The Ultimate Guide to CAAS (Client Accounting & Advisory Services)

8 min read

August 12th, 2024

Most business owners are familiar with two reasons why their businesses need a bookkeeping and accounting function, compliance and taxes. While these are important functions of a back office, your back office has the potential to offer so much more to your business like improving its overall operation, efficiency, productivity, and profits.

Unfortunately, many business leaders struggle to transform their back offices from a focus on compliance and tax-oriented purposes to a focus on improving business management, strategy, and outcomes. That's where CAAS accounting for businesses comes in. 

What Is CAAS?

CAAS stands for client accounting and advisory services, and what sets it apart from regular bookkeeping and accounting services for businesses, is the "advisory" portion of the acronym.

Yes, a CAAS provider can help your business with compliance, keeping your business tax and audit-ready at all times. However, these service providers also place a strong emphasis on advisory services for businesses. They provide financial advice by offering controller and chief financial officer (CFO) services, in addition to traditional booking and accounting. 

In addition to traditional bookkeeping and accounting (compliance-oriented services), some of the most popular services offered in CAAS packages include:

• CFO and controller advisory services
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Management reporting
• Strategic financial planning

With CAAS, your financial advisory team essentially becomes a part of your business's team because their services not only serve the bookkeeping and accounting function of your business but also the strategic and visionary aspects of business management and leadership. 

Read More: The Pros and Cons of Outsourced Accounting Services for Businesses

How to Make Advisory Services Work for Your Business: 8 CAAS Implementation Strategies for Success

1. Understand and Be Clear About Your Needs

When beginning a relationship with a CAAS provider, you need to take a close look at your business, its current operations, its goals, and your back-office needs. Having a clear understanding of the kinds of services you require from a CAAS provider and an understanding of what you expect to gain from a relationship with a CAAS provider will help your provider better understand your goals and meet your needs. 

2. Don't Overlook Industry Experience

When shopping for a CAAS provider, do not overlook industry experience. Different types of businesses in different industries have very different needs, structures, strategies, goals, opportunities, and challenges. Choosing a provider who has experience working with similar types of entities in your industry will give them a leg up when it comes to understanding your business.

They'll come to the table with valuable insights, experience, and expertise that can help you learn from the mistakes and successes of others within your industry, without having to suffer the learning curve that comes with choosing a CAAS provider with limited industry experience. 

3. Establish Responsibilities and Communication Expectations

At the beginning of your relationship with a CAAS provider, make sure you have established a clear understanding of your (and their) responsibilities, schedules, and deadlines in addition to communication expectations. This will ensure you are working with the right partner, signed up for the right service plan, and understand what is required from you in order for your CAAS provider to perform their job. 

Read More: The Future of Client Advisory Services

4. Embrace Technology and Work to Collaborate Through Information Sharing

Working with a CAAS provider requires businesses to adopt a variety of software and technology tools that facilitate and automate the safe and efficient sharing of information, usually via the cloud. This means that in order for businesses to successfully implement CAAS in their businesses, they must be willing to embrace, adopt, learn, and use these tools. Of course, you can expect your CAAS provider to assist you through the process of implementing, training, and launching these new tools in your business. 

However, it will be up to you, as your business's leader, to gain buy-in with your team so that they understand the importance and necessity of adopting new tools, technology, and procedures. 

5. Actively Participate in Understanding and Using Your Financials

The advisory portion of CAAS is the portion of these services that can offer the most potential value and ROI to your business. However, the information and advice you receive won't mean anything if you, as a business leader, choose not to engage with it or act on it. 

In order for CAAS to pay off in your business, it's essential that you commit to learning how to read, understand, and use your financials (financial and management statements in addition to key performance indicators). Once you're committed to making the most of your CAAS partnership, you'll begin to gain valuable insights into your business's operations that will enable you to make data-driven decisions to improve your business. 

6. Set Goals and Develop an Operating Framework

When you have a sound understanding of your financials and how to use them to evaluate your business's performance, you can begin establishing a better framework within your business for setting goals, establishing benchmarks, and aligning your entire organization around a common vision. You can then use your back office to measure your progress, test strategies, and improve operational efficiency. 

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7. Measure Success and Strategically Reinvest

As you devise and implement business strategies, you can use your CAAS provider to help you develop financial strategies that will support your business's overall goals. These strategies should involve measurement through careful metric tracking. 

Additionally, as you see your business's performance improve, you can use your CAAS-guided back office to help you choose the most impactful ways to reinvest your time (as it becomes increasingly free) and free cash (as it becomes increasingly more available). 

8. Be Aware of Upcoming Challenges and Leverage Your Advantage With Flexibility and Scalability

One of the primary benefits of CAAS providers is that they offer your business a level of flexibility and scalability of services that is not readily available with an in-house back office. As a business working with a CAAS provider, it's important not to overlook this advantage. 

If you have a new challenge coming up such as a merger or acquisition or another major change, you might consider expanding your services. Bring on your CAAS as an interim CFO to provide you with objective insights, help you navigate a change, or assist you with handling a temporary influx of financial strategy demand. 

Remember that your CAAS provider is designed to grow and change with your business. So, work with them to anticipate when growth might happen and the best schedule for adjusting or changing the services you receive. 

Are Outsourced Accounting Services Right for Your Business?

If your business's back office costs more resources than it is worth and is not yet working to improve your business, then your company could benefit greatly from outsourced accounting and advisory services from a reputable CAAS provider with experience in your industry. 

An outsourced CAAS provider will save you time and money while helping you use your back office to lead your business to a brighter future. To learn more about CAAS and how it could transform your business for the better, we welcome you to learn more about GrowthForce and how we help lead for-profit businesses and not-for-profit organizations to the next level every day.