Add debt advisory to your services
Turn a reactive bookkeeping or accounting relationship into a proactive debt and cashflow advisory line that clients value and pay for.
What this play helps you do
- Define what a debt advisory service line actually delivers for a small-business client
- Identify which existing clients are the strongest candidates for the offer
- Decide where debt recovery sits within your scope and where you refer it out
- Set up a simple, repeatable engagement you can deliver without rebuilding it each time
- Position the new line so it complements compliance work rather than competing with it
9 min read
The opportunity
Most accounting and bookkeeping relationships are built around compliance — getting the BAS lodged, the books reconciled, the year-end done. That work is essential, but it is also commoditised, price-sensitive and backward-looking. Clients rarely feel a compliance bill made them money.
Debt and cashflow are different. When a client is owed money they cannot collect, or cannot see how they will make payroll next month, that is a live, painful, present-tense problem. An adviser who can read the debtor ledger, explain what it means, and help the client act on it is solving something the client feels every day.
Adding a debt advisory line does not mean becoming a collections agency. It means using information you already hold — aged receivables, payment patterns, customer concentration — to give clients foresight and a plan. The collection itself can be referred to a specialist when it is warranted.
Run the play (steps)
- Audit your book. Run an aged-receivables report across your client base and flag clients carrying material overdue debtor balances. These are your warmest prospects.
- Define the deliverable. Decide what a client receives: a debtor-ledger health summary, a short written commentary, and one or two prioritised actions. Keep it tight and repeatable.
- Draw the boundary. Be explicit about what you do (analysis, advice, process design) and what you do not do (chase debts as an agent, give regulated financial-product advice).
- Build the referral path. Line up a recovery partner before you launch, so when a client needs an account collected you have an answer ready rather than scrambling.
- Pilot with three clients. Run the offer with a small group, refine the deliverable, and capture their language for your marketing.
How to package & price it
Package the advisory as a named, fixed-scope service rather than open-ended hours. A defined deliverable gives the client certainty and gives you a margin you control. Pricing should reflect the value of foresight and recovered cash, not the minutes spent reading a report.
Keep the recovery referral separate. Where a debt is handed to a specialist recovery firm on a commission-only, no-recovery-no-fee basis, that is a clean outcome for the client and an introduction you can make through the refer a debt pathway. Your advisory fee covers your analysis and counsel; the recovery cost sits with the recovery provider and is only payable on success.
Resist the urge to bundle everything into the compliance fee. A separate line item makes the value visible and makes it easier to grow.
How to talk about it
Frame the conversation around the client's reality, not your service catalogue. Open with what you can see: "You're carrying a fair amount in overdue accounts — would it help to walk through what's recoverable and what to do about it?"
Avoid jargon. Clients do not want a lecture on days-sales-outstanding; they want to know which customers are a problem, how much is at risk, and what happens next. Position yourself as the person who turns the numbers into a decision.
Be clear about scope and independence. You are giving general business advice based on their figures, not regulated financial-product advice, and you can introduce a recovery specialist when chasing is required.
Key takeaways
- A debt advisory line uses data you already hold to solve a problem clients feel immediately.
- Define a tight, repeatable deliverable and a clear boundary between advice and collection.
- Price the foresight as its own line, and refer recovery to a specialist on a no-recovery-no-fee basis.
FAQ
Do I need a licence to offer debt advisory?
General business advice about a client's own debtor ledger and cashflow is not regulated financial-product advice. Keep your scope to analysis, process and counsel, refer regulated matters appropriately, and make the distinction clear in your engagement terms.
Won't this cannibalise my compliance fees?
No — it sits alongside them. Compliance is backward-looking and price-sensitive; advisory is forward-looking and value-based. Clients who buy advisory tend to value the whole relationship more, which protects compliance work rather than eroding it.
What if a client actually needs a debt collected?
That is where you refer to a recovery partner. You provide the analysis and the recommendation; the recovery firm pursues the account on a commission-only basis, so the client only pays the recovery cost if money is recovered.
Run the play — we'll handle recovery
Commission-only recovery your clients can trust. No recovery, no fee.