Cooper Mann Consulting

December 13, 2012March 26, 2019

Small Business Owner to Accountant: Make Accounting Valuable to ME

Accounting services should be useful to a business owner, providing valuable insight into the business performance and activity. Accounting professionals believe their services have value, but find it difficult to express that value when selling their services to prospective clients.

The problem is that most professional accounting firms believe that what they sell is accounting: accounting services, tax preparation, audits, etc. While this may be the essential list of functions they perform on behalf of business clients, accounting, per se, is not what the professional should be selling – at least, not if they want business owners to buy.

You see, accounting is dumb and boring – a necessary evil of doing business for most business owners. Accounting is what happens to paperwork at the end of the month. Business owners don’t want to know about accounting. They want to be able to sleep at night. Business owners want to be able to know what they need to do to keep the business moving along. They don’t want to have to check the bank account balance every morning. Business owners simply want to know what they need to do to get the results they’re looking to achieve.

Accounting professionals – don’t talk to your clients about how great your accounting is, or about debits and credits. They don’t know and don’t want to know. Good accounting is expected from you; it isn’t a selling feature. Talk to your clients about the picture the data paints about their business, and about how you can help them to meet their needs and help them achieve their goals. That’s a value proposition that says something.

Make Sense?

Joanie Mann Bunny Feet J

*Note: this short article is the result of a recent conversation with my good friend and a consummate professional, Penny Breslin of MoneyPenny LLC. Penny and I both work with a lot of accounting professionals and the “song remains the same” no matter where we look. Accounting pros continue to be challenged in communicating the value of their services to business clients, and it’s all because they continue to talk about accounting (thinking anyone cares). Go figure.

December 12, 2012

The True Cost of the Cloud

Excerpt from article on Intuit Accountants News Central: The True Cost of the Cloud

“Accounting professionals are strongly encouraged to adopt cloud computing models in their practices, and there can be little argument that mobility and access are driving the need. In concert with the messages supporting mobile access to business information – and the value of anytime, anywhere access – cloud service providers are strongly suggesting that the overall cost of purchasing and maintaining information technology (IT) in the business is much lower when a cloud computing approach is used.

Arguments over the total cost of IT and related services become somewhat subjective. Many business owners and managers fail to consider the value of their own time spent dealing with business technology issues, much less the time spent by in-house employees and remote workers. To further complicate the issue, dramatic changes in process support and delivery, connected service and cloud computing approaches are impacting business productivity and profitability in new and dramatic ways. As a result, every business should consider the costs and the benefits of this new connected and collaborative working model.

At the core, cloud computing is really just an outsourced IT service that addresses the various levels of application and computing infrastructure. From IaaS (infrastructure as a service) to SaaS (software as a service) and all things in between, a viable cloud computing approach for a business may encompass little more than co-location of physical server and network resources with a third-infrastructure provider to something much larger scale, such as offloading virtually every aspect of application management and delivery to a SaaS solution.

Because there is no single, correct definition of what makes up a “cloud” service model, attempting to compare costs directly to a more traditional IT approach is quite complicated.”

Read the entire article at Intuit Accountants News Central

http://blog.accountants.intuit.com/ways-to-grow-your-business/the-true-cost-of-the-cloud/

December 11, 2012June 13, 2017

Being Proactive, Not Reactive – Accountants Need to Increase the Speed of Service Delivery

info Technology models are changing dramatically, with cloud services and mobile computing being the focus of the IT community and the customers they serve, and those technology changes are driving equally dramatic changes in how businesses and the accounting professionals who support them work together.

As the cloud enables an “anytime, anywhere” model for access to business applications and information, it is also driving accounting professionals to embrace those solutions in order to meet the demands of the business client who wants their information anytime, anywhere… accurate and up-to-date. For most accounting professionals, this means being more proactive in working with the client rather than taking the traditionally reactive, after-the-fact approach to providing service. More frequently, accounting professionals will be judged by their prospective (and current) clients as to their ability to meet the demands of these savvy clients who know that having accurate real time information is critical to managing a business.

Cash management is one of the biggest challenges for a business owner, and this is an area where the accountant or bookkeeper is an essential player, making sure that bank accounts are reconciled frequently and reporting accurately on outstanding receivables and payables. Business owners need to know where they stand financially, yet many accounting professionals only provide reconciliation and reporting at period ends. The result is often a client who watches the bank balance and works from that, not realizing that there were outstanding checks or undeposited funds waiting to clear. Clearly, this owner is not working from current and accurate information, and they will eventually realize it if they haven’t already.

The cloud is increasing the speed of business at all levels, and accounting professionals must also increase their speed of service delivery in order to retain relevance in the changing market. While there will be hold-outs and businesses that elect to take the more traditional approaches, those clients will start to become fewer and the opportunities they represent more limited in scope.

For a little while, accounting professionals may rely upon traditional approaches to client service delivery, and continue with their position as the last person to know what’s going on in the client business. But only for a little while.

Make Sense?

December 10, 2012

Surprise! Consumer apps get IT approval in small businesses: GIGAOM.com

In a recent article on GigaOm, author Barb Darrow discusses the findings of a survey of small businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where it was found that the use of “consumer” information technology is being more widely accepted for use in small businesses, and that many of these selections are happening without the knowledge or participation of the IT department.

