New and Updated Content

Annual Accounts Review Update

We've made small changes to the Annual Accounts Review content:

1. Pre-work:

• Added an additional question box at the end to allow clients to input any queries they have about their Annual Accounts or Tax Position to ensure the team member can prepare to answer these at the meeting
• Added another option to the focus areas for setting and achieving business goals

2. Delivery Notes:  Removed references to the CCR being the next step on the ladder and changed this to an improvement meeting, e.g. the Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting.

3. Value Gap Calculator: Added a link to the Value Gap Calculator within the AAR Delivery folder for easy access to use during the meeting.

Cashflow Forecast Confirmation and Pre-work Email

The Cashflow Forecast Pre-work Word file is now hardwired as an attachment to the email, so you don't have to attach it manually.

If you'd like to edit the pre-work to add your logo or amend the questions, click the red paperclip icon next to the subject line, then download the pre-work. Make your amendments, then delete the attachment and attach your updated version.

This pre-work is a Word file to enable your clients to add/remove rows depending on their business size to ensure you receive the information required to create their forecast.

Gap Intro Email - New Team Member

Use this email template to introduce new team members to The Gap. It contains key learnings to get them up to speed, including training videos to watch and knowledge base articles to read. 

Ensure you update the email to reflect the learnings you want your new team member to prioritise.

Guide to Closing the Value Gap in Your Firm

The Value Gap Calculator is a key tool to use with clients. It's also a tool you should be using within your firm. Ideally, use the Value Gap Calculator before a Business Planning session to help form your 12-month goals.

You can now access the Value Gap Calculator from Leadership > Best Practice, with our new Guide to Closing the Value Gap in Your Firm accessible via the Download Guide button.

This guide helps you analyse where you are now, with considerations for each section of the Value Gap Calculator. Then, based on your analysis, you can identify areas of opportunity and use the calculator to see what's possible. Finally, the guide provides improvement tactics for each driver.

Guide to Marketing Your Firm

A guide to help firms understand how to utilise marketing to monetise advisory and business improvement services. Everything you need to know about using the marketing resources, education, and support available in The Gap for you to overcome the four barriers to successful marketing:

• A poorly defined brand with no clear aesthetic, tone of voice, or established brand assets.
• Lack of a clear marketing plan or understanding of the strategies that work best.
• Limited internal marketing resources.
• No content marketing strategy or capacity to produce high-value content.

You'll find this guide in the new Advisor Marketing Resources folder in the Marketing tab of the portal.

Marketing tab update

We've streamlined the Marketing tab in the portal.

The new Advisor Marketing Resources folder contains everything you need to develop your firm's annual Marketing Plan, with additional resources to support your marketing campaigns:

• Christmas eBook 2022
• Guide to Marketing Your Accounting Firm
• Your Firm's Marketing Plan
• Annual Campaign Planner
• Marketing KPI Report
• Annual Marketing Budget
• The Gap Generic Web Copy
• Cue Cards/Service Cards Masters & text-only
• Facebook Group Management Guide
• Client Business Development Journal

Guide to Marketing - Client Version

We've updated the Guide to Marketing, located in the Delivery folder of the Marketing Plan bridge, so you can email it to clients via the portal.

The guide has been streamlined and updated to reflect changes in the marketing industry and explain key concepts such as SEO.

This guide can be repurposed as a blog or added to your website as a gated, downloadable resource.

Risk Management Meeting

The Risk Management Meeting is the second in our Improvement Meeting bridge. This is a lower-cost meeting to move clients up the value ladder from the Managing Risk Webinar or a client meeting.

During this 90 minute meeting, you'll help your client:

• Identify the most critical risks to manage in their business
• Assess them based on likelihood and consequence
• Record them in the Risk Register
• Determine mitigation strategies
• Establish a process to implement ongoing risk management

The current economic instability with increasing inflation and rising interest rates makes this meeting essential for all businesses, no matter the size.

This meeting provides an opportunity to continue to work with the client to finalise their Risk Register, deliver a Governance or Business Planning session, or hold them accountable for implementing their mitigation strategies.

