1. Goals and vision

• What are your short- and long-term financial goals?
• Where do you see yourself or your business in three to five years?
• Are there any life or business changes you’re planning for?

2. Financial health and strategy

• How confident do you feel about your current financial or business strategy?
• Do you have a budget, savings plan, or financial forecast in place?
• Are there areas where you feel uncertain about your financial decisions?

3. Income, expenses, and efficiency

• Are you tracking income and expenses in a way that supports your goals?
• For business owners, what processes feel time-consuming or inefficient?
• For individuals, are you happy with how your money works for you?

4. Risk management and future planning

• How prepared are you for unexpected expenses or life events?
• Do you have insurance, estate planning, or succession plans in place?
• For business owners, have you planned a potential exit or ownership transition?

5. Tax strategy and planning

• Do you feel like you’re taking full advantage of tax-saving opportunities?
• Are you expecting any major life or business events — like a home purchase, inheritance, sale of a business, or retirement?
• Would you like to explore more proactive, year-round tax planning?

6. Personal alignment and life milestones

• Are your finances aligned with your personal values and lifestyle goals?
• Do you have plans for retirement, education funding, or charitable giving?
• Are you navigating any major milestones — starting a family, divorce, relocating, or caring for aging parents?

These questions are designed to spark open, trust-based conversations that help uncover where your clients need deeper insight and support. Whether they’re individuals or business owners — or both — these insights can naturally lead into advisory engagements.

When your firm takes the initiative to engage clients thoughtfully and consistently, you create a foundation of trust that uncovers your clients’ hidden needs. Instead of relying on assumptions or waiting for them to raise concerns, proactive firms can surface unseen opportunities and spot potential risks earlier.

Regular conversations allow your firm to stay informed about changes in your clients’ businesses, industries, or personal circumstances — critical information that might otherwise go unnoticed. These conversations not only enable personalized and timely services but also demonstrate a commitment to your client’s long-term success, which fosters stronger loyalty.

From a business standpoint, proactive communication also opens the door to new revenue streams. By actively listening and engaging with clients beyond transactional tasks, your firm can identify unmet needs and suggest solutions clients may not have considered, such as business advisory, financial planning, or consulting services. This shift enables your firm to move from being viewed as a tax preparation provider and to becoming a strategic partner — ultimately driving more profitable and sustainable growth.

Leveraging the power of technology

Today’s accounting firms have access to an array of powerful tools that can redefine how they serve their clients. Playing a pivotal role in streamlining internal processes and providing data-driven client insights is AI-powered software. By automating routine compliance tasks, such as data entry and tax preparation, accounting firms can reduce manual workload and increase accuracy. Alongside an AI-powered tax research solution, even junior staff are empowered to answer complex client questions confidently and accurately.

Moreover, AI-powered tax technology enables data analytics that offer personalized insight into client financials. From identifying trends to proactively detecting anomalies, AI not only saves time and reduces costs but also enhances the level of support your firm can provide to clients.

To take full advantage of the combined power of technology and advisory services, solutions like Thomson Reuters Practice Forward provide accounting firms with a structured framework. This solution assesses current needs, uncovers hidden opportunities, and identifies potential challenges before they arise. These tools don’t just streamline internal workflows — they arm accountants with the insights and strategies needed to transition from compliance-focused service providers to proactive, strategic advisors.

A profitable shift

From providing clients with financial insights to helping them navigate the complexities of tax law, accounting firms that have made the move to advisory services using the Practice Forward business model are realizing significant gains, including:

• A 133% increase in average first 12-month billing for new clients
• A 113% increase in average monthly billing for existing clients

*All results are based on 87 Practice Forward member accounting firms who completed the Annual Practice Forward Member Survey.

AI-powered tax technology enables real-time insights into customer behavior and preferences, helping your firm create strategies tailored to every customer. Further, AI tools can help detect anomalies quickly during audit or investigation processes — allowing your firm to respond swiftly should any discrepancies arise. AI also helps reduce errors and increase accuracy when preparing financial statements. Powerful algorithms and predictive analytics enable better decision-making based on accurate forecasts rather than relying on assumptions or gut instinct.

By harnessing a program like Practice Forward, your firm can build customized roadmaps for clients based on deep financial insights and predictive analytics. This approach positions your firm as a trusted advisor who understands your clients’ businesses at a deeper level and offers meaningful, forward-looking advice that helps them achieve their personal and business goals.

How does AI support the shift to advisory services?

By transforming workflow processes and unlocking data analytics and expert insight, AI enables accountants to elevate their role from compliance professionals to trusted business advisors.

