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Accountants Daily Strategy Week Day 1 wrap-up: Building a cash war chest and keeping things agile
09 September 2020
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9 minute read
Day 1 of the Accountants Daily Strategy Week saw ATO assistant commissioner Sylvia Gallagher kick things off with an overview of a wide variety of support measures for tax practitioners and their clients, as well as an insight into its compliance approach amid the COVID-19 uncertainty.
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Stuart Donaldson, founder of Banyan Co, emphasised the importance of getting SME clients to focus on their cash flow and building a “cash war chest” to help them ride through Australia’s first recession in almost 30 years.
“We’re talking about the next six to 12 months, but we’re actually talking about making sure that our business customers can sustain the business through the crisis and pop out the other end and look to brighter days ahead,” Mr Donaldson said.
“You as the professional adviser, you’re the one peering over the valley, beyond the chasm of the whole COVID-19 environment and you’re showing them the possibilities to extend their cash, improve their working capital well beyond the six and 12 months.”
On the practice front, Hot Toast director and the Australian Accounting Awards 2020 CFO of the Year, Sarah Lawrance, shared her tips and advice for firms looking to offer CFO advisory services.
She also gave an insight into her four-pillar approach to business recovery planning, including walking clients through a business plan, resources plan, costing, and liquidity.
“CFO services are a little bit different to your traditional advisory services — there is a little bit more depth involved in the relationship because we’re trying to mirror what a traditional CFO in a much more commercial capacity would be doing,” Ms Lawrance said.
“If you are going to roll out a CFO service in your company as part of your advisory services, it is really important to keep that in mind.”
Continuing on the practice strategy front, Brad Turville of Modern Firm Practices helped break down pricing strategy, touching on how to deal with legacy clients, price-sensitive clients, and how to incorporate alternate pricing decisions outside traditional charge-out rates.
“All too often, I see pricing decisions and strategies not as a priority, more as a ‘we’re just going to do it this way, that’s the way it is and that’s what we’ve always done it’, so it’s not tracked, it’s not reviewed, it’s not revisited,” Mr Turville said.
More than 2,000 practitioners have now registered for the Accountants Daily Strategy Week.
Day 2 of the virtual broadcast conference will see keynote sessions from the Tax Institute’s Robyn Jacobson and the Institute of Public Accountants chief executive Andrew Conway.
Quick word from our Accountants Daily Strategy Week partners
The ATOmate team are super excited to partner with Accountants Daily Strategy Week, and we look forward to sharing how automation can reduce admin time by up to 90 per cent. Drop by our virtual booth or our session today at 2.25pm where we will share why ATOmate is the ultimate ATO document automation solution for accounting practices.
ADP supports accountants and businesses to navigate the complexities of paying employees on the JobKeeper program. Drop by our virtual booth to find out more.
Day 1 of the conference also saw Ken Fayers of EzyAccounts Western Melbourne take out the daily $500 cash prize.
The virtual Accountants Daily Strategy Week 2020 continues on 9 and 10 September.
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