Note: We've shortened the proposal for this service, combining the objectives and value, and removing the measures of success.

Virtual Masterclass Recordings

Watch the recordings of all of our previous masterclasses:

• Small Steps - Big Breakthroughs
• Hatching, Matching & Dispatching Clients
• The Business Advisory Value Ladder
• Pricing Your Business Development Services
• The Business Development Trifecta Series
  • Mindset, Marketing & Sales
  • Annual Business Planning
  • Annual Forecasting
  • Ongoing Reporting with Accountability

Managing Risk Webinar Kit

Our new webinar will help your clients understand the risks in each department in their business, develop a risk management strategy, and ensure their business is in the best position to respond to rising costs, interest rates, and inflation.

Following the webinar, send the complimentary Risk Identification Worksheet as a first step in identifying the key risk in each department and the actions they need to take to manage and mitigate the risk.

Softly position the value of a Risk Management Meeting (content to be released soon) to develop a Risk Register and embed risk management as a key strategic task. 

Christmas eBook 2022

Our Christmas eBook is ready for you to customise and send to clients. This year's eBook softly positions the value of risk management to encourage clients to consider the risks they need to manage in their business to prepare for the impact of increased inflation and a potential recession - keep an eye out for a webinar and meeting which will be published soon!

Customise the eBook, convert it to a PDF, and then send to clients via email or BOMA.

Three versions (static image, fully editable, and text-only) are available in Marketing > Your BD Marketing Collateral > Christmas eBook 2022

Value Gap Calculator

This calculator will become your number one sales tool to show clients and prospective clients how their spend with you can be an investment, not a cost, as they immediately see the impact that small changes can have on driving profit, cashflow, and business value.

The tool uses the Five Pillars of Value, allowing you to focus on the areas that will give your client the biggest win and make the most difference in terms of financial freedom. 

Use the tool during any sales discussion, whether that's during a PAM, CCR, AAR, or other client meetings. You can revisit the calculator at future meetings to compare where the client was when you first used the tool and where they're at now.

Ensure you download the Guide to Using the Value Gap Calculator from the top right-hand corner to learn how to use the calculator to position the value you can offer. The guide also contains example scenarios for further guidance.

A short introduction video is available in Training > Training Videos > Getting Started.

The Process Guide and Delivery Notes in the Annual Accounts Review, Proactive Onboarding, and Complimentary Client Review bridges have been updated to reflect the use of the Value Gap Calculator during the meetings.

Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting Delivery Notes

We've updated the Delivery Notes to add tactics for improving the cashflow and profit drivers. Don't list them all when discussing tactics with the client; simply choose 1-2 tactics the client could implement to achieve the biggest improvement.

Microsoft Security Update - Macros Blocked

In a recent security update, Microsoft has changed the default behaviour of Office applications to block macros in files downloaded from the internet or opened from an email attachment.

This affects all Excel files from the portal containing macros, particularly the Personal Budget Template.

Check out this knowledge base article for information on how to unblock macros. There are also instructions in the Personal Budget Template for clients to be able to unblock the macros.

Client Exit Survey

Send this to clients who are leaving your firm to gain important feedback and find out what their experience was like with your firm and identify areas for improvement.

Getting Paid Webinar Update

We've updated our Getting Paid Webinar Kit to make it more relevant post-Covid (the original version was very Covid-specific).

The webinar now links the importance of getting paid to the three freedoms, covers the 7 causes of poor cashflow and Cash Conversion Cycle, sets out what a best practice debtors system looks like, identifies steps clients can take to get runs on the board quickly, and ultimately, helps them get paid faster.

Send the Credit Management Guide and Accounts Receivable Call Scripts as complimentary resources and position the value of attending a Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting, creating a Cashflow Forecast, or beginning a Cashflow Management Coaching programme.

Ramp Up Your Business With Xero Webinar Update

We've updated the PowerPoint presentation to add Xero's new Ultimate Plan to the Xero Plans slide and added the Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting as a service option.

