To start offering Client Advisory Services (CAS), an accounting or bookkeeping firm should define a specific advisory offering, identify the clients it can serve effectively, establish standardized deliverables and workflows, select the technology needed to deliver those services efficiently, determine pricing and engagement scope, and begin with a manageable group of clients before scaling.
The transition doesn't have to happen overnight.
Many accounting and bookkeeping firms already possess the two things necessary to begin building a CAS practice:
Financial information and existing client relationships.
The challenge is turning those assets into a repeatable service.
A firm that already closes a client's books, for example, may have access to the information required to discuss profitability, cash flow, financial health, budgets, forecasts, and future business decisions.
But simply having access to the information doesn't automatically create an advisory service.
The firm needs a process.
This guide provides a practical framework for building one.
Key Takeaways
- Start with a clearly defined CAS offering rather than trying to provide every possible advisory service.
- Identify right-fit clients before rolling CAS out across your entire client base.
- Standardize the underlying process while personalizing the actual client conversation.
- Build the advisory workflow on top of accurate, completed accounting data.
- Define recurring deliverables such as financial reviews, forecasts, budgets, KPI monitoring, and advisory meetings.
- Establish clear scope, responsibilities, cadence, and pricing.
- Use technology to reduce manual preparation rather than trying to scale CAS entirely through additional labor.
- Pilot the service with a small number of clients before expanding.
- Measure whether the service is valuable for clients and operationally sustainable for the firm.
Step 1: Decide What Your CAS Practice Will Actually Provide
One of the easiest mistakes to make is starting with:
"We want to offer advisory."
That's a direction, not a service.
A prospective client needs to understand what they're actually receiving.
Client Advisory Services can encompass a broad range of activities, including:
- Outsourced accounting
- Controller services
- Management reporting
- Budgeting
- Financial forecasting
- Cash-flow planning
- KPI monitoring
- Financial-health analysis
- Budget vs. Actual analysis
- Scenario planning
- Business performance reviews
- CFO-level advisory
Your firm doesn't need to offer all of them.
A smaller accounting or bookkeeping firm might begin with something much simpler.
For example:
Monthly Financial Advisory Package
Monthly financial review
Financial health and KPI review
12-month financial forecast
Budget vs. Actual analysis
Monthly advisory meeting
That's something you can explain.
It's also something you can operationalize.
Compare that with:
"We provide strategic business advisory."
The second description may sound sophisticated, but it tells the client very little about what will actually happen.
Start by defining the recurring work.
Step 2: Define the Problem Your CAS Offering Solves
Once you've identified the services, determine what problem they solve for the client.
For example, perhaps your ideal client receives monthly financial statements but struggles to answer questions such as:
Are we actually financially healthy?
Are we performing according to plan?
Where is cash heading?
Can we afford to hire?
What happens if sales slow down?
Which financial trends should concern us?
How will a major decision affect profitability and cash flow?
Your CAS offering should create a repeatable process for helping clients investigate questions like these.
That gives the service a much clearer purpose than simply providing additional reports.
Step 3: Identify Your Right-Fit CAS Clients
Not every existing client will necessarily be a good CAS client.
A very small business with limited financial activity and few management decisions may receive little value from an extensive monthly advisory engagement.
Another client might desperately need it.
Look for businesses with characteristics such as:
- Reliable accounting records
- Meaningful revenue
- Employees
- Recurring operating expenses
- Multiple financial decisions
- Cash-flow complexity
- Growth
- Debt
- Hiring plans
- Budgeting needs
- Multiple owners or managers
- A desire for greater financial visibility
- An owner who actively engages with financial information
A useful question is:
Does this client regularly make decisions that would benefit from understanding the financial implications before committing?
If the answer is yes, the client may be a strong candidate.
Step 4: Start With Clients You Already Know
An existing client base can be one of the strongest advantages an accounting firm has when launching CAS.
You may already know:
- Which clients are growing
- Which clients struggle with cash flow
- Which clients ask questions about hiring
- Which clients consistently exceed their budgets
- Which clients have financing concerns
- Which clients are considering expansion
- Which owners frequently ask what their numbers mean
AICPA guidance on identifying new advisory opportunities specifically points to existing accounting work as a source of insight. Accountants may already see trends, risks, growth, profitability changes, cash-flow problems, and operational changes that create natural opportunities for deeper advisory conversations.
Instead of beginning with a broad sales campaign, consider identifying a small group of existing clients where the need is already visible.
