- Introduction
- What is accounting Consulting?
- The work of accounting consultants
- How do I become an accounting consultant
- Can I work from home as an accounting consultant?
- DIfference between accounting and consulting?
- The difference between advisory services and consulting
- Is CPA consulting right for me?
- How much should I charge as a consultant?
- Any demand for accounting consulting services?
Introduction
Being an accountant, who is into CPA consulting is an added advantage to you. It means more more clients and with more clients, you have more network and money coming in. As an accountant, your work is not restricted to preparw tax returns, handle technical compliance work. As well as to compile financial statements, or provide back office accounting services. Nowadays, it’s becoming very popular for many CPAs to be offering their services in the capacity of accounting consultant. Which is the very bridge to become the all round trusted advisor clients are looking for in the economic climate of today.
What is accounting consulting?
To examine the full meaning of accounting consulting and to describe exactly what an accounting consultant does, how you can become an accounting consultant, why you need to consider and make the necessary switch, and many other things.
Accounting consulting does include a large variety of duties that will help your clients to be able to improve their financial position. Together with able to enhance their internal processes and procedures, and to enable them streamline their accounting protocols. Accounting consulting or CPA consulting include the following:
- To help your business clients in maintaining efficient and accurate accounting practices.
- Provide your expertise to assist your clients understand the meaning beneath their financial data and how those numbers will affect their business.
- To examine your clients’ profitability.
- Develop and implement consistent accounting practices for your clients.
The work of accounting consultants
An accounting consultant is there to serve as both teacher and to be a guide for your business. Especially when the business will benefit heavily from accounting services or improvements to their very accounting processes and procedures. Understand that accounting consulting do vary from business to business, firm to firm, project to project or consultant to consultant. However, there are many types of accounting consulting that are widely adopted. Let’s look at some of the most common services that an accounting consultant can offer, which include the following:
- Financial health evaluation and recommendations
- End of the year financial statement preparation
- Accounting process evaluation and system implementation
- Financial statement analysis, interpretation and evaluation
- Advising on regulatory compliance issues
- Accounting service needs identification
- Profitability analysis
- Financial forecasting
- Accounts payable analysis, including cash flow, workflow, and savings investigations
You should be able to understand that no two accounting consulting job descriptions are the same. When you are asking what an accounting consultant can do, understand there are many numerous answers. That strictly depend on the various needs their clients have. Their areas of specialization is dependent on where they decide to focus on, their geographic zone and many other factors are equally considered.
How do I become an accounting consultant
Do you ever wonder how you can switch into CPA consulting when you work with a good company. However, it’s fairly common to say that some CPAs do become part time or full time consultants just before they retire. While others will enjoy the benefits of a greater flexibility and be able to control over their schedules very early in their careers. Another option to look at, is the ability to consult on the side, or in between your permanent job. Therefore, no matter the time you decide to transit to CPA consulting, you will still need to plan your new business in advance to avoid making unnecessary mistakes. There may be more additional training or education that will help you specialize in a specific kind of CPA consulting. But still there are equally other considerations that will require some thought.
When you are about to start your CPA consulting business, do consider some of these tips:
- Be able to determine what kind of CPA consulting work you want to do
- Compile a list of your specialized areas and skills of expertise; highlight those that you are so much passionate about
- Then identify any educational or technical skill gaps that you should acquire or need to fill to increase your knowledge base
- Be able to evaluate your soft skills, as you will be working very close with your clients and their staff in your consulting role for their business.
- Here be sincere to yourself with this, determine whether you are very organized enough to own your own business as a accounting consultant
- After you must have determine if you’re organized enough. Next step is to map out your goals, what do you really want to achieve with your CPA consulting business?
- Register for some classes or get additional certifications, if you are prudent to do so
- On LinkedIn go through your connections and reach out to some few top contacts to ask them how they feel about CPA consulting services and if they would be interested to work with you
- You should join trade and industry associations that will align with your target market. As well as your areas of specialization and expertise. This will help you to build your network.
Steps to take
, become a CPA consultant, you will need to sit down and consider who you want to work with. Do you need to work with your own existing accounting clients, or you need to attract new clientele? If you will be selling your consulting services through any accounting firm or management firm. There will be no need for you to look very far for consulting clients. When you are about to put up a new independent contractor shingle, there is need for you to market and sell yourself to different companies. As well as individuals in order for you to bring in your new consulting engagements.
Can I work from home as an accounting consultant?
The answer is a big YES! It’s 100% possible to work from home as an accounting consultant. In fact, currently accounting jobs have been some of the most popular remote work available for some years now. To be doing your CPA consulting work from the comfort of your home, consider some these tips:
- First, make sure you have the all the necessary software, hardware and even tools in place to be able to work efficiently and securely
- Be sure that you create a dedicated office space that will allow for privacy and yet client access as needed
- Communicate with your insurance broker about additional coverage you will need for your workspace
- Ensure that you have the necessary security protocols set up that will protect your clients’ data
- Determine your own schedule and do set up specific, consistent work hours to be able to avoid burnout
- Get a different phone number for your home office
- Have your own VPN to be able to access your sensitive client data when on the road or at clients’ offices
DIfference between accounting and consulting?
Well, from the traditionally point, the nature of accountancy actually means that you will collect some historical information, data and then report on it. When you work as an accounting consultant, you will be able to take your expertise a step further.