We also added a new slide for the Australian Xero Plans - NZ members, make sure you delete the Australian Plans slide; AU members, make sure you delete the NZ Plans slide.

Annual Accounts Review Update

We've updated the Annual Accounts Review bridge to recognise that positioning a CCR at the end of the meeting may not be appropriate for all clients. Instead, we've made the content more flexible to help move clients up the value ladder with a low-cost meeting or service such as a Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting or Management Reporting.  

Key updates include:

• Process Guide & Flowchart - Updated to reflect that the CCR may not be the next step after the AAR Meeting
• Annual Accounts Mutual Expectations - Removed step 10 which positioned the CCR as being held following the AAR Meeting to allow for the delivery of a paid service as the outcome of the AAR Meeting
• Pre-work - Removed the invitation to attend a CCR from the pre-work email; tweaked the first session from 'numbers you wanted to achieve' to 'financial goals you wanted to achieve'; added a question about the ability to draw sufficient cash from the business to fund the client's lifestyle
• Delivery Notes - Updated to our new format; changed the positioning of the CCR; removed the section on client's burning issues; provided guidance on each section of the pre-work; added positioning in Next Steps section for the Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting, Management Reporting, Business Plan, or CCR
• Meeting Minutes - Updated to reflect changes made to Pre-work and Delivery Notes

Annual Forecasting Bridge

We've moved the Cashflow Forecast content out of the Cashflow Management bridge and into its own bridge.

This bridge has proposals for a standalone Cashflow Forecast, a Cashflow Forecast with Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting, or the full Cashflow Management service option.

The Delivery folder contains pre-work to gather information to prepare the Forecast, a Partner Review Checklist, Meeting Preparation Checklist, Delivery Notes, and Meeting Minutes to help you systemise your Cashflow Forecast Review Meeting and position the value of your cashflow improvement services.

Cashflow Management Bridge Update

We've updated the Cashflow Management bridge to include a new Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting. You'll use our new Cashflow and Profit Improvement Calculator, Cashflow Management Resources, client pre-work, and Delivery Notes to deliver a powerful, low-cost meeting to identify 1-2 strategies your client can implement to improve their cashflow and profit. 

The Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting can be delivered before or after you've created a client's Cashflow Forecast, or as the initial Cashflow Management Coaching session.

Other key updates include:

• Enhancing the Delivery Notes to provide guidance on delivering coaching sessions on the 7 key causes of poor cashflow using the topic-specific pre-work documents
• Enhancing the topic-specific pre-works to drill deeper into the client's pain points
• A new generic pre-work template to send if you're not using topic-specific pre-work
• Removing the Cashflow Forecast content from the Cashflow Management bridge and into its own bridge (see above update)
• Removing the PowerPoint presentation from the initial coaching session
• Updating the default coaching rhythm from quarterly to monthly

Please note: you must review the BD Pricing tab in the Services & Pricing area of the portal and add a price for the Cashflow & Profit Improvement Meeting and update the price of Cashflow Management Coaching (if required).

Attracting and Retaining Talent Webinar Kit

Attracting and retaining team members is a key challenge for many businesses right now, with an increasingly competitive labour market.

Show attendees how creating a flexible work environment, building a fun and balanced working culture, and recognising the needs of individual team members can help them attract and retain the best people for their roles.

Send attendees the Attracting and Retaining Talent Worksheet to help them evaluate their current work environment and the opportunities to improve in five key areas: flexibility, inclusivity, wellbeing, technology, and workplace vibe.

Use the worksheet on your own firm to see what opportunities you have to attract and retain talent.

Complimentary Client Review (Updated)

We've updated the Complimentary Client Review bridge to help members position and gain conceptual agreement for services. By adding more questions to the pre-work, attendees have more time to think about their answer, allowing you to go deeper during the session and provide more value. The Pre-work, Delivery Notes and Meeting Minutes have been aligned to seamlessly move between the three key documents.

Pre-work

1. Moved feedback questions from the Delivery Notes to the Pre-work, providing the opportunity for clients to reflect on the service they've received and provide honest feedback. During the meeting, you'll discuss their feedback and identify steps you'll take to improve.

