The accountancy profession in a post-covid world has changed without question. The adoption of business & capital advisory work has sped up and most advisers are now recognising the necessity of continuing to offer these services to their clients. Our Accountant in Residence, Kirsty McGregor, explains how firms are valuing this advice to support the relaunch of their local economies.
The growing need for advisory
When “business advisory” was mentioned in accountancy circles pre-pandemic you’ll usually find that there were highly polarised views. Some advisers who had been in the profession for decades could be scathing of this ‘new world’, stating that it wasn’t new at all and that accountants had been offering more than compliance services, all-round business advice, since the dawn of time.
That was indeed true, however most would also accept that they believed this work was ancillary to their main role and they usually didn’t price the work as premium advice, even though it could result in substantial positive impacts to their clients’ businesses.
However, as I write this we are approaching Q4 2021, accountants have recognised the value with which clients rate their advice, as they were overwhelmingly the first place business owners turned to, when the crisis emerged.
Virtually all practices met that demand without question, as they provided grants, funding and all-round business advice, supported by networks, professional bodies and the fintech platforms. Without doubt, the influence of advisers was tremendous and as a result, the potentially devastating impact on the small business community was thankfully minimised.
The development of advisory into the mainstream
Over the last few years, the emergence of platforms such as Capitalise has offered tech solutions around funding and capital. Creating an ease of delivery for firms which hadn’t been seen before, plus educational resources to upskill accountants across all these wider disciplines, to supplement their existing training and experience.
“Early adopters” jumped upon these developments and swiftly brought this advisory work into their portfolio of services.
Dashboards provided insights around topics which could lead to conversations, and they found that as the platform continued to evolve, it fully supported their advisory work with clients.
Many more accountants then turned to these solutions in vast numbers during the pandemic. Senior leaders saw the value they offered to their teams and their clients, and as a longer-term consequence, practices have now decided to roll them out across their whole firm as a permanent, and increasingly important service within their firm.
As Keir Warwick of Bulley Davey told Accounting Web recently, “Capitalise has been a game changer for us”.
Use of Capitalise platform to support your advisory needs
As advisory has come of age we see a pattern emerging of how firms are adopting the various levels of service and advice which they can offer.
Platforms like Capitalise provide tools to deliver business advice. We have developed an award-winning technology, called Monitor. Insights are seamlessly delivered to you, either across your whole portfolio or for individual clients.
These can suggest how your clients’ credit scores are potentially impacting on the ease of running their business, show opportunities to discuss more appropriate capital solutions and even identify potential future working capital crises. This is all brought together with the new Capital Report which shows your client how they can raise, recover and protect their capital, so you can support them to strengthen their balance sheets and ensure they are more resilient.
The power that accountants now have at their fingertips is incredible and, along with their professional training and substantial experience, this bodes well for the continued growth of our economy in this increasingly ever-changing world.
If you would like to find out how Capitalise can help you and your clients, book a free consultation today!
