3 major reasons to join the Sage Accountants Network

The challenges of running a successful accounting firm involve more than just keeping up with compliance regulations. As you develop your client relationships, build rapport, provide insights into their cash flow, and offer advice on how to steer their business financially, your clients naturally trust you with more.

When your clients begin to view you as a lifeline to their business success, it’s crucial you deliver greater value… and this means expanding beyond the bare minimum of compliance and transactional services.

But where do you begin?

Sage developed the Sage Accountants Network to support accountants and bookkeepers with the choices, support, and guidance they need to be their client’s most valued business partner.

The Sage Accountants Network is a program of product solutions, support, and benefits serving accountants and bookkeepers who support Sage products across North America.

If you are looking to diversify the services offered to your clients, this is a great place to start. Here are the three major reasons to join the Sage Accountants Network today.

1. Sage 50 Accountant Edition

When you join the Sage Accountants Network, you receive Sage 50 Accountant Edition—a powerful accounting solution built for accountants. With Sage 50 Accountant Edition’s easy-to-understand reporting, you get a holistic view of your client’s finances.

Plus, Sage 50 Accountant Edition saves time and enables you to offer more value by allowing you to:

• Easily manage all your clients in one place
• Create a company for them in Sage 50 Accountant Edition or sync their Sage 50cloud to your account
• Offer preferred pricing of 50% to new Sage 50cloud clients

2. Training for Client Advisory Services

More and more clients are asking for expanded services from their accountants. According to the Practice of Now research, 79% of accountants say that client expectations have expanded to include the provision of business and finance consultancy.

By joining the Sage Accountants Network, you’ll receive access to the Sage Accountants Network Client Advisory Services training program. This program has eight learning tracks geared towards delivering more value to clients and increasing your firm’s profitability.

The learning tracks include:

• Business planning
• Client engagement process
• Verticals and market segmentation
• Packaging and pricing
• Engagement letters and service agreements
• Talent recruitment and development
• Business development and marketing
• Key performance indicators

Once you’ve used the program to fine-tune your services, it’s time to understand what your individual clients’ vision and goals are for their business. One client’s goals may be completely different from another, depending on the number of years they’ve been in business, how many employees they have, or how much revenue they bring in. When you identify their goals, you can then tailor the services you offer them to match and help them reach their objectives.

Once the client has signed on, expect to provide regular financial reporting and insights. That’s when your financial software will really prove its worth.

3. Ongoing professional training and development

With Sage Accountants Network, you will gain access to tools to help your accounting firm grow while you gain even more specialized expertise.

You’ll be able to view webinars, get training on new features and products with access to Sage University, and develop specialized skills with the Sage Certification Program. These tools will help your firm grow while you stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends.

Sage University is geared towards busy professionals. With self-paced e-learning and recorded replays, training is available at any time, on your own schedule. Virtual classrooms, hands-on labs, and real time WebEx trainings are also available.

Sage Accountants Network was developed to help accountants and bookkeepers grow their practices and advance a true partnership between finance professionals and their clients. For more information, visit the Sage Accountants Network page.