Services you offer affect your talent!
Peter Towers
Founder of ESS BIZTOOLS Pty Ltd | Certified Public Accountant | Business Advisor | Mentor and Coach
ACCOUNTING NEWS
Services you offer affect your talent!
By Peter Towers – ESS BIZTOOLS Pty Ltd
You may recall that, about nine months ago, CommBank Accounting Market Pulse reported that they had conducted a survey of 45 accounting firms.
The result that really stood out was the comment that “the only limitation they face is the worsening talent shortage”.
Many firms may not agree that it’s “the only limitation they face,” but most accountants are still listing talent retention as one of the most important issues they need to get on top of.
Why is this so?
The answer isn’t always simple.?You have to ask yourself, “is the firm offering services that are interesting and challenging enough??Do these services differentiate the firm from its competitors or does the product menu only include taxation-based services?”
The services that you offer is one of the key differentiators in the marketplace.?This is noticed not only by potential clients but also by potential team members.
Six months ago, we featured comments by Andrew Geddes, one of the Founders of the Financial Management Research Centre (FMRC) at the University of New England.?For 10 years, Andrew was also Chair of the Top 200 ASX company, Green Cross Ltd, so he’s really been there and done that.
Andrew believes accounting firms needed to vary the work being allocated to younger accountants, not just relegate them to taxation work all of the time.
Andrew Geddes also suggested that partners should take younger accountants with them when they make client visits.?This way, the younger accountant can observe the reaction between the partner of the firm and the clients as they discuss a wide range of business issues.?He suggested that younger accountants should then be allocated the task of preparing the minutes of the meeting and the action plan. By immersing them meaningfully in the client relationship process, they will start to gain a hands-on understanding of how businesses operate.
Accounting firms need to determine their vision and direction and establish the purpose and values of the firm.
Incidentally, these types of key observations are also required for your clients.?What is their vision??Have you worked their vision into your planning of how you will service that client?
If you were the full-time CFO of your client’s firm, you would have a very clear working understanding of the firm’s vision, wouldn’t you??If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be working there for long.
It is this commitment to supplying services that clients want.?You’ll find that many are prepared to pay well for those services, especially when they experience the benefits.?It is also that type of work that younger accountants think about when they are trying to work out if an accounting firm is going to satisfy their needs for talent development and allow them to acquire worthwhile knowledge and skills.
Another key comment that Andrew Geddes made is to focus on things that have to be ‘nailed’ in the next three months, then set about implementing whatever strategies are necessary to achieve those objectives.?Shouldn’t this type of approach be also adopted within accounting firms, to ensure that there is a strong working knowledge behind the services that the client is looking for?
The BOSS Factor Library for Accountants (of which ESS BIZTOOLS is a distributor) has 75 interesting articles already posted and this is expected to grow to over 100 during the next two months.?These articles cover a wide range of business activities.?They have been developed for accounting teams to familiarise themselves with commercial concepts that their members might not have come across at this stage in their careers.?The detailed information in these articles will help improve the quality of commercial advice that team members offer to the firm’s clients.
Understanding the marketing of services, leadership, and meeting processes, that are key components of commercial activities, is a very important foundation for the modern accountant to acquire.?For more details on The BOSS Factor Library for Accountants, click here .
ESS BIZTOOLS offers a range of product packages that supply articles, videos, webinars and podcasts on a variety of commercial matters.?Many of your SME clients, who are committed to scaling up and adding value, will need this type of advice at various times in their careers.?If your team has been encouraged to study the material within ESS BIZTOOLS and The BOSS Factor Library for Accountants, they will be in a far better position to service your client’s requirements than their mates from university who are not working in an enlightened firm.
The ESS BIZTOOLS product packages include:
You might be interested to listen to the Business Advisory Services Podcast “Assisting SMEs on the Innovation Journey” in which Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS BIZTOOLS, talks to a small business person who has developed a prototype of a new invention.?Click here to listen.
These types of services are now becoming ‘the face of modern accounting firms in Australia’.
If you do not offer these types of services to your clients with the appropriate product packages to assist in the delivery of those services, you are setting yourself up for a fall by the wayside, as tax compliance work becomes less profitable.
