Accounting advisory software
Accounting advisory software that reads every client's books.
As the compliance work goes through, Minns reads each client's books, ranks the clients worth a call and prepares the figures and a brief. A partner decides what to raise.
What it finds
Minns flags the clients whose books show a risk or an opening.
Minns reads each client's books against fixed rules, the ones a partner would apply, and puts the results in one list for the firm, the most serious first. It raises a signal only when the figures show it, and names those figures and what to raise.
- Cash running out
- The month the forecast's cash goes below zero, in the central or the lower case.
- Cash falling three months running
- Month-end cash down three months in a row and more than a fifth below where it started: where the cash is going.
- Loss-making three months running
- A loss in each of the last three months: what has changed in the trade, and whether pricing or costs need to move.
- Margin slipping
- Net margin down five points or more against the three months before.
- Costs up with sales flat
- Costs up 15% or more while income stayed within 5%: which lines rose, and whether each was a choice.
- Near or over the VAT threshold
- A year's income within 10% of registration, or over it, for a client not registered. Over it: registration within 30 days of the month it was crossed.
- Debtors overdue
- A third or more of what the client is owed, past due.
- Sales down, or growing fast
- Three months' income set against the same months a year ago.
- Profits worth planning around
- A steady year with no loss-making month: pensions, dividends and salary, the structure.
Beside the money, the practice's own signals: deadlines at risk, records late, a bank feed lapsed, fees overdue, client mail waiting.
The figures
Every signal rests on two years of each client's monthly figures.
Minns pulls the books from Xero, QuickBooks or Sage Accounting into a double-entry engine and reads each month's profit and loss and closing cash for the last two years. Every signal works from these: the margin month by month, costs against sales, this quarter against last year.
- Month by month
- Income, costs, net profit and month-end cash, as the engine reported them, for 24 months.
- The years before
- Turnover, profit, net assets and cash from the accounts filed at Companies House, beside the sales declared on VAT returns.
- Read again when the books change
- A pull, a bank feed or a journal queues the client for a fresh check, so the list is not a month old.
Cash
Each client gets a twelve-month cash forecast with a higher and a lower case.
Tested code, not a model, forecasts income, costs and cash for twelve months for every client whose books Minns reads. The forecast names the first month cash would go below zero, and the earlier month it could in the lower case.
- A rolling forecast
- Twelve months ahead from the actuals, with its bands, moving on as each month closes.
- Budget against actuals
- A budget by month laid against the ledger as it fills, with the variance to date on each line.
- Packs and scenarios kept
- A board pack, a scenario or an appraisal the agent drafted, saved to the client's plan and dated.
Ready for the call
Before the call, the partner gets the figures, talking points and work to offer.
When a client is worth a call, Minns prepares the signal, the figures behind it, talking points and the work the firm could offer.
- Talking points, two versions
- One for the partner, with the risks and the work to suggest; one in plain English the client could read. Drafted only when a person asks.
- The work, priced your way
- An opportunity can be matched to a service on the firm's own price list and drafted as a proposal. A person reads it and sends it.
- The advisory summary
- Over a quarter or six months: what the radar found by kind and service line, the proposals sent, the work signed and the fees won, as a report to print.
Accuracy and control
A partner decides, and every figure goes back to the books.
No figure here is a model's. The signals are rules over the engine's reports, and Minns checks anything a model writes against them before anyone reads it.
- Signals by rule
- Read from the books with no model, each one naming the months and amounts that raised it.
- Numbers checked
- Every number in a talking point must appear in a fact the point cites. A sentence with any other number is removed, and what was removed is counted.
- Nothing goes out on its own
- Talking points, proposals and emails are drafts. A person at the firm edits them and sends them.
- Clients you keep back
- One switch keeps a client away from the agent: nothing of that client reaches a model, and no talking points are drafted for it.
Questions a practice asks
Straight answers.
- Does the software give the advice?
- No. It reads the books, raises what the figures show and drafts the notes. The advice comes from a person at the firm, who decides what to say to the client.
- Where do the numbers come from?
- From the client's ledger, pulled from Xero, QuickBooks or Sage Accounting into a double-entry books engine. The engine does every sum; the forecast is computed from its figures by tested code.
- Which clients does it look at?
- Every client whose books are connected. The signals are read across the whole list and ranked in one view for the firm, the most serious first.
- Can a model invent a figure in the brief?
- No figure reaches the partner unchecked. A talking point may only use numbers written in the facts it cites; a sentence with any other number is left out, and the count of what was left out is shown.
- Can we keep a client out of it?
- Yes. One switch on the client keeps the agent away from that file: nothing of that client reaches a model, and no talking points are drafted for it.
- Does advisory cost extra?
- No. It is part of the per-client price on the pricing page.
See who is worth a call this month.
Watch the demo to see a client list read and ranked, or talk to us and we will set it up on the demo company first, then on your own clients.