Here are some of the many ways AI supports the shift to advisory services:

• Automating compliance tasks. AI reduces the burden of manual work related to tax preparation, transaction classification, and reconciliations. This frees accountants to focus on helping clients with business growth, financial planning, and risk management.
• Offering data analysis and insights. AI tools can sift through large data sets and generate valuable insights, which accountants can use to offer clients detailed reports and forecasts. These insights allow your firm to provide forward-looking, data-driven advice that supports better business decision-making.
• Enabling real-time financial monitoring. AI systems can continuously monitor client data and alert accountants to anomalies or potential opportunities in real time. This tracking enables your firm to proactively engage with clients and offer timely advice, moving beyond reactive, after-the-fact consultations.
• Transforming tax research. AI synthesizes expertly written guidance and analysis, and our AI-powered tax research solution draws on thousands of primary sources and expert editorial commentary to quickly surface relevant summaries in everyday language, complete with citations.

The role of data analytics in gaining insight into client needs

Data analysis plays a critical role in helping accounting firms move from reactive to proactive client service. While strong communication is essential, data provides an additional layer of visibility firms need to fully understand client behaviors, identify patterns, and uncover opportunities that may not surface in conversations alone.

With the right technology, firms can dive into client data to identify trends, risks, and opportunities that may otherwise remain hidden. AI-powered data analytics enables you to track and evaluate key client metrics — such as business performance indicators, spending patterns, tax filing behaviors, and service usage trends. By analyzing this information, you can detect early signs of change, such as cash flow fluctuations, revenue growth, or shifts in investment strategies. These insights create opportunities to initiate meaningful conversations with clients about their evolving needs, challenges, and goals.

Personalized insights can then be delivered in a timely, targeted manner — whether it’s optimizing cash flow, minimizing tax exposure, or supporting expansion plans. When clients receive proactive, personalized guidance, it not only drives their growth but also fosters stronger loyalty and long-term partnerships with your firm.

Additionally, data-driven insights enable your firm to segment your client base more effectively, tailoring communication strategies and service offerings to different client profiles. This personalization not only improves client satisfaction but also strengthens advisory opportunities as your firm can recommend services or solutions based on real evidence rather than assumptions.

Why data analytics holds the key to stronger client relationships

Here’s how data analytics can empower your accounting firm to be more proactive, precise, and strategic in supporting and growing your client relationships.

• Start smarter conversations. Use insights to drive proactive check-ins and goal-setting discussions, and initiate timely conversations around changes in financial health, tax strategy, or business growth opportunities.
• Uncover emerging trends and risks early. Identify when clients are ready for advisory, planning, or consulting services. Catch tax-saving opportunities early and spot financial red flags before they become bigger problems.
• Personalize every interaction. Deliver advice and guidance tailored to each client’s real-time needs based on their unique goals and circumstances.
• Reveal cross-selling and upselling opportunities. Recognize when clients could benefit from additional services like cash flow planning, succession strategies, or technology consulting.
• Strengthen client decision-making. Provide clients with data-backed insights that strengthen their confidence in your recommendations.

Defining your business model and scope in the era of advisory services

In the past, accounting firms followed a transactional model, providing annual services primarily focused on meeting compliance and reporting obligations. However, with the advent of AI-powered tax technology and growing client expectations, forward-looking accounting firms are evolving beyond just tax compliance to offer year-round value-added services that address clients’ comprehensive financial well-being.

With a value-based approach, your firm assigns a price based on the value of the services you bring to the client. The price varies from client to client because you base it on what they value most and what they are willing to pay for that value. For example, some clients may value a consultative brainstorm every month more than bookkeeping services and would be willing to pay more for accounting advisory consulting on a recurring monthly or quarterly basis.

Defining the scope of work at the beginning of the engagement ensures that the client knows what is included and what will cost extra. This might require educating them upfront on what is included and not included in their engagement. To maximize this pricing model, you need to scope the project accurately and clearly. Practice Forward can help you establish a value pricing model, resulting in higher margins and happier clients.

At its core, value pricing is about building relationships rather than completing transactions. Clients are not just purchasing a tax return or a financial statement; they are investing in an ongoing advisory relationship that helps them navigate complexity and achieve their goals with greater confidence. By embracing this mindset, your firm can position itself as an indispensable partner in your clients’ success, creating deeper loyalty, uncovering new advisory opportunities, and delivering far greater long-term value.

How to define your scope when transitioning to advisory services

Clear boundaries lead to better outcomes — for you and your clients. As you shift into an advisory role, it’s essential to clearly define the scope of your services. Here’s how to set the stage for success:

• Clarify what’s included. Outline which advisory services you provide — financial planning, business strategy, KPI analysis, and more.
• Establish expectations. Set clear timelines, deliverables, and communication channels to avoid scope creep.
• Use engagement letters. Document the advisory relationship formally to protect both parties and reinforce value.
• Revisit scope regularly. Advisory needs evolve. Schedule periodic reviews to realign services with client goals.

Practice Forward can help your firm with a well-defined scope that sets the tone for a trusted, professional relationship — one that delivers consistent value and growth.

Overcoming common objections when moving to an advisory business model

Despite the clear benefits of expanding into advisory services, many firms encounter staff and client-facing objections. Common concerns include fears about time investment, discomfort with pricing conversations, uncertainty about the firm’s advisory capabilities, and clients’ resistance to change. Some accountants worry they lack the expertise or savvy to position themselves as advisors rather than technical tax experts.

