Member Article

Practice Experts Have Their Say on Solving Today’s Advisory Challenges

Recently, we ran a panel with four customers to discuss the changes their practices have experienced over the past year. We explored the changing needs of their clients, and both the approaches and tools they’ve used to address the challenges they’ve faced. We know that our customers have to deal with complexity, pressure on productivity, and the need to embrace technology to move forward in their profession. We welcomed Pär Dahlström, Certified Business Advisor at Grant Thornton Sweden, Fozia Muddassir, Partner at Reddy Siddiqui, James Goodman, Partner at Consilium, and Estelle Hope, Senior Manager, also from Consilium.

It’s been a challenging 12 months, and for both advisors and their clients alike, dealing with today’s business landscape has been a steep learning curve. While client churn may have been the most anticipated result of the economic volatility we’ve seen over the past year, it was, in fact, the least significant issue reported amongst panelists. Increased volume of queries was actually the top challenge panelists faced, followed by keeping on top of COVID assistance updates, clients looking for fee reduction, and clients having difficulty in interpreting reports and advice.

Communication at the Top of the Agenda

According to the panel, the increase in queries, coupled with an increased demand for advisory services, has meant that they are communicating with clients much more frequently. “We’re talking about forecasting, people’s uncertainties, trying something different, and they want that all the information from us as proactive advisors,” said Fozia Muddassir, Reddy Siddiqui. “It’s been uncertain times for everyone, but as accountants, we are very much the front line of their businesses, and they are relying on us for new services and more advice.”

Consilium has had similar experiences in seeing an exponential demand for its services and time over the past 12 months. According to Estelle Hope, Senior Manager, much of the advice clients are looking for surrounds managing the impact of COVID-19 and the changes they’ve had to make to continue funding their businesses. “They’re looking for advice on furlough. They are also seeking help in applying for government grants and other local authority grants and bank loans as well as advice regarding what they need to do to make the best of a bad year. We are helping them to become more proactive and more efficient in terms of the cost of the support.”

Reporting Takes Centre Stage

When asked which advisory services they saw providing the most value to their clients, our panel identified three-way forecasting (cashflow, P&L, balance sheet), scenario planning, benchmarking, KPI monitoring and other enhanced reporting as the most sought after and most valuable.

All four practices are invested in providing advanced digital reporting to their clients, citing graphical representation in reporting as a real differentiator that has set them apart from the competition.

“We’re in a very traditional industry, and up until 2020, traditional reporting may have been adequate, but now that we’ve implemented a digital client portal, we’re really invested in using visual and graphic representations in our reporting,” said Pär Dahlström, Grant Thornton Sweden. “Because we report dynamically with clients, we can drill down into everything and clients often see something they hadn’t realised, which usually leads to a great conversation and often leads to further business opportunities.”

Fozia Muddassir at Reddy Siddiqui agrees: “I think as human beings we are much more visual than we might have realised. We understand graphs and coordinates – think of how many charts and graphs we’ve seen on TV over the past year dedicated to the pandemic. Clients don’t want to go over balance sheets; they want to be able to drill down to the transactional level and see a graph and be able to click on that graph to get more information. They want detail in real-time without having their advisor even have to leave the screen, much less the room. Better reporting is definitely an enabler, and it’s definitely allowing us to have much more detailed conversations.”

James Goodman describes the transition from spreadsheets into more visual, graphic-based reporting as transformative for clients: “Numbers are interesting, but they don’t generate a great deal of engagement from clients. The whole point of graphic representation and interactivity is that they can drill down and identify unexpected changes, particularly important given the current climate. Being able to deliver a year-end visually is really engaging, and it’s a great way of showing clients, at a very granular detail, the profit they made.”

KPIs Get Granular

The panel agreed that client-accessible, real-time reporting has been a real game changer when in-person meetings haven’t been possible. Clients feel more empowered and don’t have to call advisors every time they want management information. Many have become more familiar with KPIs and have begun to realise the value of better information thanks to the ease of graphical reporting.

During the pandemic, clients have also become more specific in the KPIs they want to measure. For example, at Reddy Siddiqui, while net and gross profit have always been basic KPIs, clients now want to be easily able to measure wages as a percentage of turnover, and in one instance, a gross markup on actual sales. Being able to run these KPI reports as well as other business overview and trend reports has become hugely valuable at a time where businesses are having think differently to compete and grow.

Overall, the panel agreed that over the past year, many clients have realised vulnerabilities, but it has also encouraged rewarding discussions about goals, ambitions and challenges. With a new focus that has shifted to forecasting and simulation, advisors are in a great position to help clients to predict and take charge of their futures.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gareth Cram, Product, Strategy & Transformation Director, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting UK .