Podcast: CAS opportunities in spend management
Let's talk about CAS — client advisory services. Granted, that’s a pretty broad topic, so let’s narrow it down a bit — to spend management, specifically.
To me, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of spend management is expense management — travel and entertainment, corporate credit cards, and the like. While that’s certainly part of it, spend management goes way beyond that.
Kalil Merhib, executive vice president of growth and professional services at CPA.com, wrote an article for Accounting Today recently in which he said this:
“With spend management, all company funds are brought together in one centralized location so finance leaders have full visibility of cash flow and can set, track and control spend before it occurs. This approach varies from traditional expense management, which is usually decentralized by department and records spending only after it occurs.
“These technology-enabled spend management capabilities deliver on clients' growing needs to better understand spending patterns to reach a higher level of efficiency in spending, avoid waste and stick to their budgets. This can lead to entirely new — and more valuable — client conversations and growth for your firm.”
The potential here is huge. The folks at CPA.com recently conducted what they call the Expense and Spend Management Survey Report, and they found, among other things, that:
- Seventy-two percent of small and mid-size businesses seek a proactive approach to expense management, yet only 34 percent of accounting firms offer these services.
- Forty-one percent of small and mid-size businesses who outsource expense management have seen significant time and cost savings.
- Fifty-one percent of small and mid-size businesses who outsource expense management are utilizing card-based spend management technology and report that it has been game changing for their companies.
- Firms that offer technology-enabled spend management services are realizing benefits, including greater efficiencies and profits and increased ability to attract and retain clients.
This is a big deal, and a big opportunity for firms that offer these types of services — “an undeniable win-win for both clients and firms,” Kalil Merhib writes.
I wanted to find out a little more about what’s happening around spend management these days, so naturally I turned to the folks who conducted that research — the folks at CPA.com. My guests this week are Jayson Brannon and Dan Luthi. Jayson is vice president of sales and partner success at CPA.com, and Dan is a partner at Ignite Spot Accounting, which has made use of spend management advisory services and can speak directly to the benefits they provide.
Jayson, Dan and I sat down recently to talk about trends in spend management, what we’re learning from small and mid-size businesses that are taking advantage of these services, how spend management fits into the overall advisory conversation these days, and how firms can get started down this path.
Great conversation this week from the perspectives of both those who are providing these services and those who are taking advantage of them. Here is my conversation with Jayson Brannon and Dan Luthi.