Five Of The Best Value-Added Services To Make Your Firm Stand Out
As an accounting firm, you may be wondering why it's important to expand your services beyond traditional tax preparation and financial reporting. After all, your firm may already be profitable and successful in these areas. However, offering value-added accounting services can be a game-changer for your business.
In this article, we'll explore five value-added services that tax and accounting firms should consider implementing to grow their businesses and better serve their clients. By offering these services, your firm can protect profitability, ensure a constant income stream, and establish a well-rounded service offering that meets the demands of today's clients.
How are value-added services beneficial?
Value-added services can help you showcase your thought leadership and expertise in the industry. Your accumulated knowledge and experience can be leveraged to deliver new opportunities that your clients and potential clients want and need. Additionally, offering a one-stop shop for financial, accounting, audit, and tax services can simplify your clients' lives and make it more convenient for them to work with your firm instead of multiple vendors.
Moreover, technological advancements such as automation, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing can be incorporated into these value-added services, providing benefits to both the firm and its clients. Implementing these technologies can introduce new capabilities, add more functionality to existing work, and provide better insights and faster access to actionable information for clients.
What are five value-added services accounting firms can implement?
1. Accounting Consulting Services
Many CPAs offer consulting services alongside regular tax preparation, which creates additional revenue for the firm and provides additional support for clients. Consulting services are crucial to developing a supportive working relationship. All businesses need accurate record-keeping to claim expenses and calculate tax accurately, and while some companies are happy to take this on themselves, others would rather outsource it to an accounting firm. Clients looking for both accounting and bookkeeping help will more likely sign up with a firm that provides both. When you meet regularly with your clients, you should be getting a feel for how they’re managing their business’ regular tasks. Ask them about how they handle their bookkeeping, and then ask them if they would like you to handle that service. Not only will it give them more time to focus on their business, but you can provide them with accurate record-keeping.
2. Audit Management Services
Audit management services help businesses stay on top of all financial regulations. Conducting internal audits will ensure that everything is above board and accounted for. This helps the business manage risk and ensure transparency when filing taxes. By having an external consultant perform the audit, the business can avoid conflicts of interest and demonstrate to regulatory bodies that they are taking their financial responsibilities seriously. Imagine a scenario where one of your clients who performs their own record-keeping gets a notice from the IRS. You can step in and conduct an internal audit and help identify the possible issue or issues the IRS noticed. Sometimes it could be a small bookkeeping error on their part that led to incorrect profit statements. You can then present the error to the IRS and make sure your client gets through the audit without much stress.
3. Financial Health Evaluations
A thorough financial health evaluation could be another valuable service to offer to your clients. This service looks in-depth at the company’s current assets and liabilities, financial forecasts, and profitability analysis. Focusing on suggested areas could improve a business’ financial health going forward. By performing a financial health evaluation, you can identify areas where a business is overspending or underperforming, and suggest strategies for improvement. If you have a client who has reported declining profits, this is where you can intervene and offer your services. After conducting a financial health evaluation, you could assess where your client is spending incorrectly, and suggest how to reallocate expenses to help promote growth.
4. Cash Flow Management
Cash flow management is another value-added service that can help businesses overcome financial difficulties. Given that your accounting firm is already familiar with the client’s finances, it’s logical to expand the expertise to counseling small businesses when cash-flow concerns develop. Your firm can assist clients in various ways, such as establishing cash flow estimates and referring them to lenders. Your firm can also assist businesses suffering from Net 60 or Net 90 payment conditions in obtaining an advance on their unpaid bills. If one of your clients is experiencing cash-flow problems due to late payments from customers, by establishing a cash-flow estimate and referring the client to a factoring company. You can then try to secure an advance on unpaid bills, which helps the client stay afloat.
5. Part-time CFO Services
Becoming a part-time CFO is an excellent value-added service for accounting firms that have years of experience at their disposal. The service can be offered to small businesses that likely don’t have the resources to employ a CFO of their own. By leveraging the knowledge your accounting firm has, you can provide your small business clients with your financial expertise by acting as their CFO. Your clients already have years of experience working with you, and similarly, you know the ins and outs of how their business’ financial operations. You can minimize potential turbulence as their business continues growing.
How can Taxfyle help?
It’s hard to balance providing clients with valuable services without adding increased stress to your staff, especially once tax season rolls around. That's where Taxfyle comes in to help.
By sending tax returns to Taxfyle, your staff will have more time to focus on providing value-added services to your clients. This will not only improve their job satisfaction but also benefit your bottom line. Firms that have partnered with Taxfyle have reported significant improvements in their ability to find more time during the week to focus on their clients and themselves, resulting in increased client satisfaction and retention.
Don't let stress and burnout drive your employees away. With Taxfyle, you can give your staff the breathing room they need to excel and provide your clients with exceptional service.
