Empower clients with strategic advice, accountants urged
Advisory services have never been more critical as businesses grapple with tougher economic conditions, according to a prominent accounting firm.
Regular advice, education and forecasting is vital for businesses as they try to navigate rising inflation, labour shortages and reforms, according to Gold Coast-based firm NewWave Business Solutions.
Managing director of NewWave Reuben Bergola said businesses should be forecasting for the next 12 months to three years to identify potential headwinds.
“Our focus at the moment is providing clients with clarity around their figures. [We are helping them] understand what their figures are actually telling them and doing forecasts sooner rather than later,” he told Accounting Times.
“We’re trying to educate them as much as possible to give them the best possible understanding of what they need to be doing in the next 12, 24 and 36 months.”
With many accountants currently tax planning with their clients, Mr Bergola said now was an ideal time to look at the strength of their financial statements. NewWave has had a strong focus on providing advisory services beyond tax and compliance since its establishment in 2016, with the business aiming to provide its clients with a high degree of confidence and clarity throughout the year.
Leveraging software such as Fathom has enabled the firm and its clients to analyse trends, margins and profitability, and most importantly cash flow, which is vital to providing clients with an accurate position of their business.
“What we’re trying to do at the moment is empower them to take on some of the work they can do internally such as bookkeeping or BASs for example. This allows us to put their money towards more value added services such as advisory that will actually help them navigate through these tougher times,” said Mr Bergola.
“This means that when we’re catching up once a quarter, instead of going through the BAS, we’re going through strategy, what they should be looking at in terms of the risks within their business such as cash flow risks, working capital risks and asset protection. We’re also looking at potential changes and how that’s going to affect their margin down the track.”
Some of the biggest traps for business at the moment include business owners failing to plan for potential changes in overheads or direct costs, not only for the actual business for the owners themselves as living costs increase.
“What we’re trying to do is identify what the worst case scenario is and have them operate as though they’re in that scenario already. That way they don’t get a shock in six to 12 months’ time when things change drastically,” said Mr Bergola.
Asset protection is another important consideration for businesses at the moment.
“A lot of people are either trying to sell their business or it’s looking like there might be some issues within their current structure. We’re looking for ways in how we can mitigate risk if something were to happen,” he stated.
“For example, if they were unable to pay creditors or the ATO came knocking on their doors, we want to mitigate the risk of them losing the hard-earned assets that they have in the background.”
With business conditions changing so rapidly at the moment, Mr Bergola said NewWave is increasing focused on how it can help its clients to react quickly to circumstances.
“What’s important is efficiency and ensuring that the outcome for a business is presented sooner rather than later,” he said.
“What we’re finding at this point in time is that due to the speed in which things happen, sometimes it’s too late for business owners to take action.”
NewWave has created teams of accountants for each client as opposed to just one accountant per business to ensure that businesses are able to successfully navigate their way through the current climate and business in general.
“I truly believe it just comes down to structure if you want to get more involved on the advisory side or providing more services than just tax. It’s how you manage your time and structure internally.”
About the author
