‘Advisory’ has been a watchword for accountants for some time. Yet, while it’s being embraced by many firms, it’s still a bit of an enigma for some.
For those who are still wondering about the best approach to change, it’s important to understand the importance of education. From upskilling staff to teaching clients the importance of forecasting, everyone involved needs to be shown the huge benefits that come from advisory services.
Lead with education
Brighton-based forecasting software firm FUTRLI launched an advisory certification course last year and have had some great feedback so far. The course teaches you to master the platform and roll out advisory both internally and externally. It’s CPD-certified and will educate your team quickly and efficiently.
A varied way of learning and progressing, CPD often means a break from the day-to-day. Getting the team out of the office and to events like this means they’ll be networking and creating professional relationships. Your team are likely to be learning from these fellow accountants and digesting the insights from talks and discussions.
Events like Accountex count towards your CPD, too. This year’s event will give you eight hours’ worth, helping you progress your career and contributing towards your accountancy body accreditation.
Learn the ‘why’ not just the ‘how’
CPD schemes keep your practice relevant and keep your team ahead of the curve. What differentiates the different courses out there is their focus. Most CPDs focus predominantly upon the ‘how’ of converting your firm’s skills to advisory level. This is a great thing to know and learn, however often you’ll find there’s no explanation of ‘why’.
We believe in arming advisers with knowledge to share with clients. Niall McGinnity from Nuvem9, a cloud-based advisory firm, says he found the course helped him take his client meetings to the next level.
“Certification makes sure you’re learning every element of forecasting – costs, revenues, past results. It has certainly closed knowledge gaps and saved me bucket loads of time because I’m now using FUTRLI in the most efficient way.”
Ensure you have the right resources
When expanding the offerings of your accounting firm, it is important to make sure you have the right resources in place to allow you to effectively scale.
Our community of CIMAs and CPAs say one person ‘going solo’ won’t lead to the best results. You need a small team, even if it is just two people, to get the ball rolling and make some noise internally. From there, scale and reap the rewards.
So take advantage of industry-leading events such as Accountex, and start building your team’s knowledge. If you want to find out more about helping your team, drop by the FUTRLI stand.
FUTRLI will be exhibiting at Accountex 2018 on stand 1141.