Overcoming these objections starts with preparation, training, and the right tools. Programs like Practice Forward provide practical resources, including step-by-step engagement models, pricing strategies, and client communication templates that help your firm transition smoothly.

Rather than attempting to overhaul client relationships overnight, start with small changes — offering a diagnostic meeting, introducing new service packages, or piloting advisory conversations with a select group of clients. With guidance and support, your firm can build the confidence needed to reframe roles, deepen client trust, and fully unlock the growth potential of advisory services.

How to overcome common objections

Clients may hesitate when your firm shifts to an advisory model — but the right approach can turn objections into opportunities. Here’s how to address common concerns:

• Why should I pay more? Emphasize the long-term value of proactive advice that can improve profits, reduce risk, and support business growth.
• I thought that was already included. Clarify the difference between compliance and advisory services, and communicate how this new scope delivers deeper, more personalized insights.
• We’ve always done it this way. Highlight how the business environment has changed — and how strategic advice helps clients stay competitive and future-ready.
• I’m not sure if I need that. Ask discovery-based questions to uncover pain points or growth goals, then show how your advisory services directly address them.

With clear communication, defined value, and a proven roadmap to success, Practice Forward can help your firm build trust and guide clients toward embracing your expanded role as their strategic partner.

Transforming client relationships

Becoming a trusted advisor starts with a shift in mindset. Your firm should begin to view every client interaction as an opportunity to listen deeply, understand evolving needs, and offer strategic solutions. Tools like Practice Forward can assist by providing templates, conversation guides, and advisory frameworks that make it easier to uncover client aspirations, not just their compliance requirements.

A client-centric approach is essential to this transformation. Strategic conversations, not just transactions, form the foundation of lasting client relationships. Rather than focusing solely on tax filings, audits, or financial statements, prioritize your understanding of each client’s broader life and business goals. This discovery means taking the time to ask better questions, maintain regular check-ins, and tailor services to fit each client’s unique needs. A client who feels truly understood and supported is far more likely to view your firm as a trusted, year-round partner.

Providing value beyond traditional tax preparation services is one of the most effective ways to build loyalty and drive firm growth. Advisory services such as succession planning, business valuation, cash flow management, and strategic consulting demonstrate that your firm is invested in your clients’ overall success, not just their annual compliance obligations. As your firm begins to offer more forward-thinking, high-value services, you’ll see new revenue streams begin to open up.

Redefining your business model

The shift to advisory services is more than a trend — it’s a strategic evolution. Your accounting firm can redefine its business model by expanding beyond compliance work to become a trusted advisor. This means:

• Shifting from reactive to proactive. Help your clients plan, not just report on the past.
• Focusing on relationships over transactions. Build long-term value through strategic insight and ongoing collaboration.
• Leveraging technology for efficiency. Automate routine tasks to free up time for high-value advisory conversations.
• Specializing in niche services. Offer tailored advice in areas like business strategy, cash flow, or succession planning.

With Practice Forward, you’ll learn how to take the time to dig into your clients’ needs and have meaningful conversations about the challenges they are facing — and how to use those conversations to expand and solidify your relationships.

Harnessing the power of proactive communication

Proactive communication is the cornerstone of a successful transition to advisory services. When accounting firms regularly engage with clients beyond tax season or compliance deadlines, they create space for deeper conversations that reveal underlying challenges, unmet goals, and new opportunities. These interactions enable you to understand your clients’ personal and business needs inside and out.

By taking the initiative to ask thoughtful, open-ended questions and listen actively, you can uncover needs that your clients may not be able to articulate themselves. Proactive dialogue ensures your firm is positioned to offer timely, relevant solutions to meet this need.

Ultimately, consistent, forward-looking communication empowers your firm to deliver more meaningful impact. It opens the door to higher-value engagements, reinforces your expertise, and helps your clients see the full breadth of what you can offer. In a competitive landscape where businesses are seeking more than just number crunching, initiating these conversations is the key to building long-term, advisory-driven relationships.

Are you ready to start your advisory journey?

With trusted methodology, guidance, and content solutions, Practice Forward can help your firm shift from a compliance-focused model to a lucrative advisory services approach that engages and sustains clients.

Through your Practice Forward implementation, you have access to over 290 tools, including proposal templates, pricing calculators, and checklists paired with personalized consulting to help you:

• Implement and execute a proven sales process
• Identify and package your firm’s services
• Develop a pricing strategy
• Standardize business best practice advisory delivery
• Transition existing clients to advisory relationships
• Uncover client advisory opportunities

For more information, request a free demo today. You can also join us for a virtual Advisory Bootcamp and our in-person Partner Summit, where you’ll learn the steps to redefine your business model and distinguish between value-added advisory services and compliance services — and how you can monetize the value of that difference.