The Rules of Thumb blog from MoneyThumb always strives to educate and inform our readers. Today our focus is on accountants and building a successful CAS, (Client Accounting Services) practice. If you are an accountant, read on so that you can make sure you are doing everything you can to make sure your own CAS is a huge success.
Before we continue, let's clear up any confusion you may have about the difference between being a bookkeeper for your client as opposed to offering a full range of Client Accounting Services. This article from Growth Force does a fantastic job of explaining the difference. Here is a section of that article:
"CPA Firms Offering CAS vs. Bookkeeping
When reviewing accounting options, it’s important to remember that not all CPA firms offer client accounting services. If they do, their expertise may not include management accounting. While many CPAs are currently expanding into CAS, the latest research shows that less than a quarter* of the CPA population offers management reporting services.
*Source: Accounting Today Research January 2015
Historically, CPA firms have offered bookkeeping, but that service has traditionally been After the Fact (ATF). In other words, bookkeeping that is not conducted as transactions occur. But at the end of the month or quarter, ensuring that the books are right for the tax return or the bank.
Because of insufficient training, a bookkeeper typically does not have the skills required to supply management accounting reports and key performance indicators – the information that a CEO/owner really needs to grow a small business. Furthermore, the traditional CPA-firm model featuring a CPA/partner and a bookkeeper does not provide the mid-level quality control review of an accounting manager or senior accountant. Those positions are hard to fill because of a current shortage of experienced middle-level staff in the accounting industry.
Because of this shortage, CPA firms are finding that bookkeepers are being put in a position of having to answer questions that they aren’t trained to answer. On top of that, during spring and fall tax seasons, a bookkeeper simply does not have the time to answer day-to-day accounting questions. To provide clients with higher-level financial insight, some CPA firms are partnering with CAS service centers to implement the daily client accounting. By allowing the service center to clean up, catch up and manage the client financials, the CPA has more time to be a trusted advisor on the client’s financial management discussions and decisions."
To further help accountants build a successful CAS, (Client Accounting Services) practice, the Rules of Thumb blog would like to suggest that accountants download this free guide courtesy of Accounting World. In this free guide, you will find very valuable information to help you build your CAS properly and make it successful. Below are some details from the Accounting World sign-up page about the free guide:
"Any accounting firm that’s serious about giving clients what they need and value - and raising their own relevance and bottom line - can’t afford to lose out on the tremendous opportunities created by Client Accounting Services (CAS). And if you want to get CAS right, there are 5 essential components that you need to master.
♦ Briefly explain what CAS is, and why it has become more important now
♦ Dispel four common myths about CAS
♦ Discuss how you can start offering CAS quickly - and then grow it consistently
♦ Prepare you to offer CAS with a minimal investment of time and resources by first targeting your existing client base in a systematic manner
♦ Detail the keys to sustain long-term profitability from CAS
You can easily increase your profits from your accounting practice by 50% or more using the techniques presented in this Guide, provided you have a reasonable number of clients who currently use a G/L system like QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Sage or other similar systems.
The highly actionable insights presented in this Guide are derived from our in-depth understanding of the real needs of accounting firms and their clients - insights that we have gained from serving the profession for the past 30 years. We have also relied on frequent feedback from accounting firm owners who have made CAS one of the highest revenue-earning segments of their practices."
The Rules of Thumb blog from MoneyThumb hopes that the information we have provided here for accountants will help you to build a successful CAS, (Client Accounting Services) practice. A great way to amp up your CAS is by using the best PDF financial file converters on the market. By using the pro-offered advice in hand with MoneyThumb tools, you really can't go wrong when it comes to building the best CAS possible.
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