How advisors can articulate business performance to their clients
Are you an accountant providing business advisory services? Do you struggle to have meaningful conversations with your clients around their business performance?
It may reassure you to know that there is powerful cash flow forecasting software, such as Fathom, that can help you to communicate profit and cash flow to your clients with ease.
As part of their ongoing expert series, Fathom spoke with Dimitri Matsouliadis, CA, who shared how his accounting firm, Hailston + Co uses the platform to guide clients in making better business decisions.
In this article, you will learn practical tips for business advisors on how to unlock business insights and deepen your client conversations around cash and profitability.
Introduction
Recently, The Access Group conducted a series of reports called Your Future Practice, designed to help accountants keep up with industry trends and generate new ideas to run a successful accounting practice. We partnered with Momentum Intelligence to conduct research into advisory services offered by Australian accounting practices.
When asked which business advisory service had the most impact on revenue and client relationships, 25% of Australian accounting practices answered business or strategic planning, but only 15% indicated this was extremely easy to deliver.
Within this same cohort, only 5% of advisory practices said they were using a business advisory tool, such as Fathom to provide regular analysis and reports to their clients.
Therefore, we can deduce that there is great untapped potential for Australian accounting practices with advisory service offerings to leverage accounting practice software and deploy it within their business performance services.
There is a lack of information on how to start using business advisory software within service offerings, which is why the advice we’re about to hear is so powerful for advisory practices.
Who are Hailston + Co?
Hailston + Co Chartered Accountants services over 4000 business in their two offices in Greater Western Sydney and the South Coast of NSW.
The accounting firm specialises in services related to taxation, self-managed superannuation funds, business consulting, financial planning and financing, and the team has over 35 years of collective experience in the accounting industry.
A three-step process for business advisors
Dimitri Matsouliadis heads up Hailston + Co’s advisory offering. He is passionate about helping his clients understand their numbers and identifying factors which will help their businesses succeed.
Dimitri shared his simple three-step process for business advisors looking to deepen relationships with business clients by using data visualisation to make their cashflow and profits easier to understand. As Dimitri says: "Most small to medium businesses are only a few impactful decisions away from significantly improving their bank balance, lifestyle, and stress levels.”
Step 1: Conducting a health check
The first step in the process involves working out the current state of play for a client, by doing a financial health check.
A financial health check determines how the business client is performing by reviewing their revenue, profitability, balance sheet, asset levels, and debt levels.
Step 2: Creating a roadmap with the client
Building a roadmap towards the client’s desired future state provides them with a clear perspective on what they need to do to improve their business.
A key component of the roadmap is a financial forecast, showing what the business’s finances look like, and projecting what they need to look like in future.
Step 3: Reviewing and monitoring progress
Moving towards a desired state is not always an easy, linear process for clients, which is why the final stage in this process is so important.
The final stage involves reviewing and monitoring actual results versus expected results, drawing from forecasts or budget results.
This stage in the process helps accountants to provide ongoing support to continuously move towards the client’s desired future and involves observing market condition changes in case a change of direction is needed.
Learnings and challenges
In this video clip, Dimitri explains the challenges in having a higher level of granularity with client data and how collaborating with an advisor can lead to meaningful relationships.
Deliver engaging business advisory services with Fathom
With Fathom, which is now proudly part of The Access Group, you'll have access to relevant insights to help your business advisory clients with management reporting and cash flow forecasting.
You’ll spend less time crunching the numbers and more time consulting with your clients, now equipped with the right tools to become an integral part of their business success.
