com.au .?You are also welcome to visit www.essbizgrants.com.au , a website that can assist in the identification of government grant(s) suitable for your clients.
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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