11 steps for launching CAS

April 1, 2024 2:35 PM

If your practice is launching a new client accounting services practice — or you're just in the initial planning and research stages — making sure you're well-prepared is essential.

To help guide you through the process, Ignition has teamed up with Intuit's QuickBooks Online to create a step-by-step process to help turn your CAS learnings into action.

Step 1. Identify and choose which services to offer

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When you're launching advisory services in your accounting firm, it's crucial to identify and choose the right services to offer. The most significant accounting challenges businesses face aren't always related to tax returns, bookkeeping or audits. Instead, they're often the things that keep business owners up at night, such as managing cash flow, paying employees and building the business they envision.

One effective approach is to focus on your existing clients rather than searching for new ones. This is one of the reasons why many accounting and tax professionals choose to diversify their services by offering CAS.

Step 2. Package and price your services

It's crucial to have a solid strategy in place to ensure you're making a healthy profit on services that are consistently in demand. One approach that's worth considering is value pricing. Not only does this method allow you to work with fewer clients while doing more work, but it also leads to improved employee morale and better customer satisfaction.

Your packaging and pricing are closely linked. So, once you've decided what to charge for your advisory services, package these into service offerings and present these to clients in a way that's easy to understand and simplifies the decision-making process. For example, Little Fish Accounting packages its services as "Tax Prep Suite" year-round tax support, and "Fractional CFO" advisory support.

Step 3. Choose your tech stack and set up workflows and automation

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Now you've chosen the services you're going to offer, and priced and packaged these, you're ready to put your tech stack together.

Ideally, the tech you choose for CAS — and all the services you provide — should minimize admin and eliminate repetitive manual processes. So, be sure to keep or introduce platforms to your tech stack that prioritize efficiency and profitability.

With your platforms chosen, you're ready to connect these and create workflows to automate invoicing, payment collection, and reconciliation for your new services — and start nurturing leads.

Step 4. Decide what you’ll track and measure

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You can't make smart decisions without data, which is why you always need a solid grasp of essential business metrics.

High-performing CAS firms closely monitor their pipelines and track "client fees, lifetime client value, transaction volume, and a number of services that can help guide specialization and improve client retention," according to Firm of the Future.

Step 5. Soft launch your services to existing clients

Once you've set up your workflows and decided on the metrics you'll track, you're ready to soft launch your services to your existing clients. Soft launches are a way to gather feedback and data to iron out any issues before rolling out the service more broadly — and clients may also sign up for the new service once the trial ends. As part of your soft launch, include testimonials and case studies in marketing emails.

Step 6. Develop your sales process

Thumbnail for Video: Getting Past the Dark Side of Sales

You probably learned a lot from your soft launch that you can use to develop a sales process for new clients.

Having a strong sales process in place to uncover clients' challenges and needs is critical to offering services that meet those needs.

Before you even get into the sales process, it's important to consider your viewpoint on sales. For many accounting professionals, the sales process can be a struggle because they're not salespeople.

Your prospective client is coming to you because they don't know how to do something or they have a struggle or an issue they can't solve themselves, and you are the expert.

It's less about selling to the client and more about understanding if this is the right fit and if the client sees you as that expert. If the client is asking about prices, they may not see you as the expert, and the partnership may not be the right fit.

Step 7. Find out if new clients are the right fit

To determine if prospective clients are a good fit for your firm, create an Ideal Customer Profile. We recommend taking the time to identify your ICP and make sure you're speaking to your clients' specific challenges and needs. Understanding your clients' priorities is essential for winning their business.

Step 8. Use scoping sessions to start selling your services

The next step is a detailed scoping session to find out what makes the client unique; understand their position in the market, their strategic goals, their problems or pain points, and the reason they've ended up sitting across from you.

During the session, take notes and ask questions to dig deeper into the client's world. You are coaxing out vital information to help you create the best solution for this client, and you're also demonstrating your communication and listening skills.

Now that you know exactly what's keeping the client up at night, you can directly address how your company can help solve those pain points.

Step 9. Prepare your proposals and engagement letters

With your notes from the scoping session, it's time to set the right expectations with your proposal and engagement letter. In Ignition, your engagement letter forms part of your proposal. It acts as a contract and cornerstone of the client engagement process and creates a level of security and transparency for both parties during the client onboarding process and throughout the entire relationship.

Step 10. Market your services

Networking and word-of-mouth referrals are among the most common ways of attracting business, remembering that the "vast majority of CAS referrals come from tax clients," as Firm of the Future points out.

By using a combination of one-to-one and one-to-many marketing tactics, such as email and website content, you can reach a wider audience and effectively communicate the value of your new services.

Step 11. Empower your team through advisory services

Your final step is to use these services to unlock opportunities for your employees to forge stronger relationships with clients. This journey will sharpen their communication skills and deepen their understanding of client needs, fueling their personal growth and evolution into trusted advisors. This transformation doesn't just add value to your firm — it also furthers their careers.

By championing the collaborative spirit of CAS teams, you're promoting teamwork and innovation, and also inviting your employees to contribute to meaningful projects that have a direct impact on client success.