For example:
"We've noticed your company has grown considerably over the last year, and you've been asking more questions about hiring and cash flow. We're introducing a recurring financial planning and advisory service that goes beyond your monthly financial statements. Would you be interested in discussing what that could look like?"
That's a much more natural conversation than attempting to sell an abstract concept called CAS.
Step 5: Decide Whether Your CAS Practice Will Focus on a Niche
A firm doesn't necessarily need an industry niche to offer CAS.
But specialization can make the service easier to standardize.
Imagine providing advisory services to:
- A SaaS company
- A restaurant
- A construction contractor
- A dental practice
- An e-commerce business
All five need financial analysis.
But their operating models, KPIs, cash cycles, staffing structures, and financial questions may be very different.
A niche can allow a firm to develop deeper expertise and a more repeatable process.
Instead of:
"We provide CAS to small businesses."
the positioning could become:
"We provide financial planning and advisory services to construction companies."
or:
"We help professional-services firms understand profitability, cash flow, staffing, and future financial performance."
This can also simplify:
- Marketing
- Client qualification
- KPI selection
- Reporting
- Technology
- Staff training
- Advisory meeting preparation
Industry specialization isn't mandatory, but there is evidence supporting its value. In the 2024 AICPA/CPA.com CAS Benchmark Survey, practices generating more than half their revenue from defined industry niches reported higher median CAS revenue and higher net revenue per client than the overall respondent group.
Step 6: Establish the Financial Foundation
Forward-looking advisory is only as useful as the information supporting it.
Before building forecasts or analyzing financial health, the underlying accounting data needs to be reasonably complete and accurate.
That means the CAS workflow should generally begin after:
Transactions are recorded
↓
Accounts are reconciled
↓
Adjustments are completed
↓
The accounting period is closed
↓
Financial statements are ready
Then the advisory process can begin.
This creates an important operational distinction:
Accounting creates the foundation.
CAS builds on that foundation.
A firm that attempts to perform advisory work before the underlying books are ready may spend its advisory time explaining accounting errors rather than helping the client understand the business.
Step 7: Define Your Recurring CAS Workflow
This may be the most important step.
If CAS is going to become a recurring service rather than a series of custom projects, the firm needs a repeatable workflow.
A monthly workflow could look like this:
1. Complete Month-End Close
Ensure the accounting period is complete.
2. Review Financial Performance
Examine:
- Revenue
- Gross profit
- Operating expenses
- Profitability
- Cash flow
- Balance-sheet changes
3. Review Financial Health
Look for changes in areas such as:
- Profitability
- Liquidity
- Solvency
- Efficiency
- Capitalization
4. Review KPIs
Evaluate the metrics relevant to the client's business.
5. Compare Budget vs. Actual
Identify material differences between planned and actual performance.
6. Update the Forecast
Incorporate the latest completed financial information into the forward-looking outlook.
7. Identify Emerging Issues
Determine whether anything deserves deeper investigation.
For example:
- Declining margins
- Increasing expenses
- Cash pressure
- Slower collections
- Increasing leverage
- Revenue weakness
- Significant budget variances
8. Prepare for the Client Meeting
Determine what deserves discussion.
9. Conduct the Advisory Meeting
Discuss:
What happened?
Why did it happen?
Where is the business heading?
What deserves attention?
What decisions are coming?
10. Model Decisions as Needed
If the client is considering a significant decision, create scenarios to understand its potential financial effects.
For example:
- Hiring
- Pricing changes
- New locations
- Financing
- Equipment purchases
- Increased marketing
- Expansion
- Cost reductions
The details can vary by firm.
The important part is that the workflow becomes repeatable.
Step 8: Standardize the Process Without Making the Advice Generic
Standardization sometimes sounds incompatible with advisory.
It isn't.
The process can be standardized while the conversation remains specific to the client.
For example, every client might go through the same monthly framework:
Performance → Financial Health → KPIs → Budget → Forecast → Risks → Decisions
But Client A's conversation might focus on hiring.
Client B's might focus on deteriorating margins.
Client C's might focus on opening a second location.
Client D's might focus on cash flow.
The analytical framework remains consistent.
The advisory conversation changes.
This distinction becomes extremely important when attempting to scale CAS.
AICPA's current CAS learning materials emphasize consistent, repeatable delivery, while its small-firm CAS training specifically identifies a standardized approach as central to the model.
Step 9: Define Your CAS Deliverables
Clients should know what they're receiving.
