As an established agency, I know your business has been working with accountants for a number of years before considering your move to MAP.
However, a common weakness within the agency community is they are not entirely sure on what their accountancy firm should be offering them and, therefore, what their overall finance function should look like. What I want to help you to analyse today are the following.
Are you spending the right amount with your current accountants?
Also, is that spend on the right services?
So, let’s get into it.
#1 What does the optimal agency finance function look like?
When you look at an efficient agency finance function, there are three dimensions which are covered. Business insight, efficiency, compliance and control. These vital areas attribute towards the success and growth of an agency. Now these dimensions should be costing you approximately 1.5% of your annual revenue.
So when you look at an agency with £10 million in annual revenue, then the agency is likely to consider employing a full time member for each dimension of the finance function, but if you’re like 99% of the agency network who haven’t yet reached this size, then you cannot afford to hire this resource internally and run an agency profitably.
To put this into perspective for you, a £3 million revenue agency client pays approximately £36k a year for their finance function managed entirely by MAP.
For that, our client receives access to a full team the full service range including bookkeeping control, compliance, management & operational reporting, and long term financial strategy planning.
For the full time equivalent, that’s the salary cost of one mid-weight management accountant working outside of London area. With this additional complexity that individual would need time off for holidays and sickness, and your access to up to date financials then pauses in this period whilst that person is away.
When comparing to the UK creative agency network, only 1% of creative agencies are in a position to hire a full finance team. That’s why MAP help those agencies bridge the gap to deliver the multidimensional finance function to agencies like yours for a fraction of the price of hiring the full team internally.
#2 The MAP agency finance function.
Each agency we work with, like yours, is unique. That’s why MAP tailor the business function to your exact business needs. Your MAP pod has a team of finance professionals available to help deliver the multi-dimensional finance function, whatever the requirement, which the team can help you understand.
With four members on the MAP agency finance team with accounting technicians, a financial controller, and a financial director. Your agency has the opportunity to work with a full team of finance professionals with your business and personal goals as their priority so, as your agency grows the role of the finance function develops and extensifies. MAP’s agency function give you the option to keep that value for money.
MAP offers a full finance function but I understand that as an established agency owner you will most likely have an existing finance function in place, and in some cases this cannot be easily changed. That is why with our flexible arrangements we can also work with your existing agency function, which you can read more about here. Irrespective of the makeup of your finance function, with MAPs involvement, we ensure that you have business insight, efficiency, compliance and control for your business.
#3 Business size does not impact business insight.
A common question asked is can my accountancy provider give me value if my business is small? It’s a misunderstanding within the agency community that you must pay a significant amount of money to an accountant or hire internally to give you business insight. However, as introduced this is a misunderstanding. Irrespective of business size, there is an opportunity to receive value from an external finance provider.
Many accountants in the practise industry are solely focussed on compliance work, and you don’t hear from them unless their VAT return or annual accounts deadline is looming. Does that sound familiar?
MAP ensure that business insight is attached to the core service for all clients, the annual accounts service, with a quarterly call and report to help drive the business forwards. This means all our clients receive the input from the MAP team, irregardless of whether you have the full service range or just the core services essential for an agency to run in line legally. With our bespoke service packages for every client you have the opportunity to design your own finance function to your needs.
What’s the next step?
I know it’s not an easy decision, but any journey starts with a single step, MAP can work with you to ensure you have the full oversight of your finances. We’re a friendly bunch, so what are you waiting for, book in a call for the next step in the journey.
