The past 10 years have been good to the accounting industry. The recovery from the great recession of 2007 to 2009 has created a long period of growth. That growth has benefited the accounting industry as well. At the same time, the retirement of baby boomers has decreased the number of accountants. This has only increased the growth even further.
As technology has progressed, many have warned that accounting will become automated. Leaders in the accounting industry began seeing this 5 years ago. They began advocating for accountants transforming into advisors. Many accountants have recognized this trend and have shown interest for advisory services. But with the high growth listed above, there has been little incentive to move into advisory. When the business is growing, the problems of tomorrow get postponed even further.
Until Covid-19 hit.
The Covid-19 crisis has put a sudden end to this growth. It has sparked what is expected to be the biggest recession since the 30's. As a result, bankruptcy among SMBs will increase. Many accounting firms are already seeing that their clients are struggling. As these struggling clients go bankrupt, their practices will be shrinking as well.
At the same time, a much more present threat is growing: Accounting is becoming a commodity. QuickBooks live, Wave Advisors (owned by H&R Block), Bench and others are already offering accounting as a commodity. Because of Covid-19, the commodification is going to accelerate. Together they are the perfect storm.
MoreReporting has both leading software and a unique advisory training. Let us help you transform your practice into advisory. Make sure to join Johan Colvig for his webinar "Learn How to Manage & Advise on PPP Forgiveness," on May 20 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Register here.
Accountants have a couple of options to respond to this storm:
1) Close their practice and become employed in the "Gig-economy" that QuickBooks Live, Wave advisors and others represent.
2) Specialize into areas that QuickBooks Online currently doesn't support, for instance, hosted QBD for businesses with warehouse management. And pray that QuickBooks Live never expands into that specialization.
3) Become financial advisors.
MoreReporting helps accountants become financial advisors. At MoreReporting our goal is "AI Assisted Advisory". MoreReporting uses AI to augment and enhance accountants to become financial advisors. Though software is great, there is a limit on how much can be achieved with software alone. So we also have also developed an advisory focused methodology to help you with this transformation.
Many accountants have the following concerns about becoming advisors:
1. I don’t know how to do financial analysis
We solve this in two ways: First, the AI in MoreReporting does the financial analysis for you. Secondly, our training program will teach you how to do financial analysis. It includes a training in financial ratios and how to improve them.
2. It will take me too long to analyze all my clients
As the AI in MoreReporting analyses your clients, it points out where their problems are. The analysis that an experienced CFO would take hours to do, you can do with MoreReporting in a few minutes.
3. My clients see me as an accountant. How do I change their perception of me?
This is at the core of our methodology. Using the list of problems from above, you can proactively approach your clients. “I have looked at your business, and I have some findings that might interest you”. We’ll coach you throughout this process and help you change your clients perception of you.
4. How do I structure an advisory practice?
We have best practices for all the aspects of your advisory practice. The best practice includes services levels and pricing. If you need to manage a team of advisors, we also have management best practices for that.
In short, MoreReporting is designed for accounting firms. As a result MoreReporting has some additional unique features to support accountants:
Month-end close review: Do you want to send a report to your client without reviewing it? Of course not. In MoreReporting you can review the reports before sending it to your clients. Also, you don’t want your clients to view any data that hasn’t been reviewed by you yet. Therefore, your clients can only view data you have reviewed and approved.
Branded Client Portal: Provide your clients with a state of the art performance dashboard and reports. All branded with your name and logo. Control exactly what reports they see.
Quoting new clients: When you prepare to quote new clients, use MoreReporting to get a 360 view of the potential clients. Not only will you quickly get an idea of the state of their books. You can also use this information to give them a more accurate quote.
Photographer: Scott Wilhite
johan covig
MoreReporting has both leading software and a unique advisory training. Let us help you transform your practice into advisory. Make sure to join Johan Colvig for his webinar "Learn How to Manage & Advise on PPP Forgiveness," on May 20 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Register here.
Author Bio: Johan Colvig has 15+ years of experience as an industry leader in the business intelligence space. He is also a co-founder and architect of MoreReporting, the most advanced financial analytics tool for QuickBooks. His core philosophy is "AI Assisted Advisory." He believes that AI should augment accountants to become advisors to their clients. Before MoreReporting, Johan was a co-founder of Infotrust A/S based in Europe. Infotrust was a leading SAP business intelligence partner. They won the Partner of the Year award 4 times in the Europe North region. He has 8 years of experience in teaching financial analysis. He has been a keynote speaker in different conferences in the US and abroad.