But with digital accounting and cloud technology having removed some of the major barriers to large-scale production of tailored management accounts, now could be the time to expand this service to a wider group of clients, both large and small.
Let’s look at the main advantages of delivering management accounts to a broader client base, and how Active has the workpapers and reporting tools to do this efficiently.
Why offer management accounting to your clients?
The fundamental role of an accounting firm is changing fast in 2025. Many business clients no longer see the accountant’s role as a purely compliance-based function, where the focus is on bookkeeping, ledgers and filing the company tax return on time.
What business owners and finance directors (FDs) want is meaningful financial and strategic advice, backed up by deeper reporting, metrics and financial data. And this is no longer the sole preserve of large corporate organisations. Businesses of all sizes expect their accountant to provide meaningful strategic advice, backed up with up-to-date numbers
According to new research from Modulr, what clients want from their accountant is investment and business strategy advice (75%), forecasting (73%) and accounts payable/receivable (66%).
These are the new top priorities, and to offer in-depth advice to the full range of your client base, you need access to detailed management accounts, to help guide your insights and thinking.
Having the numbers to drive your strategic advice
Your client might be a large multinational logistics company, an early-stage tech startup, or an established small family business. But regardless of size, industry or business type, having regular monthly management accounts at your fingertips gives you the foundations for an increasing number of value-add advisory channels.
Deeper reporting, metrics and dashboards help to supply more meaningful advice to the client, while also making it easier to spot the revenue opportunities, cashflow gaps, patterns in spending and other trends that lead to new advisory conversations.
What are the basic elements to include in an expanded management accounting package?
As a firm, you know the core management accounting basics to include for your top clients. But with an expanded management accounting service, it’s important to cover all the accounting bases, so clients of all sizes get the same level of reporting and bespoke advice.
Here are just a few of the elements to consider including in an expanded management accounting package for the full spectrum of clients:
- Preparation of standard management accounts, including statutory accounts, profit & loss reports, balance sheet and cash flow statements
- Budgeting and forecasting, including scenario planning, variance analysis and rolling forecasts to help clients plan for the future
- Cashflow management and forecasting, to optimise their working capital, manage liquidity and predict future cash positions.
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reporting and analysis, to help the client set goals, track performance and analyse the trends and patterns in the data.
- Strategic business advice and value-add services, using the financial reporting and KPIs to help drive the direction of the business and make informed decisions etc.
- Implementing and optimising cloud systems, so the client can use cloud accounting software (like Xero and QuickBooks) and integrated apps to create a fast and efficient digital system.
- Outsourced finance function, so smaller businesses can outsource the work to your in-house ‘virtual finance director' or an outsourced finance team.
What are the key barriers to expanding the firm’s management accounting services?
The biggest barrier to expanding your management accounting service is time. The sheer capacity required to produce detailed accounts and reporting for your entire client base can be a major challenge – even as a mid-tier firm with multiple offices and a large headcount.
Many of the firms we speak to are already up to capacity and struggling to hire the additional talent needed to cover the client basics. Adding in more time-intensive services, like producing management accounts, is a non-starter for some of these firms.
The challenge of increasing your fees to cover additional services
Aside from the time challenge, there’s also the problem of price and value for money.
Many business clients are unwilling to pay more for deeper accounting services, even if doing so has long-term value for the business. Some less-enlightened business owners do still see accounting services as a necessary evil, rather than a value-add service.
Offering management accounts as a package, and boosting the basic price as a result, could drive price-conscious clients away.
How to overcome the time and pricing challenges
Offering a viable management accounting service means overcoming these two key challenges: 1) the lack of time and capacity, and 2) the problem of higher prices for clients.
A fundamental way to tackle both these challenges is to fully embrace the benefits of cloud accounting and automation. 87% of practices say that using cloud-based accounting software leads to increased client satisfaction, according to Xero’s recent Accounting and Bookkeeping Industry Report 2025. And the root to this satisfaction is a faster, more connected, online way to managing a client’s finances, accounting and reporting.
With cloud-based ledger and reporting tools, like Active, much of the hard work of pulling together workpapers, trial balances and reporting can be streamlined. Getting the numbers you need more easily, and pulling them into insightful reports in a matter of seconds, helps to speed up the management accounting process and increase the volume of clients you can service.
How can Active help you produce effective management accounts
Our management reporting workpapers are designed to roll over period-on-period. When you combine this with the direct two-way API with your bookkeeping – and a host of other small efficiencies along the way – it makes running regular workpapers faster and more effective.
And the efficiencies don’t stop there. With Active, you can publish the completed management accounting report in just a few clicks, making the reporting process fast and highly efficient for you, and truly impactful for the client.
The benefits of using Active help make an expanded management accounting service a potential reality, one that works for both the firm and the client.
For example:
- Using Active Workpapers, management reporting templates speed up the process
- With Active Ledger & Reporting, management accounts are created with just a few clicks
- Your team spends less time producing the reports, cutting down on staff resourcing
- Faster, more efficient processes mean you can offer management accounts at a cheaper price point to the client
- You can increase the volume of clients you service, boosting firm revenues
- Clients get plenty of advice and value, with only a small increase in price
How strong bookkeeping leads to higher quality management reporting
Firms who provide regular bookkeeping services for their clients are in a strong position to ramp up management reporting with this same client group.
Active’s two-way API integration with QuickBooks, Xero or (coming soon) FreeAgent makes it a piece of cake to bring in a trial balance from Excel. This directly links the management reporting workpapers to your bookkeeping.
Your management reporting workpapers roll over from period to period, essentially building an automated monthly or quarterly view of:
- Prepayments
- Accrued Income
- Accruals
- Deferred Income
Our reporting product can build the report extremely quickly, pulling all the data directly from the workpaper binder. You can then choose to publish the report, send it out to the client, or have it on your devices ready for a client meeting.
Active: your key to efficient, cost-effective management reporting
We work in a world where being tech-savvy helps drive the future of your clients’ strategic planning. The ability to offer cloud-based management accounting services is a huge boost for both your clients and the firm’s standing in the accounting market.
Switching to Active for your workpapers gives you a fully digital solution for your bookkeeping and accounting processes, and the foundations on which to deliver management accounts.
Come and talk to the Active team to see how our active, automated solutions can help your firm embrace the new age of cloud-based reporting and data-driven client insights.