Possible recurring deliverables include:
- Monthly management report
- Financial statements
- KPI dashboard
- Financial-health review
- Updated forecast
- Budget vs. Actual report
- Cash-flow analysis
- Scenario analysis
- Monthly or quarterly advisory meeting
Avoid creating deliverables simply because they're available.
Every deliverable should serve a purpose.
For example:
Forecast
Purpose: Understand likely future financial performance.
Budget vs. Actual
Purpose: Understand whether the company is operating according to plan.
KPI dashboard
Purpose: Monitor the financial or operating measures that matter most.
Scenario analysis
Purpose: Understand the potential effect of a proposed decision.
The goal isn't to give clients more financial information.
It's to make the information they receive more useful.
Step 10: Build a Consistent Client Meeting Structure
Without structure, advisory meetings can easily turn into general conversations.
A repeatable meeting framework helps keep the discussion financially grounded.
A simple structure could be:
Part 1: What Happened?
Review material financial results.
Part 2: What Changed?
Discuss trends, variances, and financial-health changes.
Part 3: Where Are We Heading?
Review the updated forecast.
Part 4: What Needs Attention?
Discuss emerging financial risks or areas requiring investigation.
Part 5: What Decisions Are Coming?
Identify upcoming decisions involving:
- Hiring
- Spending
- Pricing
- Financing
- Growth
- Capital investment
Part 6: What Should We Model?
Determine whether scenario analysis could clarify the financial implications of those decisions.
This structure helps move the conversation beyond simply reading the financial statements to the client.
Step 11: Decide How Frequently Clients Receive Advisory Services
Not every client requires the same cadence.
Possible models include:
Monthly CAS
Appropriate for businesses with frequent decisions, meaningful financial complexity, or rapidly changing conditions.
Quarterly CAS
Potentially appropriate for more stable businesses that still benefit from planning and performance reviews but don't require monthly meetings.
Annual Planning + Recurring Monitoring
Some clients may primarily need an annual planning process combined with periodic financial reviews.
The frequency should match the actual value being delivered.
Don't schedule monthly meetings simply because "monthly CAS" sounds more comprehensive.
If there is nothing meaningful to discuss every month, a different cadence may serve the client better.
Step 12: Determine How You'll Price CAS
There is no single correct CAS pricing model.
Pricing can depend on:
- Scope
- Client complexity
- Meeting frequency
- Number of entities
- Transaction volume
- Services provided
- Level of advisor involvement
- Required expertise
However, CAS has increasingly moved toward recurring fixed-fee structures rather than purely hourly billing.
The 2024 AICPA/CPA.com CAS Benchmark Survey reported that only 10% of respondents still primarily used hourly billing.
A recurring service naturally lends itself to recurring pricing.
For example, a firm could create service levels such as:
Financial Visibility
Reporting + KPIs + quarterly review
Planning & Advisory
Reporting + KPIs + forecast + budget tracking + monthly meeting
Strategic Finance
Everything above + scenario planning + deeper CFO-level involvement
Those are examples of packaging structure, not suggested prices.
The right pricing depends on the firm's service model, market, costs, expertise, and client base.
Step 13: Clearly Define the Engagement Scope
CAS can become problematic if the client and firm have different expectations about what "advisory" means.
The engagement should clearly establish:
- Services included
- Services excluded
- Deliverables
- Meeting frequency
- Client responsibilities
- Firm responsibilities
- Data requirements
- Timing
- Fees
- Applicable professional standards
This is particularly important because CAS can span accounting, financial statement preparation, consulting, and other professional activities.
For CPA firms, the applicable professional standards should be evaluated when designing the engagement. AICPA's recent SSARS No. 27 guidance specifically addresses circumstances involving financial statement preparation within CAS engagements and reinforces the importance of properly scoping and documenting the work.
Step 14: Choose Technology Based on the Workflow
Technology shouldn't define the CAS practice.
The workflow should define the technology.
Start with:
What do we need to deliver consistently?
Then determine which systems support it.
A CAS technology stack may include:
- Accounting software
- Payroll
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Expense management
- Reporting
- Forecasting
- Budgeting
- KPI monitoring
- Workflow management
- Document sharing
- Communication
For a QuickBooks-based firm, the accounting platform may already contain much of the historical financial data needed for advisory.
The question becomes how efficiently that information can be transformed into forward-looking analysis.
Step 15: Avoid Building Every Client's Advisory Process in Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are flexible.
They're also one of the easiest ways for CAS to become labor intensive.
