CPAmerica ADVANTAGE
News From Your Accounting Association
October 2022 IN THIS ISSUE: ► Next level CAAS practice: Utilizing a tech stack to meet client needs ► Preferred Provider Spotlight - Wolters Kluwer ► Member News ► CPAmerica Insights - Grace Horvath
Next level CAAS practice: Utilizing a tech stack to meet client needs
Interview with Frank McLaughlin, CPA, Partner, Antares Group
With changes coming from the accounting industry as a whole, firms are constantly needing to expand and adjust their services to continue meeting client needs. One such expansion has been seen in the Client Accounting & Advisory Services (CAAS) niche. Many firms are moving away from only providing accounting services, and into establishing and monetizing additional client advising.
provides these additional services to their clients, making more revenue. A key element to selecting your tech stack programs is ensuring they can be standardized and streamlined. Streamlining your firm’s tech stack makes it easy for your people to be trained and become experts in the programs. McLaughlin explained that through these standardization practices, Antares Group has saved their team 5,000-6,000 hours of work. “Our standardization practices have allowed for our people to get consistent training and learn program methodology without having to relearn the specific charts of accounts for each client, the only variable is the numbers,” said McLaughlin. “It also helps our firm to become more profitable and to provide better advisory work for our clients, because our expertise grows with each client.”
Frank McLaughlin Antares Group
At Antares Group, roughly eighty percent of their client services are in the CAAS niche. Antares Group has two main offices in Atlanta, Ga. and Boston, Mass., with restaurant franchises, such as McDonalds, as their biggest customer segments. To stand out amongst their peers and other business process organizations (BPOs), they have focused on how to be most efficient and effective by utilizing and standardizing technology to drive business and help clients. Frank McLaughlin, CPA partner with Antares Group, explained that to be successful in the CAAS area, you must be able to differentiate yourself and your firm. “We must differentiate ourselves from BPOs by being the expert, having the knowledge,” said McLaughlin. Another key differentiator for them is their technology stack (tech stack), the group of programs they exclusively work with at the firm and provide expertise in. Through this tech stack, Antares Group
When selecting the right tech stack for your clients and firm, McLaughlin recommends doing all the necessary research. “If it takes you two extra months to ensure you’ve made the right decision, you should take that time,” said McLaughlin. “Once you decide on a tech stack, you kind of have to stick with that decision. That’s why doing research is key. Be smart about how you pick it. The software must be customizable enough, but also must be scalable and adaptable for your clients,” explained McLaughlin. McLaughlin also said that once your CAAS services are established and your tech stack has been streamlined, you can do more to better prepare your clients for the future. They started utilizing business insights and can share comparative reporting with real data to back it up. “Two areas we are now focusing on to prepare our firm and clients for the future are, 1) selling our tech stack to people who are not currently our clients, generating additional revenue, and 2) utilizing robotic process automation (RPA) more in everything we do, including in providing business insights and reporting. As See Tech Stack, continued on page 2