Anyone who attended Accountex in London recently will have no doubt noticed the number of sessions on Advisory Services. "How to Sell and Deliver Business Growth Advisory"... "Are You and is Your Firm Ready for Advisory?"... "Be a Catalyst for Client Growth… And Extend Your Advisory Role". Advisory is becoming a real buzzword in the accounting sector, no doubt as a result of the changing accounting landscape and the need to diversify your business model in order to adapt to the changes brought around by a combination of legislation and technology.
On 8th May, we held a joint webinar with 2020 Innovation where we looked at "Payroll as a Strategic Service" and explored how the data hidden in your client's payroll reports could help accountants to engage with the client about their workforce costs and even identify opportunities to provide advisory services. If you missed the webinar you can register and watch a copy of the recording here.
The fact of the matter is that while you might only deal with your accounting client on a quarterly (or even annual) basis when looking at their accounts, if you or one of your team are processing the client's payroll then you are dealing with the client on a monthly basis about what is often the single largest cost to their business, their workforce. There are various insights hidden in client payroll data that could indicate your client needs your support, and the benefit of getting this information from payroll is that you usually can act faster on the information than if you wait for the information to filter into the company accounts. We drew on one example in our 2020 Innovation webinar where an accountant could identify from the payroll that 2 months ago their client stopped paying commission to their staff, which could indicate that they have either lost a member of the sales team or are going through a particularly poor period in terms of winning new business. In this scenario the accountant may wish to take a forward look at their client's cashflow to identify whether the client has enough cash in the bank to pay their business costs, and whether to discuss some alternative finance options with the client.
So if you are running payroll for clients and offering advisory services, why not take a look at our webinar or alternatively we are sponsoring 2020 Innovation's Business Advisory Conference in London on 13th June - so come over and have a chat to us about how PayDashboard can help you and your clients.
Not attending the 2020 Business Advisory Conference? You can register online here.
