Expanding your services: How to offer client advisory as a Bookkeeper or Accountant

Over the last decade, automation has transformed bookkeeping and accounting. Bookkeeping tasks that historically took up a significant amount of time, including manually inputting and categorising expense data, can now be dramatically accelerated using automation. What’s more, receipt scanning technology makes it far easier to capture data in close to real time.

On one level, this is only good news for accountants and bookkeepers. Increased efficiency will allow you to take on more work and increase margins. However, automation may also impact how clients perceive the value of traditional bookkeeping, and has already spurred conversations about bookkeeping pricing strategies.

The thing that bookkeepers and accountants need to realise is that automation not only improves efficiency, it increases the value you are able to deliver to clients. The combination of increased access to real-time data and less time required to capture and categorise that data creates significant opportunities to offer new services. This article will explore one of those critical opportunities, Client Advisory Services (CAS).

What are client advisory services?

Client advisory services (CAS) encompass a range of strategic, value-added offerings that extend beyond traditional bookkeeping and accounting. CAS emphasises using bookkeeping data to provide actionable insights and advice tailored to each client’s business, including cash flow management, tax planning, and budgeting.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD for IT) has expanded these opportunities even further by increasing the number of sole traders that need accounting support. As more businesses seek expert guidance on their financial health, these additional services are becoming essential.

Expanding into (CAS) not only meets this demand but also allows you to grow your business and stay competitive while strengthening client relationships at the same time. So, the question is how do you get started?

Step 1: Leverage automation to free up time for advisory work

As stated, recommending and implementing automation technology for your clients is crucial. Bookkeeping automation tools eliminate manual data entry, enhancing efficiency and accuracy for both you and your clients.

This not only streamlines your client’s processes but also frees up your time to focus on Client Advisory Services (CAS), allowing you to provide more strategic insights. Here’s how automation can save time for both you and your clients:

• Receipt scanning: This replaces the tedious task of manually logging mounds of paper receipts and instantly capturing them digitally. Here, the automated technology makes it much easier for your clients to capture, file, and submit receipts more regularly, which is critical to gathering real-time data needed for effective advisory services.
• Automatic data extraction: Automation tools can also capture information from digital invoices or integrate with your client’s bank account to directly upload data into your system. This further reduces time-intensive manual data entry.
• Automatic transaction categorisation: AI-driven algorithms in automated technology ensure greater consistency and accuracy by categorising financial data from receipts, invoices, and bank transactions. Again, this frees up time, and provides you with data that’s ready for analysis.

In a UK survey of 200 accountants tasked with bookkeeping, 81% found that the automation of simple tasks could save around 2 hours a day on average. This adds up to 520 hours over a year, which equates to 65 8-hour workdays.

Without exploring ways to free up time and resources, you’ll struggle to have the capacity to focus on CAS. Bookkeeping automation is an effective way to free up the time needed to deliver strategic value to your clients.

Step 2: Utilise real-time data to drive insights for clients

In addition to freeing up time, bookkeeping automation helps you achieve real-time insights into financial performance by providing you with accurate, up-to-date data. This process improvement allows you to offer valuable, data-driven insights and support for financial decision-making. Here’s a closer look at how this can happen:

• Instant insights: Automation tools can provide AI-driven insights and trends, helping you identify certain spending patterns, track budgets, and highlight potential issues before they escalate.
• Cloud-based dashboard: Users can access a centralised, cloud-based dashboard that collects and stores all financial data, offering a real-time view of things like cash flow, expenses, and financial forecasts.
• Customisable reports: Some accounting tools can generate real-time reports, such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and incoming funds, allowing businesses to have a clear picture of their current financial performance.

According to a report that surveyed over 200 finance and accounting leaders worldwide, Behind Every Successful Enterprise, There is Data-Driven Finance, only 23% feel they have the necessary data and analytics capabilities to generate real-time insights and provide strategic guidance to their organisations.

Without real-time, accurate data and the right technology to share this information, offering clients high-value services will be a big challenge. Having instant access to this data and using various analytical tools at your disposal will elevate your CAS offerings. And, having a better financial picture means your clients will receive more comprehensive and timely financial advice.

Step 3: Enhance client communication and collaboration

For the most part, advisory work demands closer collaboration with clients than traditional bookkeeping services.

Bookkeeping automation tools make it easier to share data, reports, and insights with clients in real time. This, then helps foster stronger client relationships. Here are a few ways this can happen:

• Automated notifications: Clients receive automated alerts and updates, keeping them informed and allowing them to stay on top of their finances without the need for constant follow-ups.
• Collaboration features: Cloud-based solutions allow accountants and clients to collaborate on financial data in real-time, making it easier to share insights and make timely strategic decisions.
• Improved client support: Some advanced bookkeeping automation tools enable accountants to provide more responsive and proactive customer service, cultivating stronger client relationships.

Research from Thomson Reuters shows that real-time communication allows accounting firms to address client queries promptly, fostering stronger client relationships and improving satisfaction.

CAS requires more frequent and in-depth collaboration with clients compared to traditional bookkeeping methods. Without clear, transparent client communication and collaborative technology that can improve this communication, you’ll be limited when it comes to providing clients with exactly what they need and gathering the information you need to advise clients.

Step 4: Provide strategic financial forecasting and planning

More and more, clients are leaning on bookkeepers to offer strategic financial advice to help them grow and expand their businesses. With automated tools, bookkeepers can easily produce forecasts, budget analysis, and long-term financial plans based on up-to-date, real-time data. Here are a few ways this can happen:

• Data-driven insights: Automation tools integrate and analyse real-time financial data, offering insights that enable you to build accurate and informed financial forecasts for your clients.
• Ensures complete and accurate records: Automation technology that captures and categorises receipts, invoices, and financial documents, ensures that records are consistently accurate and comprehensive for fail-safe financial planning.
• Enhanced cash flow management: With detailed, up-to-date cash flow analysis, automated tools can help you advise clients to prepare for future financial challenges or opportunities.
• Tax planning and readiness: Real-time data collection for bookkeeping dramatically reduces the challenges of tax filing. Rather than repeating the end-of-year rush to capture data and provide advice on tax liabilities, you will be able to have a clear and rolling picture of tax liabilities and will be able to advise your clients throughout the year. This is particularly important in the context of quarterly update requirements mandated by MTD IT.

In the UK, a recent Sage report found that clients increasingly value bookkeepers who offer strategic financial forecasting alongside traditional services. By having various automation tools in place, you’re able to provide valuable services such as financial planning and forecasting to your clients. With this, you’re able to make the necessary transition from a transactional role to a strategic partner who can help clients shape their financial future.

Expand your services today

Research indicates that almost 71% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have specific growth strategies in place, focusing on financial health, cash flow management, and operational efficiency.

There is a huge opportunity for bookkeepers to advise businesses on these growth strategies and position them for future stability and expansion by providing clarity around their financial health.

At Dext, we can streamline your CAS offering by automating repetitive tasks, helping you to dedicate more time to valuable advisory services. Our automation tools give users accurate, real-time financial data, enabling you to provide crucial insights and strategic advice to your clients.

Dext’s collaborative tools also enhance communication between you and your clients, fostering transparency and stronger relationships. Plus, the new Dext Vault will securely store essential financial documents, giving users instant access to accurate records, and providing a reliable basis for strategic guidance and decision-making.

This combination of time-saving, improved data accuracy, and better collaboration allows you to deliver more efficient and impactful CAS, adding greater value for your clients.

It’s time to give yourself a competitive edge and offer your clients more. Start a free trial with Dext today!