Advisory & Compliance Services

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Advisory & Compliance Services

Governance & Risk Management Service
Business Advisory
Cooperate Restructuring
Merger & Acquisition
Valuation
Legal & Secretarial Service

mpliance services are required, and there is very little differentiation in the deliverable between practitioners. A tax return or financial statement usually looks the same no matter who prepared it. The fact that most firms include the exact same compliance description on client invoices reinforces that there is nothing special about the compliance report.

Conversely, the advice, expertise, planning and strategy that went into the process before the report was created are very differentiated. Advisory services grow from our unique experiences and expertise, and are the secret sauce that creates value for our clients.

We know this intuitively, but many firms do a poor job of separating advisory from compliance, and communicating their advisory expertise to clients. Advisory supports specialization, which leads to higher-value services and separation from the sea of generalists. However, if we can’t articulate our advisory expertise, it’s a certainty that clients won’t be able to untangle our compliance services from higher-value advisory services.

AICPA further provides examples of advisory services that include “an operational review and improvement study, analysis of an accounting system, assistance with strategic planning, and definition of requirements for an information system.” This is helpful, but this definition feels more formal and narrower than how practitioners describe advisory services in their firms.

In a recent Intuit® Tax Council roundtable, firm owners defined advisory services as “taking client challenges and applying strategies to create opportunities in service to their growth.” This definition feels more outcome-oriented than the AICPA definition, and still aligns with the AICPA’s recommendations for client consideration and decision making.

Compliance and advisory services are interdependent — advisory services requiring a foundation of current, accurate books to provide actionable insights. While the suite of compliance services is constant across firms, the offering of advisory services tends to be personalized for each firm. Without a clear line of demarcation between services, some firms deliver advisory services while getting paid for compliance work.

Advisory services in accounting means the accountant provides expert recommendations, options, and strategies to help business owners achieve their financial and operational goals. Often, accountants bring industry experience, accounting technology and process expertise, financial acumen, and an understanding of the client to develop personalized recommendations. Accountants help business owners prosper by providing advisory services, such as tax planning, technology implementation and maintenance, management reporting, cash flow forecasting, key performance indicator dashboards, industry benchmarking, business performance reviews, process automation, budgeting and goal tracking, strategic planning, product price testing, profitability consulting, wealth management, and more.

To better define advisory services, here’s a comparative analysis to illustrate where compliance ends and advisory begins.

Businesses, organisations and governments face a complex and ever-changing global environment which requires them to continuously change and transform themselves in order to remain competitive and relevant.

Our service offerings are designed to reflect client priorities. Deals aims at helping our clients to transform their businesses by working with them whenever transactions are being contemplated or are in process. Deals provides clients with joined up services across the whole deal continuum from validating the deal strategy and assessing options, through evaluating and executing deals, to making deals successful and realising value from the deal. Consulting has service offerings focused around key client processes that help design, manage and execute lasting change throughout the business life cycle.