Key takeaways from three firms that did it.
Building a successful, profitable financial planning and analysis (FP&A) advisory practice that is capable of consistently delivering valuable financial insights to clients at scale over the long term requires executing a game plan that addresses processes, pricing, technology and people.
Jirav’s Business Insights Optimization System (BIOS) is a maturity model developed to help firms identify where they are today and where they need to be to deliver on these goals. In our recent webinar series, co-hosted by CPA.com and Jirav, leaders at three firms with successful FP&A practices shared practical insights from their experiences moving from ad-hoc advisory work to high-functioning, high-margin FP&A advisory practices using the BIOS framework. Here are some of their most important insights.
Zebulon Accounting
Grew revenue by 6X through a niche-focused strategy
Key insight: By focusing on industry niches, firms can command premium pricing and scale their advisory work without increasing client volume.
Top takeaways:
- Identify a niche with a pain point: Colorado-based Zebulon Accounting focused on outdoor adventure outfitters who struggled with seasonal cash flow, allowing the firm to dig deep to understand their specific FP&A needs.
- Build community tied to common values: Zebulon clearly defined its own core firm values, which shared many attributes with their target clients’ core values. They fostered and engaged in an online community for their customers, which helped strengthen awareness of their firm and facilitated direct communications with prospective clients.
- Standardize and automate reporting: Instead of custom spreadsheets, they used Jirav to automate forecasting and variance analysis for all clients.
- Prioritize high-potential clients: As Zebulon moved up the BIOS framework, they discontinued their work with 60% of their clients while growing from $80K to $545K in annual revenue. They did it by charging premium prices for CFO-level advisory services for targeted clients that recognized the true value of Zebulon’s forecasting and scenario planning services.
Watch the on-demand webinar for more on Zebulon’s story: Laying
the Foundation: Transitioning from CAS Financial Insights to Business Insights Advisory
Adviza Growth Partners
Achieved 147% CAGR by standardizing CAS packages and automating FP&A
Key insight: Don’t build everything custom for each client. Scaling client advisory services (CAS) and FP&A capabilities requires standardized packages and automation technologies.
Top takeaways:
- Educate clients to drive advisory adoption: Adviza launched its own Intentional Growth Academy, a structured program for teaching business owners about revenue, EBITDA and cash flow. As clients learned about these concepts, their experiences turned into engagements in which Adviza delivered advisory-level insights on these issues and many others.
- Give clients options for services: By creating two distinct service tiers, the firm was able to price for value while clients pay for predictable, high-impact insights that fit their needs and budgets.
- Enrich insights with operational data: By integrating non-financial data from sources outside the general ledger, Adviza was able to provide clients with a more complete picture of what’s happening in their businesses.
- Remove manual bottlenecks with technology: Adviza replaced fragmented spreadsheets with Jirav, which allowed the firm to provide real-time financial modeling without increasing staff.
Watch the on-demand webinar for more on Adviza’s story: Driving Consistency: Building Scalable, Predictable FP&A Advisory
Creative Planning Business Services
Scaled to serve hundreds of clients through systemized advisory strategy
Key insight: Shift out of resource-intensive manual services to scalable, repeatable advisory to build the business and achieve long-term success in CAS.
Top takeaways:
- Advisory is not a side service: Creative Planning built a dedicated, 20-person sales and marketing team to drive CAS growth.
- Power teams enable scale: The firm staffed the practice with industry-specific FP&A specialists rather than generalist accountants.
- Standardized financial reporting eliminates inefficiencies: By using Jirav, Creative Planning was able to build structured templates for budgeting, forecasting, and variance reporting that could be deployed across a wide range of clients.
Watch the on-demand webinar for more on Creative Planning's story: Achieving Excellence: Maximizing Profitability and Client Impact
Take the most important step of all
Your firm may already be providing advisory-level FP&A insights to clients today, but if your firm is like many, these valuable relationships occur on an intermittent, ad hoc, as-needed basis, rather than as the output of a dedicated FP&A function. The most important first step you can take to reap the rewards of FP&A advisory is to commit to providing it as a dedicated, formalized, fully supported service. Not only will your clients benefit significantly, but so will your firm. Just ask leaders at any of the firms featured here.
The good news is that both CPA.com and Jirav have extensive resources and capabilities to help your FP&A practice get off to its best start. CPA.com provides everything from webinars to workshops and whitepapers that provide your team with the practical insights they need to be successful. And in addition to Jirav's industry-standard FP&A tech solution, we provide hands-on help with implementation, training, onboarding, and go-to-market strategies. All you need to take advantage of these resources is to commit to doing it. We’re ready to help you.
To learn more about the CPA.com and Jirav partner program, visit: CPA.com/financial-planning-analysis
About the author
Guest contributor Evan
Wells is the Head of Accountant Growth at Jirav. In his role, he helps high-growth firms build strategies
and client deliverables to accelerate their FP&A advisory practices.
