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Financial Reporting and Bookkeeping to Forecasting and Tax Planning

As finance professionals, you are masters at handing and processing sometimes complex data. From day-to-day financial reporting and bookkeeping to forecasting and tax planning you are constantly looking at figures online, in spreadsheets and in apps such as Xero or Dext.

The ability to handle, interpret and analyse data is a brilliant skill to have and one that can be adapted to a completely new area of work – marketing! Before you start questioning my sanity, let me explain! In today’s digital age, almost every organisation has some form of a digital footprint—be it a website, social media channels or email campaigns.

Even the smallest organisations will be creating quite a bit of marketing data – from website analytics to basic customer databases. And anyone looking to transition from being a sole practitioner to a small business is going to have to get their head around data analysis if they want to grow their practice.

Now here is the clever bit. Most marketers are creative types whose skillsets are focused on designing strategies and campaigns to reach new audiences. Ideally, they do not want to spend their time poring over digital dashboards to track the performance of these campaigns. And if they do, they probably don’t know how to interpret the data.

The fact is that tracking online performance is now equally as crucial as managing your finances. Indeed, in an ideal world they go hand in hand as you can then measure the full customer journey from original marketing message right through to purchase and transfer to a bank account.

I realise that for many of you, this may sound great in theory but it does represent a massive leap forward in terms of your own knowledge and also what a finance professional does or does not do. However, there are ways in which you can take ‘baby steps’ to increase your confidence and start down the road to becoming a ‘business data interpreter’.

  1. Think about your own digital footprint. If you are a sole practitioner, you will more than likely have a website, Google Business profile and some form of social media account. When was the last time you looked to see how they were performing? They will all have some form of free analytical data you can scrutinise.

 

  1. When you are working with clients you will naturally become aware of their challenges around remaining profitable, growing or reaching new markets. Depending on your relationship with them, ask whether they are measuring how well their business is performing online and see if they can marry this data up with your financial reports.

 

  1. If you are looking to grow your business, start pulling together a monthly report showing how all your channels are performing. This will prove critical when you begin ramping up your business development and marketing to attract new clients. A key tool you really must start to become familiar with is website analytics as it shows how your ‘shop window’ is actually performing.

 

  1. If you run or work for a larger firm of accountants or bookkeepers, it may be useful to have someone on the team who pivots to becoming a marketing data analyst for clients. Alternatively, you may wish to hire someone who can fulfil this role. Indeed, this could be a brilliant role for an apprentice or youngster looking to further their career.

 

  1. All of you, no matter what size your practice or what stage you are at in your career, will need to familiarise yourself with understanding digital data. Many of the software giants such as QuickBooks and Xero are already looking to integrate their dashboards via APIs with marketing data so it makes sense to upskill yourself.

We know that data is already the lifeblood of many businesses. As finance professionals you are in pole position to use your skills and expertise to become ‘gate-keepers’ of this data so if you are looking at new income streams or want to take your practice to the next level, why not dip your toe into the water of business data analysis!