Practice Pulse

In this series, we explore the big issues impacting business and the accountancy profession as we navigate economic downturn. This time we are focusing on the role of advisory. With the increase in the complexity of the world in which businesses are operating, coupled with client’s ever-changing needs, forecasting has become increasingly challenging. This challenge is amplified by the significant and swift changes brought on by the socio-political unrest in Ukraine and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing accounting and financial reporting advice, scenario planning, and storytelling offers a unique relationship between client and adviser; to become their trusted go-to person. But how do you start the process of offering advisory services? In this podcast we chat with Cheryl Sharp of Pink Pig Financials as we explore her journey into advisory. From her motivations to ensure her clients are fully educated on their businesses performance to how she practically implemented the service. For a service that is needed more than ever to help businesses survive and thrive during a recession, we look at the practical steps for you to take to add this to your suite of services. Covering how to get started, how to price the offering and how it has changed Cheryl’s practice forever!

In this series, we explore the big issues impacting business and the accountancy profession as we navigate economic downturn. This time we are focusing on the role of advisory. With the increase in the complexity of the world in which businesses are operating, coupled with client’s ever-changing needs, forecasting has become increasingly challenging. This challenge is amplified by the significant and swift changes brought on by the socio-political unrest in Ukraine and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing accounting and financial reporting advice, scenario planning, and storytelling offers a unique relationship between client and adviser; to become their trusted go-to person. As you offer them advice in your advisory services you will be engaging in conversations with them more often, and these topics are likely to be more impactful too!In this podcast we explore why advisory services are needed more than ever in order to help businesses survive and thrive during a recession, how you could go about adding advisory to your suite of services and how accountants really are best placed to fulfil this role.

The number of risk hot spot updates has grown considerably over the years but there are catches with using them and you need to exercise quality control over their use. In this short podcast, James Paterson of Risk & Assurance Insights talks about the background to risk/issue "hot spot" polling, why these surveys are interesting/important, the catches to be aware of, quality control over risk hot spot updates, and specific recommendations for internal auditors. This podcast accompanies an article on the same topic by James.

At the time of the recording of this podcast, there was less than 500 working days until Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment (or MTD for ITSA as it's better known) was due to come into effect. Accountants may be wondering how much work is going to be required to prepare for it and operate under it. In this podcast, Jordan Smith and Andrew Smith of A G Smith & Co share their thoughts on how MTD for ITSA provides opportunities for a practice, and they suggest the first steps to take in preparing for MTD for ITSA if your practice hasn’t yet started on the digital journey.

This new podcast series in partnership with PracticeWeb will look at how to grow your practice through data driven marketing. In the final episode of the series, Mike Crook and Zoe Sweet of PracticeWeb discuss how you can market your firm on a budget. They’ll cover why marketing is important, the marketing options available for different budgets, the marketing tactics that work for the firms they work with, and the low-cost or free marketing tools that are available.

This new podcast series in partnership with PracticeWeb will look at how to grow your practice through data driven marketing. In episode 5, Mike Crook and Zoe Sweet of PracticeWeb discuss how marketing can help overcome the price objection. They’ll cover the role that marketing plays in removing price objections, how to communicate your value to reduce those price objections, and practical tips on how to handle the objections through marketing.