Making it happen- the path to advisory services

Public accounting firms are at a critical stage in their transition to offering advisory services. The gap for some seems to be in simply making it happen.  

After all, accountants are historically conditioned to manage massive workloads that revolve around deadlines, and they have faced increasing compression for years. Clients wait longer to bring in missing documents. Staff turns over. Finding and keeping experienced talent is getting harder. It takes intention, commitment, and bandwidth to grow a proactive service category that is outside the standard compliance services that have long been the backbone of the accounting profession.

Reflecting back on why I became a CPA in the first place…

I was intrigued early on by the topic of  taxation, and I saw accountants as respected, trusted advisors. What has changed? The term ‘trusted advisor’ means more now than producing an accurate tax return. Sure- that is still a minimum baseline expectation, but firms also must deliver consulting to individuals and businesses in the form of tax planning, cash flow planning, PPP assistance, and the list goes on. Not to mention providing proactive education around all of these things. What we call a trusted advisor today requires wearing more hats now than was required when I became a CPA.

What hasn’t changed? There are still only 24 hours in a day.   

My career as a CPA eventually led me down a different path. 

I experienced technology as a means to help firms’ businesses run more efficiently. Technology was enabling people to do more work in less time. Since time is currency for accountants and cloning oneself hasn’t been perfected yet, I was fascinated with how process change and technology could improve realization when applied correctly. Tax software, scan and OCR, workflow, document storage, portals and emerging collaborative technology for working with clients…the options for firms can feel overwhelming.

My work in large tax and accounting software corporations allowed me to build deep relationships with hundreds of firms, learning their detailed processes and helping them cut through the noise of determining how and which technology would make sense for their business goals. In 20+ years doing this, I learned 2 very critical things:

#1 Listen first.

Until you understand a firm’s specific processes and workflow…

Until you understand why they do things the way they do… 

Until you understand what their short term and long term goals are as a firm…

Until you understand the dynamics of the partners and how they make decisions…

Until you know what’s broken…

You simply cannot offer valuable guidance that will solve a problem and make a positive impact on the firm’s operations and/or profitability.  

I believe the same applies to working with small business clients. Doing a tax return is one thing, but what are the key indicators inside that client’s tax return that could help them make smart decisions for their future? What are their business and personal goals? Do they understand what their financial statements really mean to their business? What could prevent them from having a great year, or what needs to be fixed?

# 2 Change is hard.

In my opinion, the resistance most accountants exhibit when they’re confronted by change is linked to fear of upsetting procedures, systems, or operations. The accounting profession in general tends to attract individuals who seek order and balance and who thrive on tying up loose ends. More so than in other professions, accountants are predisposed to staying with what works. Why mess with the systems that they have in place, the procedures that they follow and their measures for productivity if such approaches are working? But, what worked yesterday for a compliance based profession won’t help firms compete and grow today with an advisory services business model.

I used to have a Blackberry and thought it was the best phone ever invented. Until everyone else around me started getting iPhones and Androids because they had apps that helped us do more and communicate faster. As much as I hated to leave my beloved Blackberry, it wasn’t evolving with my needs. How many people do you see with Blackberrys today? Businesses must evolve to survive and thrive.

In my work with hundreds of firms, the ones who are able to accept and embrace doing things differently for the sake of efficiency to focus more time on providing proactive services for clients are also the firms that expand and grow. Many partners are approaching or at retirement age. They’ve been doing things the same way their entire career, and no one wants to change a process that is basically on auto-pilot. But, I have watched partner groups embrace the need to evolve for the health of the business and the future of the firm. The most gratifying work for me is getting in the trenches with firms who need technical and process guidance to help them be able to serve their clients better and more proactively.

Back to my original point of making it happen…

There is no question mark behind moving from a compliance based profession to one that requires advisory services to survive and thrive. As accountants, we cannot afford to resist or ignore the change occurring in our chosen profession. If accounting firms are to compete successfully for the business clients who want and need proactive advisory and consulting services, they have to find a way to make it happen. 

I joined TaxExact as the Director of Making It Happen. I am a CPA who has the technology experience, education, and passion to look inside a firm and help them build and implement tax workflow processes. Processes that use tools like TaxExact to liberate partners from spending time on detailed 1040 reviews so they can reclaim the time to make it happen with higher value services for their clients.

I’m excited to work side by side with our clients to help them close the gap to advisory services and make it happen.