To proactively advise, the fundamentals must first be correctly established. But should you wait for the accuracy of the figures before you can take the first steps towards better advisory services? Or can you flip it around and ensure that the accuracy of the figures is actually stimulated by sending out interim reports (the chicken-or-egg story)? Discover in this article how Mike Collier from Fiskcouncil+ applies this strategy to help himself and his employees develop from number processors to business partners who truly deliver strategic advice.
Mike, what is your office's perspective on advisory services?
With Fiskcouncil+, we aim to do more than just accounting; we aspire to be a strategic partner for our clients to help them grow. This is the path we have embarked on, but we have a long way to go! Our goal is to take the right steps without making too big leaps.
What are the challenges you encounter on your path?
Everything starts with the accuracy of the numbers. If our clients do not submit on time or if we do not record everything correctly, it makes little sense to discuss the numbers with our clients. We now spend a relatively large amount of time requesting missing documents, which often leaves us without enough time to provide insights to the clients who do submit on time. Additionally, our team has grown significantly in recent years, which means I can no longer maintain an overview of all internal processes.
How has Bizzcontrol helped you maintain this oversight?
Thanks to the office cockpit with the built-in triggers! Since the addition of the internal control triggers, I now have a clear overview of all files and can see exactly where I or one of my employees need to take action: are all depreciations, personnel costs, and management costs booked, are there no large amounts left in the suspense account, ... Where I previously had to open each file in Octopus, I am now automatically alerted. This not only saves me time, it gives me above all a sense of peace of mind and control.
Great to hear! However, this doesn't help you yet with your clients correctly submitting the documents. How do you tackle this challenge?
Previously, we waited to share figures until we had received everything. It was a waste of our time to prepare interim reports if no value could be assigned to these reports. Thanks to the fact that we can now generate interim reports very efficiently in Bizzcontrol, we have reversed this process! Now, each client receives at least one interim report each quarter, which serves more as a justification document to our clients. On one hand, it becomes clear what value we deliver that often remains invisible to the client (read: bookkeeping, requesting missing documents, preparing declarations, ...), on the other hand, it encourages our clients to deliver sooner in the future. It suddenly becomes clear to many what value they can obtain if they deliver everything on time, a value they often didn't realize in the past!
Does this approach work?
Absolutely! After the VAT declaration of October, we sent interim reporting to almost all our customers. Not endless pages of numbers, but simply a straightforward one-pager of the income statement with the automatically generated commentary. I inquired about their feedback, and all clients were very appreciative of the report. Particularly, the graphical representation of the results helped them to truly understand their figures. Of course, the numbers were not 100% accurate for many, as some invoices were still missing. However, this report was a way to convince them to deliver faster.
What is the impact of this on your office?
That we are no longer seen as an expensive administrator, but as a partner who can provide our clients with truly strategic advice! Of course, our ultimate goal is not just to send out interim reports. We want to engage in discussions with our clients and use the figures as a basis to ask the right forward-looking questions. In this way, we think together about our clients' business and help them grow! Sending out these interim reports is simply an important first step for us to grow in our role as proactive advisors.
Fantastic to hear, Mike! I believe this will inspire many other accountants. However, I often hear from them that they 'cannot make time' for this. What tip would you give them?
In my opinion, time is not the real reason; it is more about doubting the quality of the data. Generating and sending out a report really takes no effort, but if you doubt the figures, I understand that you might hesitate to press the button. My tip: ensure that your own work is in order and then share the figures with your clients, even if some documents are still missing. This is a good way to show your client how much work you do in the background for them, and it encourages them to provide input faster. I personally use the triggers in Bizzcontrol as an internal management tool to make sure that we have certainly done our work.
Your team has grown significantly in recent years. How do you ensure that your junior employees can keep up in this journey?
We really use Bizzcontrol as a training tool. Our employees learn in Octopus how to manage the accounting, but in Bizzcontrol they learn to maintain control over the file and truly understand what is happening behind the figures. We also view interim reporting as an internal document to quickly enhance the knowledge of our juniors. In this way, Bizzcontrol has become the co-pilot for everyone in our office. Initially, it was a tool for myself, but my staff are growing in their own knowledge and skills thanks to their use of Bizzcontrol.
On your website, I read the inspiring words “Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I learn”. I assume your approach is also linked to this?
Indeed, I used to believe that I had to discuss the advisory reports with my clients personally. However, now I always include the case manager in the conversation. This way, I simultaneously increase the financial literacy of both my clients and my employees. The case manager does so much preparatory work, it only seems logical to me that they should see the results of their work and that they can eventually conduct these conversations independently. It is only by completely involving them in this, that they can truly learn how to evolve from numerical processor to advisor.
And ultimately, this will only benefit you, your office, your employees, and especially your customers! It's great to hear how we at Bizzcontrol are helping you to actually put your vision into practice. The first remarkable steps have been taken and the initial results are clearly visible. We are eagerly looking forward to the further steps we will take together!
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