Our guide for those looking to familiarise themselves with client accounting services is here! From defining what is CAS in accounting to CAS benefits that all accounting clients should know about to CAS services like client bookkeeping solutions and client advisory services, this detailed guide provides you with the things you need to know about CAS accounting.
What is CAS in Accounting: Defining Client Accounting Services
Many firms offer client accounting services or CAS. This means providing client-focused assistance on areas like budgeting, financial forecasting, tax planning, and overall help with management and decision-making for various types of businesses. CAS in accounting covers many more areas than mentioned, which will be discussed further below.
It’s good to note that CAS accounting is for those looking to outsource their accounting tasks and projects.
CAS Benefits: 5 Advantages of CAS Accounting
Since we’ve established what CAS in accounting is, some may be wondering what’s in it for their accounting practice — and the good news is we have just the answers for you. Below are some major advantages that client accounting services can bring to your firm.
Reaching More than Just Accounting Clients
Diversifying the Types of Accounting Services You Offer
Increasing Revenue for CAS Accounting Companies
Reducing Operational Costs for Client Accounting Firms
Increasing Scalability for CAS Accounting Companies
With quality client accounting services, you not only reach accounting clients wanting to outsource accounting tasks like auditing or AR/AP management — you also pull clients seeking business consultancy and advice. CAS accounting also helps diversify the types of accounting services you offer, as the needs of your accounting clients arise. You don’t just cover roles like general accountants or CPAs; you also include roles like revenue tax specialists, assurance managers, or securities analysts.
Some CAS benefits include increases in your firm’s revenue and scalability, since outsourced teams typically have lower labour costs than their onshore counterparts. This leaves room for your firm to scale up and onboard more specialists that help your firm grow in other important areas. In line with this, outsourced services for client accounting also significantly reduce operational costs, since your firm’s physical capacity is minimised.
Which Areas Can CAS Accounting Help Your Firm With?
Feel like you now know CAS benefits better? Let’s make things even more concrete as we give you the rundown of the different types of accounting services that CAS accounting offers. Here are the top areas that client accounting services can significantly help your accounting firm in.
1. Client Advisory Services
Topping our list on client accounting services are client advisory services — which can extend but aren’t limited to accounting firm services like CFO services and short-term consultancy/long-term advisory for areas like budgeting, tax planning, and business strategising, among others.
Read More: Top 8 Advisory Services Offered by CPA Firms
2. Client Bookkeeping Solutions
Bookkeeping is the foundation of accounting operations, which is why client bookkeeping solutions can’t be skipped in CAS accounting. For accounting firms, the accuracy of financial records is a top priority, and no accounting services firm owner wants to run the risk of compromising on precision and quality.
As in-house bookkeepers can contribute to an en masse capacity crunch among accounting firms, outsourced bookkeeping has become a viable option now more than ever.
3. Financial Forecasts
Client accounting services should also include financial forecasts, as these will affect your business plans for both the near and far futures. Outsourced specialists can make data-driven and research-backed financial forecasts with the same quality as an onshore or in-house team can — or maybe even better. When your team crafts accurate CAS accounting financial forecasts, you deliver your promises to your clients, and you ultimately keep your accounting services firm in the black.
Which Areas Can CAS Accounting Help Your Firm With?
Client Advisory Services
Client Bookkeeping Solutions
Financial Forecasts
Taxes
Billing
Client Accounting Software
4. Taxes
Accountants typically get busy during tax season, so outsourcing tasks related to taxes like tax planning, calculation, and management should also be part of the accounting services offered by outsourcing firm partners. Providing top-tier client accounting services, especially those related to taxation, fills the need for taxation experts in the industry amidst the talent shortage that’s plaguing the field today.
5. Billing
CAS accounting also includes billing tasks, which can be boosted through using top quality billing software. When you outsource your billing analysts, billing specialists, and billing managers, you place tasks that require a huge chunk of your in-house staff’s time, energy, and resources onto the plate of an elite team of outsourced accounting professionals. In turn, you can focus on growing your firm exponentially and even gain more time for things outside of running a business.
6. Client Accounting Software
Offering recommendations on client accounting software is included in providing client advisory services, from the best time-tracking software for maximum accuracy and efficiency in your accounting firm, all the way to accounting CRM software for enhanced client relationships. Client accounting services that include suggestions on which software an accounting firm should use enhance its reliability and credibility not only among their current accounting clients, but also among their prospective partners.
Read More: The Beauty of Accounting Workflow Software
Key Components of Client Accounting Services
CAS services have components to them that make them stand out from their competitors and cement them as the top choice of accounting clients (and beyond) all around the globe. Below are what makes client accounting services crucial to the workflow, operations, and overall success of accounting firms.
1. Constant Communication
Constant back-and-forth between accounting firms and accounting clients might sound exhausting, but exchanging crucial information between all parties involved is part and parcel of good client-firm relationships. In CAS services, constant communication is most needed when it comes to client advisory services, because it involves major business decisions that can make or break firms.
2. Attention to Detail
CAS services require extremely careful eyes, because one small mistake can snowball into irreversible damage. In CAS accounting, attention to detail is not just a recommendation — it’s a requirement. Especially when offering client bookkeeping solutions, paying attention to details in payments, invoices, records, and other documents is crucial.
3. Accurate Research
4. Data Analysis
Research is great, but it won’t suffice. Collected data must be analysed correctly, especially since striving for quality is a must when offering client accounting services. As it was established that research should be empirical and data-driven, data analysis in financial reporting and forecasting needs backing from studies that utilise reliable and valid statistical testing.
Should Your Firm Outsource Client Accounting Services?
Given how things are right now in the accounting industry — capacity crunches, rising operational costs, and the global talent shortage — it’s time to think ahead and safeguard your accounting firm from possible risks brought about by changing times.
Switching from a more traditional model to CAS services gives your accounting practice the boost that it needs, from enhanced efficiency in operations to increased capacity to building outsourced client accounting services teams with lower labour costs that in turn allow for more profitability.
And what better way to get into CAS accounting than partnering with a trusted outsourcing firm?
Introducing TOA Global: Your Partner in Client Accounting Services
CAS accounting requires a solid partnership with an outsourced accounting firm like TOA Global. What sets us apart is our focus in the accounting industry, with our elite accounting teams providing top quality client accounting services to our partners around the globe. With CAS services like client bookkeeping solutions and client advisory services, TOA Global is what your firm needs to adapt and thrive in the ever-changing landscape of accounting.
Need help with getting started in outsourcing? Book a chat with us today — it’s free.
