How to get started offering advisory services

Compliance vs. advisory

Traditional compliance work—which includes tax preparation—provides the foundation of tax advisory work, but they aren’t the same. Without a clear distinction between them, some firms deliver advisory services while getting paid for compliance work.

Lacerte Tax Planner vs. Intuit Tax Advisor

The Tax Planner feature included with Lacerte projects taxable income and tax liability, and covers four types of tax plans, whereas Intuit Tax Advisor recommends personalized tax-saving strategies, and shows the estimated tax savings amount related to those strategies. It also generates polished, client-friendly reports that you can customize with your firm logos and colors.

The landscape

As the need among clients for expert tax advice has grown significantly, more and more tax practices are rising to the occasion to proactively offer advisory services. The shift in the profession from compliance work to advisory services is already happening—and both firms and clients are reaping the rewards.

To help you get a clear sense of the landscape and how firms are leaning into advisory services, Intuit released the results of the Tax Planning and Advisory Insights Survey.

Certification

Many tax professionals aren’t sure if they need certification to offer advisory services. To help you get a clear understanding of the difference between Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and CPA certifications, and how they relate to tax advisory services, Joe Abesamis, CPA provides an overview with insights from his firsthand experience.

Hear what some of your peers are saying about their experience with tax advisory services.

On the AccounTrends podcasts:

with Nadia Rodriguez

with Allan Koltin

In their words:

For many years, tax preparation has been the bread and butter of most accountants. But as times have changed, so too has the way that taxes are handled by accountants. Tax professionals want to provide valuable ROI and get paid for that value rather than time. If you want your business to stand out from the pack, then it's important to focus on providing value-added services. Tax planning has become an increasingly popular option because it provides clients with valuable advice about how they can save money and invest wisely over time.

- Minal Barbaria, CPA, CTC

When we create tax plans with significant tax savings, it becomes much easier to have a fee conversation. We verbally share a return on their investment in our fees. We follow with a full proposal and engagement letter using Ignition to close the deal and start the recurring engagement and billing.

- John D. Jordan, CPA

Create a vision

Learn how to draft well-defined mission, values, and purpose statements—sometimes called your firm’s MVP—that will serve as beacons to guide your practice on the path to advisory services. Get clear best practices and examples curated from your peers who serve on the Intuit Tax Council.

To help you get a clear sense of the landscape and how firms are leaning into advisory services, Intuit released the results of the Tax Planning and Advisory Insights Survey.

Make a plan

Once your vision is set, put together a clear action plan for success, including a realistic timeline with achievable milestones along the way. To help you map it out, the Intuit Tax Council outlines their planning tips and a worksheet for you.

Define Your Services

There are a number of ways to serve your clients with advisory solutions, and you don’t need to offer all of them. However, it’s best to be clear from the start about which services you plan to offer. See a list of example services, plus learn how to extract advisory services from existing services, communicate the change to clients, and find the right cadence for client engagement.

Make the transition

It can seem daunting to go from solely doing the necessary compliance work to expanding into advisory services that require deeper financial conversations. Nayo Carter-Gray, EA outlines a clear framework in the “Growing advisory while keeping compliance’s value” article.

Define your niche and unique selling points

Clarifying your target audience and unique selling points can help you reach the right clients with the right advisory services and appeal to them with the right messages. To help you define your niche and the attributes of your ideal client, the Intuit Tax Council provides valuable guidance and a worksheet for you.

Follow some final advice from your peers

The tax professionals who serve on the Intuit Tax Council put together their words of wisdom to help you make the best possible transition to tax advisory services.

Build your network to find and share knowledge

The tax professionals who serve on the Intuit Tax Council put together their words of wRefer to our list of professional organizations, knowledge sources, networking tools, and tips for creating community to get the insights and support you need to solidify your path to advisory services. isdom to help you make the best possible transition to tax advisory services.

Watch free, on-demand webinars

Learn at your own pace with webinars that cover an introduction to tax advisory, the foundations of tax advisory, and tax advisory concepts in action.

If you know you want to start offering tax advisory services, finding a network of support of other CPAs who are in the same headspace is extremely helpful because you're not recreating the wheel. It’s great to have different groups and communities where you can talk about best practices, which I think really helps ease the burden and the fear factor.

- Catherine Tindall, CPA

Positioning for value-based pricing

Compare a transactional pricing model to the advisory pricing model, plus explore the pros and cons of hourly fees, project fees, and subscription pricing—and how to avoid the pitfalls of each. Get tips for calculating pricing based on value, and a clear worksheet—it’s all in the guide.

Move to year-round recurring revenue

Tax advisory services can put an end to that feast-and-famine cycle of the tax season by creating a steady revenue stream all year. Josh Lance, CPA, CGMA, shares three strategies to transition to a year-round pricing model that is friendly to your firm’s cash flow.

Listen in on the AccounTrends podcasts on pricing:

with Mark Wickersham

with Ron Baker

Read the article to plan, prepare, execute, and market:

by Thomas J. Williams, EA, and Iris K. Palma, JD

Communicate your new services

Let your existing clients know about your new tax advisory services well before tax season starts. Josh Lance, CPA, CGMA, shares how.

Get the right tools to engage, onboard, and get paid

Attract clients to your new tax advisory services by creating impressive digital proposals that showcase your services, pricing, billing frequency, and engagement terms. Plus, set automated invoicing and payment collection. It’s all in one place with Ignition.