Backup materials such as The BOSS Factor Library for Accountants and regular team training sessions allow many firms to deliver services for which their SME clients are now seeking.?At the same time, they need to be creating an environment to attract and retain talent.
Perhaps you need to pull the circuit breaker on your activities so that remedial action can be taken.?Now is a good time to do that!
We invite you to visit www.essbiztools.com.au , where you can review the product packages within ESS?BIZTOOLS and ESS BIZGRANTS, then view the list of contents in The BOSS Factor Library for Accountants and download some sample articles.
You are invited to register for a no-obligation Zoom meeting with our Managing Director, Peter Towers, at www.essbiztools.com.au, to talk about where your firm is heading and the best way to get there.?Click here to book your session.?If you would like to talk by phone, please give us a ring on 1800 232 882 to reserve a convenient time for the discussion.
The next edition of the CommBank Accounting Market Pulse Report is expected in three months’ time.
Wouldn’t it be great if your firm was able to report that you had implemented strategies to introduce products for clients that will assist with “talent attraction and retention” and have produced happy clients because they are receiving “real accounting services”?
ACCOUNTANTS DAILY ARTICLES
Key small business indicators slip into critical zone
Sales, jobs, wages and waiting time for payments all went into reverse during January, the latest Xero data shows.
Key indicators of small business health have slipped into the critical zone according to the latest Xero data, with sales and jobs growth down but waiting times for payment back to early pandemic levels.
The combination of negatives sent the Xero Small Business Index for January tumbling to 93, a fall of 26 points since November, as the impact of inflation flowed through to the frontline of retail and real estate.
“This latest data from our index shows that Australian small businesses are beginning to feel the impact of cost-of-living pressures on their customers,” Xero Australia country manager Will Buckley said.
“We are seeing a slowdown in sales that will be putting pressure on small businesses who are recovering from a demanding few years. This then flows through to their capacity to increase wages and attract staff.”
CLICK HERE to read more.
Six out of 10 employees distrust artificial intelligence
Tools such as ChatGPT are exposing more workers to AI, but concerns linger over the lack of regulation.
Almost 60 per cent of Australians distrust the use of AI at work through tools such as ChatGPT – a sentiment mirrored in other western countries such as the UK and Canada, according to a KPMG survey.
KPMG chair for organisational trust at the University of Queensland School of Business, professor Nicole Gillespie, said the global study found employees accepted AI only for menial tasks.
“Most people are comfortable with AI use for the purpose of augmenting employee performance and decision-making, for example by providing feedback on how to improve performance and providing input for making decisions,” said Ms Gillespie.
“However, people are notably less comfortable with AI use for human resource management, such as to monitor and evaluate employees, collect employee performance data, and support recruitment and selection processes.”
CLICK HERE to read more.
‘When the audits start, all hell will break loose’
Professionals are being singled out to pay more tax under the ATO’s “discriminatory” profit allocation guidance, says Tim Munro.
The ATO has singled out professionals for unfair tax treatment in PCG 2021/4 and when the audits start “all hell will break loose”, says Tim Munro, CEO of Change Accountants and Change GPS.
He said the issue of professional firm profit allocation had flown under the radar of most Australians but large numbers will be affected by it.
“There’s nothing in the tax act [sic] that says who professionals are,” said Mr Munro, speaking on the latest Accountants Daily podcast, with PCG 2021/4 referring to the Australian Council of Professions as a “useful reference”.
“So a lot of accountants I don’t think realise the extent this covers – architects, lawyers, bookkeepers, possibly people running different trade organisations that could be viewed as professionals, obviously medical practitioners and a whole range of geologists, consultants, engineers – they’re all professionals.
CLICK HERE to read more.
Insolvency must accept overlap of small business, personal finance
Reform essential in the wake of the current review, says Bruce Billson of ASBFEO.
Australia needs “to get rid of the fiction” that personal and business finances can be segregated says Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson, as a crucial reform following the current insolvency review.
“We've argued for a number of things,” Mr Billson said, speaking on the latest Accountants Daily podcast. “Clearly one of them is get rid of this fiction.”
“The law sees a business and a person as separate things – the business is oil, the person is water.?Well, I’m sorry in the world we work in everything is salad dressing, it's a blend of both.
