Before reading the second part of Chapter 3 ("Do You Need a Different Mindset to Offer CAS?), you can catch up with Part 1 HERE.
Chapter 3 (cont.): The other side
Editor's Note: The following is an exclusive excerpt from Hitendra Patil's bestselling book, "The Definitive Success Guide to Client Accounting Services." In our continuing effort to build our content community, Insightful Accountant is partnering on this series with Patil, one of the profession's leading authorities on accounting technology and the delivery of client accounting services.
On the other hand, I (and my team) worked with many accounting firms, which mostly did the after-the-fact “write-up” work for small business clients. The main focus in such work was on data “input,” rather the efficiency of input, instead of focusing on “insights.”
More often than not, the “review” was only about “cleaning up of messy books of clients before producing monthly/quarterly financial statements” — the dreaded “digital janitor job.”
The pressure was due to low(er) profitability. Thee volume was higher. Thee profitability was low(er). There was no time left to think of insights that could help the clients do better business. At times, we wondered why the clients left — some simply became incommunicado. Only in hindsight, we saw their financial statements showed consistent growth — of losses!
The mindset was that as long as money is coming in the door, and net-net we are making money, our business model is okay. (Sincerely — not to belittle anyone who has taken significant risks to start, operate and grow their accounting practices — but mentioning this just to bring out the contrast in the mindsets in a bid to give you the entire picture.)
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There is nothing wrong with having this mindset, i.e., “I will do what the clients want me to do, even if it means just a part of the accounting work. Ultimately, the customer is always right.”
What is wrong is the outcome of this mindset. It makes you a professional accountant, a follower, not a leader.
Remember, my CAS mindset accountant that I cited a few minutes ago made clients follow his processes. Sorry. He and his marketing team explained their processes so well enough that clients wanted to follow his procedures. He led them. He did not follow them.
This book explains in detail several insights that can put you on your path of grand success in Client Accounting Services (CAS), but before that, it was critically important to feel the essential starting point.
That is — the mindset: Professional Accountants Do Client Accounting.
This mindset is NOT difficult to learn and strengthen. It won’t matter if you did not have this mindset until now. You can develop it. If you already had such a mindset, you can strengthen it multiple times over.
How? You will learn that in the next chapter.
Hitendra R. Patil is one of the profession's leading authorities on accounting technology and the delivery of client accounting services. He is the bestselling author of “The Definitive Success Guide to Client Accounting Services.”
CPA Trendlines [cpatrendlines.com] grants the purchaser a single-user license. Reproduction, storage, and distribution prohibited.
UID HP21CAS-210414-D4GHM-MB4F2J-9FD256-L3WXMT
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