Imagine that every month an advisor must:
Export Client A
↓
Update Client A's spreadsheet
↓
Repair formulas
↓
Update forecast
↓
Calculate KPIs
↓
Update charts
↓
Prepare report
Then repeat the process for Client B.
Then Client C.
Then Client D.
The workflow may be manageable for five clients.
It becomes very different at 50.
Technology becomes valuable when it reduces the amount of work that must be recreated for every client and every accounting period.
This is one reason technology investment is increasingly important in CAS. The 2024 benchmark found that firms continually investing in technology reported serving more clients than the overall respondent group, along with higher CAS and average client revenue.
Step 16: Use Technology to Automate Preparation, Not the Relationship
The objective isn't to automate the advisor out of CAS.
It's to automate work that doesn't require the advisor's judgment.
For example:
Software can:
- Import financial data
- Calculate metrics
- Generate forecasts
- Identify variances
- Produce reports
- Surface financial changes
The advisor can:
- Understand context
- Ask questions
- Investigate causes
- Understand management priorities
- Explain implications
- Facilitate planning conversations
This is an important distinction.
A financial dashboard alone isn't an advisory service.
A forecast alone isn't an advisory service.
The advisory service comes from the process surrounding the information.
Step 17: How RunSmart Can Support a CAS Practice
RunSmart by Projection Genie is designed to automate much of the financial analysis and planning layer that occurs after the books are complete.
A firm connects a client's QuickBooks Online data.
RunSmart can then transform that historical financial information into capabilities including:
- Financial forecasts
- Projected Profit and Loss Statements
- Projected Cash Flow Statements
- Projected Balance Sheets
- Financial health indicators
- KPI monitoring
- Scenario modeling
- Budgets
- Budget vs. Actual tracking
- Automated financial reports
This creates a workflow in which the accounting firm doesn't have to manually rebuild the analytical foundation for every client each month.
Instead:
QuickBooks
↓
Completed Month-End Financials
↓
RunSmart Analysis
↓
Forecast + Financial Health + KPIs + Budget Tracking + Risks
↓
Advisor Review
↓
Client Conversation
The advisor remains responsible for understanding the client and interpreting the information.
RunSmart helps reduce the amount of manual preparation required before that conversation takes place.
Step 18: Think About CAS at the Portfolio Level
One of the less obvious challenges with CAS appears after the service becomes successful.
Suppose a firm has:
5 CAS clients
Reviewing every client individually may be easy.
Now imagine:
50 CAS clients.
Or:
100 CAS clients.
The firm needs a way to determine where advisor attention is most valuable.
Portfolio-level monitoring can help firms move toward an exception-based model.
Instead of manually reviewing every client's complete financial picture just to determine whether something has changed, advisors can identify clients showing:
- Emerging financial risks
- Material budget variances
- Changes in financial health
- Forecast deterioration
- Other conditions that deserve investigation
The advisor can then drill deeper into those clients.
That becomes increasingly important as the CAS practice scales.
Step 19: Pilot CAS Before Rolling It Out Firmwide
You don't need 100 CAS clients on day one.
Start with a small pilot.
Perhaps:
3–5 existing clients.
Choose clients that:
- Have clean books
- Engage with financial information
- Have meaningful planning needs
- Are open to a deeper relationship
- Represent the type of client you'd like more of
Run the process for several months.
Document:
- How much preparation time is required
- Which deliverables clients actually use
- Which metrics create useful conversations
- How long meetings take
- Which steps can be standardized
- Which steps require professional judgment
- Where technology saves time
- Where bottlenecks remain
Then refine the service.
Step 20: Measure Whether the CAS Practice Is Working
A successful CAS practice needs to work for both the client and the accounting firm.
Client-level questions might include:
- Are clients attending meetings?
- Are they engaging with forecasts?
- Are they asking more forward-looking questions?
- Are they using scenario analysis?
- Do they understand their financial position better?
- Are they renewing the service?
Firm-level questions might include:
- How many clients can each advisor support?
- How much preparation time is required?
- Is the process standardized?
- Are engagements profitable?
- Is recurring revenue growing?
- Which services consume the most time?
- Which clients receive the most value?
The objective isn't simply to say:
"We now offer CAS."
The objective is to create a service clients value and the firm can deliver consistently.
The CAS Flywheel
A well-designed CAS practice can create a reinforcing cycle.
Accurate accounting creates reliable data.
Reliable data enables useful analysis.
Analysis supports better advisory conversations.
Advisory conversations reveal new planning questions.
