If your firm is still relying on historical reporting alone, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Clients today expect more than a clean set of books; they want actionable insight and proactive guidance to give them confidence in the path ahead.
The good news? You don’t need an enterprise-sized team or budget to deliver the guidance they seek.
Firms of all sizes are unlocking new growth by leveraging forecasting as a cornerstone of their client advisory services (CAS) model. By combining modern reporting tools, proven frameworks and scalable processes, these firms are shifting from transactional support to strategic impact—and setting a new standard for how they deliver client value.
Going from backward-looking to forward-focused
CAS isn’t new, but its impacts on clients are changing. Historically, many firms have delivered basic monthly financial reports or static dashboards. That helped clients understand where they’d been but not where they were going.
Today, clients need more than reports to keep up in the market; they need insight to drive the decisions they are making. They want to know:
- How are we tracking against goals?
- Can we afford to hire?
- What’s our cash runway?
This is where financial planning and analysis (FP&A) comes into play.
Thanks to AI-enhanced tools and accessible platforms like Jirav, firms can offer forward-looking insights without needing massive budgets or staffing changes. They don’t need to predict the future perfectly. Instead, they enable smarter decisions through directionally-sound planning.
That shift isn’t just theoretical. It’s playing out in firms like Practice Executive, where Andrew Tucker, the CEO, shared a story that captures the power of this approach. One of his clients, a growing dental group, had been working with a virtual CFO from a big-name firm. But when the relationship started to feel slow and reactive, Andrew and his team stepped in.
Within three days of onboarding the client into Jirav, they toggled “Intelligent Forecasting”, tailored a few key assumptions and delivered a dynamic forecast that made growth actionable. They didn’t wait for perfection; they started creating clarity immediately.
As a result, the client hit revenue goals months ahead of schedule and gained a level of confidence that reshaped the advisory relationship. Their success went beyond graphs or spreadsheets. Instead, Andrew and his team helped clients sleep better at night because they understood their financial trajectory.
Modeling the drivers of real-world growth
To uncover what’s holding clients back, Andrew introduced a deceptively simple model that he calls The Five Drivers of Growth™. It helps firms focus advisory conversations around operational bottlenecks, such as:
- Providers: Do you have enough licensed professionals to deliver services?
- Support team: Is your team structured to scale?
- Client flow: Are you attracting enough of the right business?
- Infrastructure: Do you have the space, systems and/or software to grow?
- Tech stack ROI: Are your tools saving time and enabling action?
The model is straightforward but impactful enough to spark meaningful discussion. These drivers form the basis of the forecasting model built for the client. By grounding forecasting in day-to-day operations, firms move beyond theory to create tailored, actionable plans that drive informed decision-making.
Andrew’s team also made forecasting a repeatable process. They transitioned from ad hoc spreadsheet work to a templated, cloud-based workflow. In one case, a former client-turned-team-member mastered the system in just 60 days and now leads client delivery for the firm. That’s the value of tools that teach, standardize and scale.
To ensure success, Practice Executive builds forecasts using two models. Jirav’s “Intelligent Forecasting” covers trends based on actual data and predictive assumptions, while “All Goals Met” visualizes the client achieving everything they aim for. The gap between the two becomes a coaching conversation. It provides the necessary data and insight to answer key questions like “Where are we trending?” and “How do we close the gap?”
Naturally, some clients are hesitant to embrace AI-driven planning. Here are a few concerns Andrew hears—and how his team addresses them:
- "AI is too risky." Think of it like an intern who never sleeps. It accelerates setup but doesn't replace your judgment or nuance.
- "We’re too unique for this." Every business feels unique. But the drivers of growth are universal. Personalization occurs after the baseline is established.
- "It’s too expensive." What’s the cost of lacking insights? When business conditions change, real-time insight is a safeguard, not a luxury.
Let’s say a client is worried about staffing costs in Q4. With a few driver-based adjustments, you can present them with scenarios that guide them toward an informed decision. That’s when hesitation fades and confidence soars.
Start scaling with confidence
Advisory work can get messy without structure. That’s why Andrew’s team leans on SOPs, asynchronous training and a centralized learning hub. Together, these systems turn ambiguity into repeatable action.
Standardization also helps you in other ways:
- Speed up onboarding
- Ensure consistency across clients
- Reduce burnout from custom workflows
- Build staff confidence and retention
With the right systems, forecasting becomes less of an art project and more of a repeatable process with room for professional judgment. That is the heart of forecasting in CAS. It’s not about financial wizardry but about creating space for clients to make smarter, quicker decisions in uncertain times. When your firm brings clarity, your clients know they can trust you.
Want to hear more about how Andrew’s firm is scaling CAS with forecasting? Watch this on-demand webinar:How smart firms use reporting to unlock FP&A growth.
To learn more about the CPA.com and Jirav partner program, visit CPA.com/financial-planning-analysis
About the author
Guest contributor Evan Wells is the Head of Accountant Growth at Jirav. In his role, he helps high-growth firms build strategies and client deliverables to accelerate their FP&A advisory practices.