When providing accounting or CPA consulting services, you will do more than just making sure that the numbers add up. You will provide more analysis or insight more than the compliance transaction. Basically by being hired to be providing solutions to a specific problem. Although some CPA consulting will look like advisory services and then be more open ended as well as wide ranging. As a CPA consultant, you will analyze the numbers, trends and as well as to provide detailed insight that will improve your client’s business going forward. If you are able to succeed in forging this very path for the growth of your client’s business. You will equally be able to create a solid footing to continue working with them long term as their business partner and advisor.
Another practical difference between you serving as a typical traditional accountant and becoming an accounting consultant. It boils down to how you will get paid. Basically, accountants do bill for their time spent, whereas a CPA consulting who usually do provide up front price for particular consulting engagements. This will be above and beyond the hourly billing for compliance and complex technical services.
The difference between advisory services and consulting
Most times, many CPAs do feel that advisory and consulting are the same thing. While they have some similarities, still there some differences between the two. However, the primary difference between advisory services and CPA consulting is the purpose of the engagement and the length.
Well, is good that you understand that a consulting gig is basically temporary. It’s designed to be able to help your client with a particular problem or situation, like to determine which entity kind will the best for their new venture. You will be consulting on that, equally offering an analysis from a tax and accounting perspective. This will be based on the business, the client’s products and objectives, and their specific needs. Immediately the client chooses a structure, your consulting job has come to end. This doesn’t mean that you will not have any additional consulting opportunities with the same client in the future. It simply means that you will be handling them one at a time as they will arise.
From an angle of advisory perspective, your clients will engage you for a whole advice and insights on all areas of their businesses. You will work with them directly and routinely to be able to enhance your decision-making and this will help their businesses to grow. You will be there to teach them and equally guide them to make some smarter decisions, make shrewder transactions. As well as to identify your new opportunities, potentially expand into new markets, improve their internal processes, manage their staff, and assist to improve their position in the market against their competitors. This type of advisory relationship will certainly differentiates you from other consultants.
Is CPA consulting right for me?
To become a CPA consultant takes a unique set of skills beyond your technical accounting expertise. Understand that technical skills aren’t what differentiate between a great CPA consultant and a mediocre one. Here, passion, leadership as well as leadership drive for excellence, communication skills, and organizational skills. In addition, your own knowledge will play a big role on how successful you will be as a CPA consultant.
Answer these questions when you you are able to start your own CPA consulting business:
- Do you really have the right attitude?
- The necessary soft skills you need to work closely with your clients and their staff, do you have them?
- Do you like to solve problems and implement solutions?
- Is there any management and operational know-how?
- Any specialized knowledge to be an expert in the industry you’ve chosen to focus on?
- Do you have any insight into the day to day operations of the businesses you are targeting?
- Are you good in networking, marketing and selling your consulting services?
- Can you adapt quickly to changing environments and business systems when you work with various businesses at the same time?
Understand that not everyone is cut out to become a CPA consultant. It’s very much okay if you don’t think that CPA consulting is right for you. There are many other ways to advance your career in accounting.
How much should I charge as a consultant?
There are many factors involved on how to determine what you will charge as a CPA consultant. Some things to have in mind when considering your price:
- What kind of work will you be doing?
- Where will you be working, that’s the region?
- Will you be having a daily commute?
- Do you need to set up your office environment?
- Will you buy specialty software or other necessary tools to do your job?
- How long will it take you to work on each engagement?
- Would you rather have fixed fees for CPA consulting jobs or charge by the hour plus out of pocket expenses?
Probably you are wondering if there is any number for a CPA consultant hourly rate or fixed fee, keep in mind that, in addition to the above questions you will ask yourself. That you will equally factor into your pricing structure, the rates in your geographic region.
Any demand for accounting consulting services?
From the research carried out by entrepreneur.com shows that accounting consultants are among the most sought after types of consultants. Why? Because every business need accounting and financial services.
However, opportunities for accounting consultants are always all time high. U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, has it that unemployment rate for accountants and auditors was 1.4% as of the fourth quarter of 2019. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has equally affected the profession to a degree, but in the past decade. Acountants and auditors have always maintained high employment rates than many other professional positions. From what is going, we may even be on the brink of an economic decline. Economic disruption will magnify the crucial aspects of your advisory centric relationships. It will also put a spotlight on how you will manage your firm. As the economy continue to suffer, and businesses are fighting to stay in business due to social distancing and quarantines. More and more business owners will be expecting assistance. Financial forecasting together with budgeting will be very critical for continuity. As clients will be seeking for more answers and more guidance, the demand for CPA consultants will increase as well.
However, prior to this global pandemic, client expectations were already on the shift. The future CPA is one who will provide CPA consulting services through an advisory lens, to offer more than compliance work and to serve as an all round business partner.
Conclusion
To start will be as simple as just getting your name out there to your existing clients and through referral sources. It will depend on the current stage of your career, what resources you do have available to you. For instance, the support and back of an accounting firm or your oyal client base. You know what kind of CPA consulting you want to do.
You need to understand that there are many reasons why a company will hire you as their accounting consultant. Note that those reasons might not necessarily stem directly from your technical expertise. But how you are able to present yourself to the market will determine what kinds of CPA consulting gigs you will get. For instance, you might be hired for the following reasons:
- Fix a specific problem that’s related to accounting systems, finances, budgeting or profitability
- To improve the workflow for accounting and bookkeeping staff
- Serve as their catalyst for change within their company
- For you to fill in temporarily for high level finance staff
- To offer unbiased, third-party perspective
One thing you should understand: to start a CPA consulting business will take gumption, conviction, confidence and drive. It will equally help when you have the necessary software, programs, tools. As well as other resources you need to manage your business and to help your clients succeed.