“Employees are driving business apps selection in many small and medium businesses, according to new research. A good percentage of productivity, social and collaborative apps now sanctioned by IT in SMBs were brought in by workers without IT knowledge.“

Reporting that small businesses are adopting “consumer” IT, and that it is OK with IT departments, isn’t a surprising finding. Small businesses have begun leveraging mobility and cloud solutions to their benefit, being able to take advantage of powerful technologies that previously only enterprise IT departments could enjoy.

“.. the line between personal and workplace technologies has become all but invisible. That poses real challenges to IT departments that have to deal with all sorts of technology coming in over the transom. But it also opens up opportunities for vendors that design easy-to-use consumer apps to enter the business realm as well.”

The cloud introduces new agility and capability for all businesses, not just small business. For IT departments in larger businesses, this is a big IT management issue. For smaller businesses, the IT manager is often the business owner or an occasionally contracted on-site technician. When faced with IT needs in the business, many small business owners will at some level rely upon the solutions they also use in their personal lives – in many cases, there simply isn’t a budget for both. The line between business and personal has always been “blurry” for the small business owner.

Make Sense?

What will my business be worth, when I need it to be worth a lot?

Business Enlightenment

Get on the path…

Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud

December 7, 2012January 3, 2018

Accounting Professionals Should Help Business Clients Help Themselves

Accounting professionals are being challenged as the perceived value of the services they traditionally provide to business owners is diminishing.

Where the accounting professional was once viewed as valuable and integral player in the development of periodic business financial reports and the preparation of the annual tax return, many small business owners are now realizing that this post-facto activity delivers limited value to them on a daily basis.

These business owners are more frequently turning to cloud solutions and online application services to provide them with constant access to the information they believe will help them manage their daily operations, and are often implementing the solutions without the knowledge or participation of their public accounting professionals.

Access to real time banking information allows a business owner to see activities relating to deposits and payments, yet fails to reflect pending receipts and payments. Anyone familiar with managing a checkbook understands this reality, and so do many small business owners, so they find ways to keep track of those undeposited funds and near-term receivables, as well as the outstanding checks for bills paid.

With a small business, cash is king, and managing the cash flow is often the greatest daily concern of the small business owner.

After the fact reporting and an annual tax return, no matter how accurately and professionally prepared, will not help the business owner manage their cash right now.

Business owners are seeking to obtain more frequent and in-depth information about their businesses, and are taking steps to obtain it.

Accounting professionals serving these clients, while facing shrinking profit margins on current offerings, are not stepping in to take advantage of the opportunity to regain their position as the adviser and consultant to the business client.

As a result, business owners are getting their “business intelligence” from other sources, even further diminishing the value of the accounting professional’s involvement.

Accounting professionals must recognize that highly useful and valuable tools exist now to help small business owners understand their businesses better, and which provide a level of education and guidance to help them make the various decisions they may face.

Rather than viewing these solutions as competitive to the value of the accounting professional, accountants should embrace and adopt the use of these tools with their clients, and evolve the professional practice to helping ensure that the information presented in those solutions is always up-to-date and accurate.

By using these solutions to help educate the client as to the variety of situations which may arise in the business, the accountant significantly increases their opportunity to identify new areas of service where they may deliver a higher level of tangible and ongoing value to the client.

Make Sense?

December 5, 2012May 1, 2017

“Business as Usual” Isn’t Cutting It

For a lot of businesses today, “business as usual” just isn’t cutting it. Competition is getting more aggressive, and clients are demanding more while margins are shrinking and the cost of operating the business just seems to go up. Business owners and their CFOs must recognize that it’s time to change the way they operate. By leveraging innovative technologies and cloud solutions, it is possible to transform the way critical business decisions are made and to radically improve how the business serves their customers, empowers their sales force, and keeps mobile workers working.

Business intelligence comes from all aspects of the business, not just accounting and finance. Particularly in volatile economy, where uncertainty weighs heavily on each and every business owner, it is essential that the business make the best possible use of its information assets to eek out every bit of insight it can in order to not simply survive, but to find a way to identify and capture opportunities which will propel the business forward.

Data is just data, but information is power. It takes skill and experience to turn raw data into instant insight, and this is where accounting and finance professionals should be placing their focus. With a wise and intelligent approach to “enabling” businesses with tools to help streamline and improve process effectiveness, and structuring systems to capture and integrate data throughout the operation, CFOs and accounting professionals can assist their business clients in turning operational and financial data into actionable information supporting better decision-making.

Make Sense?

Read more about Data Dashboards and Financial Analysis: Comparing Apples to Aardvarks
Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud

Share this:

The True Cost of the Cloud

Excerpt from article on Intuit Accountants News Central: The True Cost of the Cloud

Read the entire article at Intuit Accountants News Central

Share this:

Being Proactive, Not Reactive – Accountants Need to Increase the Speed of Service Delivery

Share this:

Surprise! Consumer apps get IT approval in small businesses: GIGAOM.com

Business Enlightenment

Get on the path…

Share this:

Accounting professionals are being challenged as the perceived value of the services they traditionally provide to business owners is diminishing.

With a small business, cash is king, and managing the cash flow is often the greatest daily concern of the small business owner.

Accounting professionals must recognize that highly useful and valuable tools exist now to help small business owners understand their businesses better, and which provide a level of education and guidance to help them make the various decisions they may face.

Share this:

“Business as Usual” Isn’t Cutting It

Share this: