How much more valuable can an accounting client become when you move beyond traditional accounting services?
Potentially quite a bit.
The 2024 CPA.com and AICPA PCPS Client Advisory Services Benchmark Survey found that participating firms generating significant revenue from CFO-level or higher-level business insights advisory services earned more than 30% higher monthly recurring revenue.
They also reported typical monthly fees that were more than 30% higher.
That’s an important finding for bookkeepers, tax professionals, and accountants considering Client Advisory Services (CAS).
The opportunity isn’t necessarily about finding more clients.
It may be about finding more ways to help the clients you already have.
Why Are CFO-Level Services Worth More?
Consider the difference between two services.
A bookkeeper reconciles a client’s accounts and produces monthly financial statements.
That’s important work. The business needs accurate financial information.
But what happens next?
The business owner looks at the reports and realizes cash is declining even though sales are increasing.
Now they have questions:
Why is this happening?
Can I afford to hire?
Should I increase my prices?
Which part of the business is hurting my margins?
How much cash should I keep in reserve?
Those are no longer bookkeeping questions.
They’re business questions.
CFO-level advisory moves the accounting professional further into that decision-making process.
Instead of only producing the information, the advisor helps the owner understand what it means and determine what to do next.
That’s a more complex service—and potentially a much more valuable one.
Businesses Need More Than Financial Statements
Small business owners rarely start companies because they’re passionate about reading financial reports.
They’re trying to build something.
They want to grow revenue, increase profit, hire employees, serve customers, create financial security, or eventually sell the business.
Accounting information helps measure their progress.
Advisory helps them act on it.
A CFO-level advisor might help a client with areas such as cash-flow forecasting, budgeting, profitability analysis, KPI monitoring, scenario planning, strategic financial planning, and major business decisions.
CPA.com describes higher-level business insights CAS as using both financial and nonfinancial information to support areas such as business transformation, industry-specific challenges, and strategic financial planning and analysis.
The deliverable isn’t simply another report.
It’s greater financial clarity.
CFO Advisory Is Naturally Recurring
There’s another reason these services can generate more monthly recurring revenue:
The client’s problems don’t end when the report is delivered.
Imagine helping an owner develop an annual budget in January.
By March, sales are below forecast.
In May, a major customer leaves.
In July, the owner wants to hire.
In September, material costs increase.
By November, they’re considering purchasing equipment for the following year.
The plan continually changes because the business continually changes.
That creates a natural reason for the advisor and client to meet regularly.
Instead of:
Complete task → Send invoice → Engagement ends
The relationship becomes:
Analyze → Plan → Implement → Measure → Adjust → Repeat
A monthly advisory engagement might therefore include reviewing KPIs, comparing actual results against forecasts, discussing cash flow, evaluating upcoming decisions, and setting priorities before the next meeting.
The accountant becomes part of the client’s management rhythm.
That’s well suited to recurring revenue.
Higher-Level Advisory Is Harder to Commoditize
Many foundational accounting processes are becoming easier to automate.
Software can import transactions, automate portions of reconciliations, generate reports, and streamline bookkeeping workflows.
That doesn’t eliminate the need for accountants.
But it can make basic transactional work easier for competitors to replicate.
Strategic advisory is different.
Helping a business owner decide whether to hire requires context.
So does determining why margins are declining.
Or deciding whether expansion makes financial sense.
The advisor needs to understand the company’s numbers, goals, industry, constraints, and the owner’s appetite for risk.
Technology can support that analysis.
But the value increasingly comes from judgment, interpretation, communication, and strategy.
That’s much harder to reduce to a commodity.
You Don’t Necessarily Need More Clients
This may be one of the most interesting implications of the CPA.com research.
Accounting firm owners frequently think growth means adding more clients.
But imagine having 50 clients paying for relatively narrow services.
What if 10 of those clients already need help with cash flow, forecasting, profitability, or strategic planning?
Expanding the relationship with those clients could create another path to growth.
The goal becomes increasing the value of the relationship, not simply increasing the number of relationships.
The broader CAS benchmark supports this idea. Participating firms reported 17% median CAS growth, while median net client fees per professional reached $156,250, a 29% increase from the previous survey.
Higher-level services can give accounting firms another lever for growth.
Yet Many CAS Firms Still Aren’t Going That Far
Here’s what makes the opportunity particularly interesting.
CPA.com’s benchmark found that 39% of respondents didn’t offer business insights services, while fewer than one-third generated more than 10% of their CAS revenue from business insights or bundles containing those services.
By comparison, 97% regularly offered transactional accounting services and 90% offered controllership services.
In other words, many firms have already built the foundation for advisory.
They just haven’t fully moved up the value chain.
That’s important because CPA.com specifically describes transactional and controllership services as a strong springboard into higher-level advisory.
Bookkeepers and accountants already possess something extremely valuable:
They know the client’s numbers.
The next step is learning what to do with that knowledge.
From Bookkeeper to Business Advisor
Imagine you’ve been providing bookkeeping services to the same business owner for two years.
You understand their revenue.
You see their expenses.
You know when cash gets tight.
You’ve watched their margins change.
You may know more about the financial realities of that business than almost anyone besides the owner.
That puts you in an excellent position to start asking better questions.
Where do you want this business to be next year?
What’s preventing you from getting there?
Which parts of the company generate your best profit?
What happens to cash flow if you hire?
What numbers should we monitor every month to make sure you’re on track?
Those questions begin changing your role.
You’re no longer simply maintaining the financial history.
You’re helping shape the financial future.
Develop Advisory Skills Through UAC’s Profit & Growth Expert Training
Making that transition requires more than changing your title to “advisor.”
You need a process for delivering real value.
That’s where Universal Accounting Center’s Profit & Growth Expert (PGE) training can provide a pathway.
PGE is designed to help accounting professionals go beyond traditional accounting services and develop the consultative skills necessary to work with business owners.
The training includes cash-flow management through UAC’s Universal Business Model, along with instruction in applying Profit First principles with accounting clients and understanding the eight Value Builder drivers. PGE also addresses marketing and moving prospects through a sales funnel—important skills when turning advisory expertise into an actual service offering.
UAC President Roger Knecht is among the program’s instructors, helping professionals understand how these concepts can be applied when coaching and advising business owners.
For a bookkeeper, tax preparer, or accountant, that training can complement the technical expertise you already possess.
You know how to produce reliable financial information.
PGE helps you develop the skills to do more with it.
Move Up the Value Chain
The CPA.com benchmark provides a compelling glimpse at what can happen when firms expand beyond transactional accounting.
Firms generating significant revenue from CFO-level and business-insights services reported more than 30% higher monthly recurring revenue.
That’s not a guarantee that every firm adding advisory will see the same result. The survey represents 206 self-selected U.S. CAS practices and reflects their 2023 performance.
But the finding points toward an important opportunity.
You can reconcile an account.
You can produce a financial statement.
You can prepare a tax return.
Those services provide the financial foundation.
Then you can ask:
What can I help this business owner do next?
For accounting professionals ready to answer that question, Universal Accounting Center’s Profit & Growth Expert program offers a pathway toward higher-level advisory—and toward building the kind of recurring client relationships that are becoming increasingly valuable across the profession.
