Resources for designing and delivering advisory services

At Fathom, we speak to customers every day on how they can scale and grow their advisory services. We've collected these insights from advisors around the globe and share some of them here.

The challenges facing accountants looking to develop their advisory services broadly fit into three main areas, depending on where you are on your journey. Those who are just beginning require support in figuring out first what they should offer, and secondly what to charge for it.

Once service lines have been designed, the next stage is getting clients to take them, which can often be a blend of onboarding new clients, as well as getting existing compliance clients to see the value in these new services.

Finally, there's how to use the power of Fathom analysis, forecasting and reporting as a key part of that advisory offering.

And so we've pulled together best practice examples, ebooks and other resources from both Advisable, and here on the Fathom blog, that address these three areas.

All you need to do is make a little time to read or watch them, and then start planning...

Designing, pricing and marketing your new advisory service lines

Read: The Advisable guides These free, in-depth guides draw from the experience and advice of Advisable contributors and contextualise it into actionable outcomes. They cover the six main areas of Pricing, Service, Process, Marketing, Education and Technology.

 

Watch: How do you price your services? Robert McDowall from Arabon Accounting (AU) discusses how he and his firm price services for clients.

 

Watch: What are the benefits for clients of fixed fee pricing? Rashesh Joshi, Cofounder of Alexander Rosse (UK), tells us what the benefits are for clients who opt for fixed fee pricing.

 

Watch: Pricing services for clients Eli & Wyndi Tagi at WE Accounting (AU) explain how they tried several methods and use a mix of good old fashioned timesheets as well as more abstract things like value.

Getting compliance clients to move to advisory services

Watch: How to convert compliance clients to advisory Angus Ogilvie from Generate Accounting (NZ) tells us the techniques and processes he uses to move his clients to advisory.

 

Watch: Adding business advisory as part of annual compliance Matthew Williams, from Cypher (UK), tells us how he gets his compliance clients to move towards business advisory services.

 

Watch: Splitting compliance from advisory into a separate team Shorts (UK) decided to split out its advisory offering into a separate team. Here’s how and why they did it.

 

Watch: 13 questions you can ask to pre-screen leads for your advisory firm How much time does your firm spend on the phone talking to potential clients, only to cross them off the list?

How to use Fathom with your clients

Read: Using Fathom with clients for the first time If you’re not sure quite how or when to introduce Fathom to clients, here’s what you need to know.

 

Watch: How to sell advisory services using Fathom Geni Whitehouse CPA (US) shares a practical framework on how you can use Fathom to sell business advisory services to new, or existing compliance clients.

 

Read: How Robertson Scannell use dashboards to win new clients Robertson Scannell built brand new custom dashboard reports in Fathom to win over more clients to advisory services.

 

Read: Presenting Fathom's interactive Management Reports remotely Just because you're not sitting face to face with your clients, it doesn't mean you can't show them amazing management reports in Fathom.

 

Read: E-book: How to Run an Advisory Meeting with Fathom How Ken LaCroix at Insightful Partners (US) uses Fathom in advisory meetings.

There’s more content on designing and delivering advisory services with Fathom on https://advisable.fathomhq.com and https://blog.fathomhq.com

And remember, if you're not currently a customer, you can take out a free 14-day trial and start your advisory journey with Fathom. 

Written by

Andrew Webb

Andrew is Fathom’s Content Strategist based in the UK. He has a background in journalism and has worked for companies like the BBC and HuffPost, as well as start ups in education and technology. Andrew has also published 5 food books and makes a great pie.