2. Added questions on the client's biggest challenges, opportunities, and areas for improvement. Previously these questions were in the Delivery Notes; moving to the Pre-work allows the facilitator to go deeper during the session.

3. Separated the goals questions into Personal Goals and Business Goals, focusing on what their goals were and how they went at achieving them.

Delivery Notes

1. Updated the introduction section to clarify the advisor's preparation requirements, focus for the session, and client outcomes.

2. Removed the Tax Obligations section and questions relating to why the client started the business (it's likely the client has provided this information during a PAM or other meeting).

3. Reflected changes to pre-work (split goals section into Personal and Business goals).

4. Moved the topic-specific questions to the very end of the Delivery Notes which can be referred to if time allows or the client has a specific issue to discuss.

5. Added suggested positioning for the trifecta of services to help gain conceptual agreement for Business Planning, Annual Forecasting and Ongoing Reporting with Accountability.

6. Updated topics covered by additional questions at the end of the Delivery Notes to cover all Gap services, reviewed and updated the questions for each topic, and added tips to position services relevant to the topic. 

Offboarding

Our new Offboarding folder, located in the Proactive Onboarding bridge, contains a Guide to Establishing Your Ideal Client Base and Client Offboarding Email.

Guide to Establishing Your Ideal Client Base

This guide is designed to help you qualify future clients to ensure they're the right fit, retrain clients who need to better understand your expectations of them, and 'offboard' clients that you no longer wish to work with.

Client Offboarding Email

After discussing the end of your engagement with a client, either face-to-face or over the phone, send this email to follow up with the final steps of the process.

The Customer Buying Decision Mindset Card

As business owners, we assume that price is the main factor in customer decision-making, however, this is fourth behind others and the factor we have the least influence over. Understanding how to position products or services before price becomes a factor can significantly increase conversion.

The ADKAR Model Mindset Card

There are 5 building blocks needed for successful change management. Use with your team to minimise disruption & ensure change sticks. Use with clients to give awareness of the need to change, motivation & knowledge to support change & accountability for implementation & reinforcement to sustain it.

The Control / Responsibility Matrix Mindset Card

This matrix depicts different leadership styles. When one leads with control and authority but also takes responsibility as things go wrong, they create a feedback loop, highlighting improvement strategies and building trust and a high-performance culture.

The Proactive Accounting Meeting

We've published a new document, the Discovery Call Script, to help firms qualify prospects during a 10-minute phone call before inviting them to attend a Proactive Accounting Meeting. By asking the right questions, you can determine the type of client the prospect might be and make sure they're the right fit for your firm. You'll find this in the Marketing folder of the PAM bridge.

We've updated the Proactive Accounting Meeting content so the Pre-work, Delivery Notes and Meeting Minutes are aligned. We've also moved the Admin Support Checklist, Delivery Notes, and Meeting Minutes into the Marketing folder so all content relating to the meeting is together in one place.

Pre-work:

• Removed the personal details section
• Added questions about the prospect's goals, why they started the business, and how well it's delivered on their goals so the facilitator can spend more time during the meeting drilling down into their answers rather than asking these questions during the session

Delivery Notes:

• Moved the questions about why they started their business and their goals into the pre-work; updated this section to 'Why you started out in business' and added instructions to refer to the pre-work questions and drill down into their answers
• Added a section to discuss the challenges and opportunities the prospect identified in their pre-work; added a prompt to discuss how many hats they're wearing
• Removed the Organisation Structure section - issues with their org structure are likely to come up naturally during the meeting

Meeting Minutes

• Updated to follow the order of the Delivery Notes

Outline and Benefits - BOMA

We've published a shorter version of the Outline and Benefits for each service in BOMA. You can use these as part of your marketing campaign to target specific services, easily sending them to your list of contacts.

Access these via the BOMA button next to the Outline and Benefits for the service, in The Gap + BOMA Content Library Catalogue, or directly in the BOMA platform.