“You see this by personal assets being used to secure finance, the way in which even directors liabilities have played out. If you don't meet some of your tax obligations as a business, there's scope to get a director penalty notice that spikes the individual.
CLICK HERE to read more.
Wield carrot and stick on payment times: ASBFEO
The reporting regime has failed to alter performance so there needs to be an easy way to monitor good and bad behaviour.
领英推荐
The time has come for a carrot-and-stick approach to payment times because the payments reporting regime has failed to alter bad behaviour by the top end of town, says Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) Bruce Billson.
He said technology such as e-invoicing made rapid payments to small business a question of appetite rather than ability, so there was a need for mandated times and apps — like in the UK — that rated big businesses on their willingness to pay.
“These are the sorts of things that we’re aspiring to and I think the business community should be up for it,” Mr Billson said, speaking on the latest Accountants Daily podcast.
“If the bottom dwellers aren’t lifting their game there needs to be some way in which that’s visible.
CLICK HERE to read more.
Stress, pay and robo-accountants top deterrents to profession: ACCA
Global talent survey highlights the main trends and challenges facing staff and employers.
Stress, inflation eroding wages and the prospect of technology taking their jobs emerge as the top concerns in the inaugural global talent survey by ACCA.
The survey, which quizzed more than 8,000 accountancy and finance staff at all ages and levels, “shows a profession in workplace transition, grappling with a multitude of short-term challenges as well as big longer-term questions”.
It found the pandemic had changed relationships with the workplace, employers faced a talent crunch and economic headwinds dominated, with the impact of rising prices on real wages the number one concern.
“It’s the biggest worry for both male and female respondents and cuts across every region in the world,” the survey said. “In almost every sector the issue is the top concern too, presenting additional challenges for employers in keeping up with wage demands in a profession where career mobility opportunities remain high.
CLICK HERE to read more.
INNOVATION AUSTRALIA ARTICLES
Review calls for bigger Export Market grants
Changes to the Export Market Development Grants program aimed at increasing the value of individual grants will be considered following the release of the program’s operational review on Thursday.
Under the previous Coalition government, reforms were made to the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) program to change it from a reimbursement programs to a non-competitive grants program.
Alongside other changes, the number of eligible applicants to EMDG 2.0 increased, meaning individual grants are well below the legislated maximum.
While the legislated maximum value for tier three, the largest tier, of the EMDG 2.0 is $150,000, the average grant amount awarded under round one of was $36,396 and the expected maximum to be awarded under round two is $28,000.
According to the review , consultations and survey results “left no doubt that businesses are positive about the EMDG 2.0 program” but that “in some instances they expected more from the program”.
CLICK HERE to read more.
Australian science still crying out for more R&D funding
Australia’s peak research bodies are ramping up pressure on the federal government to deliver on its commitment to push R&D expenditure towards three per cent of GDP.
Calls for greater R&D spending have been made in the pre-Budget submissions of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) , Science and Technology Australia (STA) , Research Australia (RA) , Universities Australia (UA) , Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) , the Australian Technology Network (ATN) , and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) .
Labor’s policy platform ahead of the 2022 election said it would work towards getting Australia’s investment in R&D “closer to three per cent of GDP”, which has been reiterated by Industry and Science minister Ed Husic.
The AAS is calling for the formal adoption of a national R&D expenditure target of three per cent of GDP, ATSE is calling for it to reach “an internationally competitive level”, and UA wants it to at least match the OECD average.
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.
ESS BIZTOOLS Podcast
Our podcast channels are available to access on different platforms.
Business Advisory Services Update Podcast
The latest episode of our ESS BIZTOOLS Business Advisory Services Update Podcast, featuring one of Peter’s consulting client, Duane Hunter, discusses the “innovation journey” on a small business’ point of view.
Feel free to listen to our previous episodes, and subscribe, at your preferred platform:
Accountants Minute Podcast
The latest episode of our ESS BIZTOOLS Accountants Minute Podcast discusses the matters raised in Issue 345 – Is your practice roadmap on target?
You can also listen, and subscribe, on your preferred platform:
ESS BIZTOOLS Webinars
Upcoming Webinars - Click to Register
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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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