if you’re hesitating, consider these solutions.
by hitendra patil
client accounting services: the definitive success guide
why fall into the same trap that other firms have fallen into during their client accounting services journey? if you know what those traps are, you will save significant money and time in establishing your cas practice.
more: which clients are best for cas | cas is a value pitch | accountants are perfect for virtual cfo roles | raise client expectations with cas
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fortunately, the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 cas survey identified which are the top five cas killers, for firms of different sizes, that the accounting profession has experienced.
before we discuss those, let us also look at the results of the cas survey that identified how many firms of different sizes are offering and not offering cas. the following figures show how many percent of survey respondents said they offer cas and don’t and what are their firm sizes:
| firm size | don’t offer cas | offer cas |
|---|---|---|
| sole practitioners | 7.63% | 17.68% |
| 2 to 10 staff | 5.53% | 47.63% |
| 11 to 50 staff | 0.79% | 14.47% |
| 51 to 100 staff | 0.26% | 1.58% |
| 101 to 500 staff | 0.26% | 2.37% |
| more than 500 staff | 0.53% | 1.05% |
that translates into how many firms are offering cas compared to the number of firms of similar sizes not offering cas as follows:
| firm size | for every one firm not offering cas |
|---|---|
| sole practitioners | 2 firms offer cas |
| 2 to 10 staff | 9 firms offer cas |
| 11 to 50 staff | 18 firms offer cas |
| 51 to 100 staff | 6 firms offer cas |
| 101 to 500 staff | 9 firms offer cas |
| more than 500 staff | 2 firms offer cas |
what these insights from the survey indicate is that cas can be offered by firms of any size, even by sole practitioners. on the other hand, firms of all sizes can get stuck thinking about possible challenges they will face in their cas practices, even before they try offering cas. some firms indicated they tried providing cas but gave up. now, let us see which are the top five challenges that emerged as the cas killers.
when asked, “what is stopping you from offering cas?” here are the top five responses from firms that did not yet offer cas. some of them even wanted to provide cas but could not get started, or some started on their cas journey but gave up.
- not the right fit for our firm: 16.67 percent
- we don’t have the technology for it: 17.42 percent
- it wouldn’t be as profitable as our other services: 19.70 percent
- our clients aren’t asking for it: 24.24 percent
- we don’t have the staffing for it: 40.91 percent
let us now examine the first two, including:
- why these were expressed as the top five cas killers,
- why these are not really hurdles in creating a cas practice and
- what you can do to overcome them.
cas is not the right fit for our firm
if you don’t offer accounting, bookkeeping, write-up, payroll, outsourced/virtual cfo or advisory services, you may feel to start offering these services will take more staff and too much time, effort and cost. it is also because if you haven’t provided these services yet (most likely, you offer only/predominantly tax-related services), you do not have the relevant knowledge/ competencies/experience/expertise to offer cas. again, you might feel it will be overwhelming to get started with cas.
what steps can you take to make cas a fit for your firm?
most likely, if you feel cas is not the right fit for your firm, it is because you believe so. more than “making cas a fit,” you need to identify the biggest hurdles that you feel will stop you from offering cas. you need to recognize that even sole practitioners provide cas. some of these hurdles may be just in your mind, and some may be real. let us take a look at what you can do to overcome the real practical hurdles:
- identify how many of your current clients are buying any of the components of cas from other accountants. such clients are your “captive audience” to sell cas to. you do not need any special marketing effort other than just telling the clients you now offer cas.
- if you feel offering cas will bring in a lesser profit for you compared to the other services you are offering now and hence it is not a fit, take a hard look at your current services and identify what can get more and more automated by technology. in other words, your current revenue and profit can start reducing as technology becomes more pervasive. but the same technological advances are also helping automate many of the cas components, e.g., accounting, bookkeeping, write-up, payroll, outsourced/virtual cfo or advisory services, etc. all of these components now require much less manual work, i.e., time and cost. in other words, the profitability of cas is pretty much at the levels of some of the most profitable services accountants offer.
- if you have mostly individuals as tax clients, it can be a challenge to enhance your practice to offer cas because you will need to start getting cas clients. but even if just 5 percent to 10 percent of your clients have businesses or you prepare business tax returns, your biggest positive is that you already have an established relationship that you can leverage for selling cas. this will also get you started with cas and help you establish robust cas processes before you start more marketing.
we don’t have the technology for cas
some of the key common reasons why firms believe they do not have the right technology for cas are given below. you may also have similar thoughts because:
- if you have 100 percent only desktop software or you hardly have any cloud solutions, you will feel that it will not be possible for you to meet the online, real-time collaboration expectations of cas clients.
- you also feel that some/quite a few of your clients need some industry-specific software, and your firm does not have those, or you think it is expensive to acquire such software.
- your current software solutions do not integrate well with each other. hence, you are creating the same data more than once, which increases your cost, slows down your work delivery and reduces growth and profitability.
- you may also feel that cloud solutions are expensive compared to desktop solutions.
- if your clients are buying accounting and other solutions and giving you, the professional accountant, need-based access, it means clients control the technology, and your firm is more or less a user. in such cases, clients generally do not have much idea about what differences professional solutions can make.
what steps can you take to overcome the technology challenge?
according to cas survey results:
- 85 percent of the survey respondents agreed that “cas attracts new clients” (only 3 percent disagreed).
- 88 percent agreed that “cas creates new opportunities” with existing as well as new clients (only 3 percent disagreed).
- 90 percent agreed that cas is important for their firm’s future (only 3 percent disagreed).
the real meaning of these results is that the proven profitability and growth potential of cas makes technology an investment on which you make handsome returns. in the cas business, technology cannot be treated as a cost. some steps you can take to make technology your firm’s strength for offering cas are:
- move to cloud solutions.
- do a quick study of how those cloud solutions will change your processes. experience shows that the processes become more efficient and effective, and help produce more work per staff, which leads to more revenue and higher profit.
- move as many clients onto the cloud as you can because it will enhance the client experience by making it possible for clients to obtain real-time, online information and insights. it also helps in reducing the time and cost of providing information to clients as the cloud makes self-service possible.
- if you are already using cloud solutions partly, try to integrate different software so that relevant data flows from one to another when needed, on-demand or even automatically. the efficiency gains of such integration can be phenomenal.