Advisory Pyramid: Building mindsets across your team

A lot of firms say they want to grow advisory.

But when their teams hear the word “advisory,” they often picture the top of the service model: budgets, forecasts, dashboards, board decks, cash flow planning, or CFO-level strategy meetings.

And yes, all of that can be advisory.

But that is not where advisory starts.

In many firms, advisory is already happening much earlier in the client relationship. It happens when someone cleans up unreliable books so the owner can finally trust the numbers. It happens when a chart of accounts is restructured so the client can see which revenue streams are driving growth. It happens when a workflow is improved so bills are approved on time, cash flow is clearer, and the team is no longer chasing the same information every month.

The problem is that many staff members do not recognize that work as advisory.

They see it as part of their everyday responsibilities. Bookkeeping. Cleanup. Month-end close. Reporting. Client support.

And because they do not see the advisory value in the work, the firm may not name it, train around it, or capture the value in pricing.

That is where the Advisory Pyramid can help.

The basic idea is simple: Advisory builds from the bottom up.

You cannot help a client make better forward-looking decisions if the foundational information is unreliable. You cannot build meaningful dashboards if the underlying data is inconsistent. You cannot talk confidently about profitability if revenue, expenses, departments, locations, or jobs are not structured in a way that tells the right story.

So advisory does not begin when someone builds a forecast.

It starts when the team understands how the work they do every day affects the decisions a client can make.

At Intuit Connect, I’ll share how we at Dark Horse use the Advisory Pyramid to help their teams recognize advisory value earlier, build confidence, and create a common language around the work they are already doing.

Because the goal is not to turn every staff member into a CFO overnight.

It is to help them see what they already know, understand why it matters, and start thinking like advisors.

Editor’s note: Anna Masker is presenting this topic at Intuit Connect 2026, Oct. 26-28 at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas. Register today!