Those questions create opportunities for forecasts and scenarios.
Recurring planning strengthens the client relationship.
And the deeper relationship gives the accounting firm more context for interpreting future financial changes.
The result isn't simply more reports.
It's a different kind of accountant-client relationship.
Start Small, Then Standardize
Building a CAS practice doesn't require reinventing your firm.
Start with a defined service.
Choose appropriate clients.
Establish a repeatable workflow.
Standardize the analysis.
Create a consistent meeting structure.
Use technology where it eliminates repetitive preparation.
Measure what works.
Then scale.
The firms most likely to struggle with CAS are often those that attempt to make every engagement completely custom from the beginning.
The firms positioned to scale it are those that distinguish between what should be standardized and what should remain personalized.
The process can be standardized.
The client's business cannot.
That's where the advisor provides the greatest value.
The next article in this series will examine another important question for firms developing advisory services:
What's the difference between Client Advisory Services and fractional CFO services?
Understanding that distinction can help firms define how far they want their advisory offering to extend.
Frequently Asked Questions About Starting Client Advisory Services
How do you start a Client Advisory Services practice?
Start by defining the services you will provide, identifying right-fit clients, creating a repeatable delivery workflow, determining deliverables and meeting cadence, selecting appropriate technology, establishing engagement scope and pricing, and piloting the service with a small number of clients.
Once the workflow is proven, the firm can expand the offering.
Can a bookkeeping firm offer CAS?
Yes.
Bookkeeping firms can provide advisory-oriented services such as management reporting, budgeting, forecasting, KPI monitoring, cash-flow analysis, and recurring financial reviews where appropriate to their expertise and professional obligations.
The exact service scope should be clearly defined.
Do I need to be a CPA to offer Client Advisory Services?
CAS isn't one standardized service requiring one universal credential.
The appropriate qualifications depend on the services being provided, applicable laws and regulations, professional standards, and jurisdiction.
Certain accounting or attest-related activities may carry requirements that don't apply to general financial analysis or consulting.
Firms should evaluate the requirements applicable to the specific services they intend to provide.
Which clients are best for CAS?
Strong candidates often have reliable accounting data, meaningful financial complexity, recurring management decisions, growth plans, cash-flow concerns, budgeting needs, employees, financing, or a desire for greater financial visibility.
The client's willingness to engage in an ongoing financial conversation is also important.
Should CAS be monthly or quarterly?
Either can work.
Businesses with more financial complexity or frequent decisions may benefit from monthly advisory.
More stable businesses may receive sufficient value from quarterly meetings.
The cadence should reflect the client's needs and the service being provided.
What should be included in a CAS package?
A CAS package might include financial reporting, KPI monitoring, financial-health analysis, budgeting, Budget vs. Actual analysis, forecasting, cash-flow planning, scenario analysis, and recurring advisory meetings.
Not every client needs every service.
How should accounting firms price CAS?
There is no universal CAS price.
Pricing should consider service scope, client complexity, meeting frequency, advisor involvement, expertise, technology costs, and the value delivered.
Recurring fixed-fee arrangements are common for recurring CAS engagements.
Should CAS be billed hourly?
It can be, but the profession has increasingly moved toward recurring fixed-fee and other non-hourly approaches for CAS. The 2024 AICPA/CPA.com benchmark reported that only 10% of participating practices primarily used hourly billing.
What technology does a CAS practice need?
The technology depends on the service.
Common categories include accounting, payroll, AP/AR, reporting, budgeting, forecasting, KPI monitoring, workflow management, and client communication.
Technology should support a defined CAS workflow rather than determine the service itself.
How many CAS clients should a firm start with?
There is no universal number, but starting with a small pilot can make the process easier to refine.
For example, a firm might begin with three to five existing clients, document the workflow and time requirements, gather feedback, and improve the service before expanding it.
How can CAS be scaled?
Scaling CAS generally requires standardizing recurring processes, automating data collection and analytical preparation, defining repeatable deliverables, using consistent meeting frameworks, and creating ways to identify which clients require the most attention.
Adding clients without addressing these operational issues can simply create more manual work.
How can RunSmart help accounting firms offer CAS?
RunSmart connects to QuickBooks Online and automatically transforms completed financial data into forecasts, financial health indicators, KPIs, scenarios, budgets, Budget vs. Actual analysis, and financial reports.
This can help firms reduce the manual analytical preparation required for recurring advisory engagements while maintaining the accountant's role in interpreting results and working with the client.
