Accountant's Minute's Podcast

“We joined ESS BIZTOOLS five years ago as a subscriber and we have never looked back – it is an amazing set of products and tools that we utilise with our clients but we also utilise the system to guide young accountants in our mentoring program to better understand the challenges of delivering a wide range of non-compliance services to SMEs.”  “ESS BIZTOOLS enables us to empower young accounting professionals with tools and knowledge to achieve their goals”.  Priscilla Bea Smith, Director, Cloud Nine Associates who joined Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS in the final webinar presentation of the ESS BIZTOOLS Black Friday Business Advisory Services webinars. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=421&Itemid=639

“Too many accountants do not involve their client in the planning process which commences with the Business Plan and proceeds through to the Predictive Accounting Reports of Budgets, Cash Flow Forecasts and Projected Balance Sheets without effective communication with the client.”  Paul Barnaby, Regional Integration Consultant Asia-Pacific for Plan Guru and CEO of Beyond Accounting Technologies. “Predictive Accounting is documenting for future accounting periods what we have been doing in the historical accounting process, but software tools are now available to enable the preparation of “3 in 1 financial forecasts” which enable the future financial position of the business to be clearly documented.”  Paul Barnaby.   [Read The Full Article Here]

In session 3 of the Black Friday webinar extravaganza Amanda Gascoigne, Amanda Gascoigne Consulting joined Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS for a discussion on 5 Key Product Packages that are part of the ESS BIZTOOLS’ Business Advisory Services offering for Accountants, Business Advisors, Chief Financial Officers and Bookkeepers. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=419&Itemid=639

Andrew Geddes, Accounting Industry Coach and former Chair of Greencross Ltd, a Top 200 ASX company joined Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS for a discussion in Session 2 of the ESS BIZTOOLS’ Black Friday webinar series and made the following comments relative to the utilisation of: Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=418&Itemid=639

SYSTEMISING BUSINESS ADVISORY SERVICES In last week’s ESS BIZTOOLS’ Business Advisory Services Podcast – “Systemising Business Advisory Services”, Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS discussed recent comments made by experienced accountants on why systems are important for the effective delivery of Business Advisory Services. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=417&Itemid=639

Amanda Gascoigne, Principal, Amanda Gascoigne Consulting, made this comment in the ESS BIZTOOLS’ Business Advisory Services Podcast last week - “I can assure you that if you’ve got the systems, you will get that extra work, but you have to make a proactive decision to be reactive and respond to the type of services that your clients want you to provide to them”. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=416&Itemid=639

WIN for your clients, you’ll be assisting them to add value to their businesses! WIN for your team, who will have interesting and challenging work, will help your firm with retention and attraction of team members!! WIN for your firm, diversified services will add value to your firm! Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=410&Itemid=639

Andrew Geddes, Australian Accounting Legend, Chair for 10 years of Greencross Ltd, a company which developed over 30 years from a very small veterinary surgery to be a Top 200 ASX company utilising the “Scaling up Process” that Geddes introduced to the Greencross leadership team 15 years ago. We invited Andrew Geddes to participate in the ESS BIZTOOLS’ Business Advisory Services Podcast with Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS on the subject “Scaling up Strategies for Team Building”.....   [Read the Full Article Here]

At long last the COVID-19 lockdowns are ending and there is an air of optimism in the marketplace as businesses go about the task of reopening and repositioning themselves for what is expected to be boom conditions in 2022. Accountants, this is a great opportunity to identify yourselves as a proactive accounting firm that is willing to supply a range of business enhancement services to your SME clients. In the “ESS BIZTOOLS Business Advisory Services Podcast” this week Phil Chynoweth, Managing Director, Bridge Global joined Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS to review the recent Zoom presentation by Professor Terry Kramer, Adjunct Professor, Anderson School of Management, UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) and to comment on the benefits for Australian companies from participating in the UCLA GAP Field Study Program.  You can listen to the podcast by clicking here. “Terry Kramer, as an Adjunct Professor at UCLA, has spent time at Harvard University but more importantly fundamentally he is a

The “window of opportunity” is here at last for Accountants all over Australia as New South Wales leads the way in dismantling lockdowns.  This is presenting an opportunity to Accountants, Bookkeepers, Business Advisors and Chief Financial Officers to be able to deliver services focused on “adding value” to SME clients and providing interesting and challenging work for your accounting team which will assist in the challenge that many firms have in retaining great staff and attracting new team members to the firm. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=407&Itemid=639

Accountants are in a unique position to assist small and medium-sized businesses to recalibrate their business strategies to meet the challenges of a “post lockdown world”. In an interesting presentation last week, Terry Kramer, Faculty Director of the Anderson School of Management at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and chair of Skylo Technologies indicated that his expectation was that there would be boom conditions over the next twelve months very similar to what happened when the Spanish Flu was finally constrained in 1920.  Kramer said that this boom ushered in the “Roaring Twenties”. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=406&Itemid=639

There is a “ window of opportunity” emerging for accountants to assist SME clients to create new opportunities by navigating out of the problems that have been caused to businesses all over Australia by COVID-19 lockdowns. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=405&Itemid=639

The announcements by some of the state Premiers of an easing of lockdown laws once a predetermined number of the state’s residents have received two of the COVID-19 injections has encouraged some enthusiasm from business operators that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that they might be able to get back into what they do best – running their businesses in an efficient manner. read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=404&Itemid=639

Diversification Strategies for Small and Solo Firms is the title of Peter's presentation. Peter has already produced a 50 minute webinar on Diversifying Accounting Services – Why? which I have uploaded in the group, so we thought we would discuss the key requirements of diversification on how small and solo practitioners can implement diversification strategies to their accountancy services. In this session Peter and Amanda talk about why diversification makes good commercial sense and strategies to get started on this pathway

Traditionally accountancy firms have looked very similar especially from the outside.  Accountants were known as the people you went to in order to satisfy the government’s requirements for the preparation of an Income Tax Return and this required the preparation of Financial Accounts for a business. Read More: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=403&Itemid=639

“The future will be vastly different – we will see some clients receiving diversified services which will create greater value for the client’s business, but also the accounting firm” Jordan Lowry, Managing Director, Blackstone Business Group said in a preview discussion. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=401&Itemid=639

One of the obvious diversification strategies that accountants can pursue is to assist SME clients to have a better understanding of the government grants that are available and to assist clients in the grant application process. A further benefit is that your accounting firm may then be able to undertake some of the projects that are being 50% funded by the government.  This can relate to services that accountants, involved in undertaking business advisory services activities, can undertake for the benefit of their clients including... Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=396&Itemid=639

The CommBank Accounting Market Pulse Report, a few months ago, commented that only 5% of the accounting firms that were surveyed for the production of the report “will not be diversifying services in the next few years”.  This implies that 95% of the firms that participated in the survey, will be diversifying their services. Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=395&Itemid=639

Predictive Accounting enables accountants to utilise their skills to assist SME clients to navigate future problems in addition to recording the financial history of what has already occurred.  It’s too late to change what has already occurred, but there is a great opportunity for accountants to be a valued partner with clients in the development of winning strategies for the future by helping to interpret a Business Plan into a “Financial Plan Incorporating Budgets for each Operation, Cashflow Forecast and Projected Balance Sheets.” Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=394&Itemid=639

What is your firm’s point of difference?  From a SMEs’ point of view most accountancy firms look the same – the majority provide a service relating to the preparation of annual financial accounts and income tax returns for businesses, superannuation funds, individuals. Read More: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=393&Itemid=639