the first step is the toughest: start with your colleagues.
by hitendra patil
client accounting services: the definitive success guide
whether you are thinking of offering client accounting services, have already started offering it or you want to grow your cas practice or make it more profitable, some proven steps will make your cas practice shape up in the most optimized way.
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if you have already started offering cas, these are the steps that you will revisit from time to time.
there are several steps to get started in cas and make your cas practice better. the following details are just a bird’s-eye view of the important aspects of how to create your cas practice.
- get partners and staff on board with cas: if you have your own book of business, then convincing other partner/s may not be an issue, as you probably have a lot of leeway regarding what services you can offer. but if you are a partner in a multi-partner firm, one of the challenges you may face is not the “how-to” but the “whether to” offer cas. and more often than not, this hurdle comes from a lack of full understanding of cas. some accountants may not know that the cloud has made offering cas much easier and profitable. with the right solutions, firms with five to 20 staff members have created successful cas practices. invariably, one of the partners in those firms acquires a thorough understanding of the new dynamics of cas and, with that knowledge, is fully convinced that offering cas is the right thing for the firm to do. that realization allows them to communicate effectively to their staff and other partners why to offer cas.
- adjust your technology stack: this is the foundational requirement for you and your firm to ride the cas wave. you can’t do so overnight, but you need to start making assessments and evaluations of the technologies available and, more important, how the nature of businesses of your existing clients can benefit from these newer technologies. with the “app economy,” your total cost of technology can quickly add on, so you’ll want to examine how comprehensive your base accounting software is.
- look for integration and automation possibilities: no single accounting software will have all the features that make sense for each of your clients. therefore, you will need to examine the use of other add-on solutions that can integrate with your main accounting software – thereby giving you the efficiency gains of possible automation. you might even need to use more than one primary accounting software solution depending upon your clients’ businesses.
- create your cas packages and decide on pricing: your cas offering must be seen and understood by clients as something more than the transactional services you currently offer. make sure you show the contrast between them. cas is essentially relevant to growing businesses, not very small ones. to cater to a spectrum of companies of varying sizes, create packages ranging from basic cas to comprehensive cas, and price them accordingly. these packages are just the starting points for your new clients to get the clarity of the price-to-value ratio you provide. invariably, you will start with one of the packages and then customize it to the client’s needs and wants – and adjust the price of that package accordingly.
- plan your staffing/reskilling of current staff: for cas, you do not necessarily need more staff, certainly not as much as you may fear. your new technology stack will release significant efficiency in your processes. it is possible to manage twice the number of clients within your current staffing. imagine the impact on your firm’s bottom line.
- make your clients aware: to ensure cas is understood by your clients, educate them on new possibilities, including cost-benefit, professional real-time, collaborative accounting benefits, etc. help them see and understand the “before and after” difference. it is not a big ask to “educate” the clients on cas – it is just that reasonable additional effort to “graduate” them upward.
- client service/collaboration/communications: a successful cas practice requires increased interactions with clients. you must leverage new tech tools to reach out, communicate, and collaborate with clients more frequently. some accounting software can help you automate client notifications (by email/text) based on customized triggers set up in the software.
- identify cas-fit clients: to identify clients who fit, you can look for those who have a significant number of sale invoices and bills, those who provide goods or services on credit terms to their customers, those who have plenty of inventory items, those who do some processing to convert inventory into products, and so on. another benchmark to identify cas clients is whether there is a time gap between their sales and receiving payments, and between their purchases and making payments for them.
what next?
each accounting practice is as unique as the firm owner’s experience, expertise, belief system, and thoughts. but the one common thing is that every accountant has a genuine desire to make their clients more successful. cas is the opportunity, the platform, the means to help accountants turn that desire into a tangible service.
start small. move a few chosen, progressive-minded, existing clients onto cas.
learn from the experience. adjust your processes, reports, and communications based on the initial lessons. then roll out cas to more clients – and offer cas upfront to all your leads and prospects.