Client advisory services examples, from cash forecasting to a data asset review

What counts as a client advisory service?

Client advisory services (CAS) are the forward-looking work an accounting firm builds on numbers it already prepares: forecasts, KPIs, budgets, systems advice and plans for a sale or succession. A practical test is whether the deliverable changes what the owner does next quarter, rather than what the firm files next month.

Most CAS practices sit somewhere on a spectrum. At one end is outsourced accounting with a light advisory layer; at the other is a fractional CFO relationship where someone from the firm sits in leadership meetings. The examples below follow that spectrum. The last one, a data asset review, is still uncommon on CAS menus, even though the CAS team already holds most of the evidence it needs in the client's general ledger.

Client advisory services examples by tier

Firms usually sell up this table as trust grows. The trigger column is the conversation that tends to open the door.

What does a data asset review add to a CAS menu?

A data asset review inventories which systems hold years of the client's operational records, how far back each one goes, who can export it and what might stop the company from licensing it. It answers a question an owner may raise: is the history sitting in our email, CRM, help desk and finance systems worth anything outside the business?

The question has a real basis. AI developers are building agents that carry out multi-step work, and those agents need examples of how real work gets done: support tickets with their resolutions, quotes that were won or lost, approvals, exceptions and the messages around them. Little of that exists on the public web, so permissioned records licensed by the companies that created them have become a scarce input. Most owners have never put a figure on these records, partly because internally generated data is usually expensed rather than carried on the balance sheet; the explainer on whether company data can be capitalized as an intangible asset covers why.

The CAS team is well placed to do this work. The vendor detail in accounts payable already lists every system the client pays for, and the controller relationship gives direct access to the people who administer those systems.

How to scope a data asset review without handling client records

Keep the scope at the metadata level: the firm records which systems exist and what kinds of records they contain, never the records themselves.

1. Pull the systems list from the ledger. Filter accounts payable and card spend for software, hosting and storage vendors over the last two to three years, including tools that were cancelled.
2. Add the systems nobody pays for anymore. Ask the controller and IT lead about archived mailboxes, old file servers, a retired CRM or a legacy accounting database still sitting on backup.
3. Interview each system owner briefly. Capture record types, the earliest year of history, rough volume, whether exports work and any contract that limits use.
4. Log rights questions, not answers. Flag records that belong to the client's own customers, content made by outside contractors, call recordings and anything holding health or consumer personal data.
5. Score the result. Use the fit checklist below and note what would change the score, such as preserving an archive before a migration.
6. Present it at the annual advisory meeting. A one-page map slots into the annual client advisory meeting agenda, and the data opportunity handoff checklist for annual client reviews covers what to pass on if the owner wants to go further.
7. Hand off rather than run any licensing process. If the owner wants to explore a license, the company works directly with a specialist such as SourceX on the inventory, redaction rules, pricing and contracting.

Ownership is usually the first rights question. The U.S. Copyright Office explains in Circular 30 on works made for hire that material an employee prepares within the scope of employment belongs to the employer, while work by outside contractors generally does not unless it was assigned in writing or meets the narrow conditions for commissioned works. That is why the review flags contractor-built repositories, such as a knowledge base written by an agency, for the client's counsel. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel before acting.

Which clients is a data asset review worth offering to?

Offer it where there is enough history for the answer to matter. The baseline SourceX applies to a licensing introduction works as a sensible filter:

• A US company with 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded)
• Several years of documented operations, ideally with archives from retired systems
• Records spread across many systems; strong companies often run 10-15 or more, from email and Slack or Teams to CRM, finance, support, engineering and operations tools
• The company created the records and has the right to license them
• An owner, CEO, CFO or other authorized representative who would consider an exclusive AI-training license for an agreed term

The full criteria are on the who qualifies page. Clients that are still operating, were acquired or have wound down can all qualify if the data still exists. For a quick read before you raise the topic, the company fit checker gives a preliminary, non-binding screen with no contact details required.

How to package and price the review

Most firms will fit the review into an existing relationship rather than launch a new product line.

Bill it the way you bill comparable advisory work. Keep the review fee separate from any referral compensation the firm might later earn, and settle how that compensation is handled before the first introduction; the referral compensation policy template for CAS and advisory firms is a starting point. Fractional CFOs offering the same review outside a CPA firm can see referral opportunities for fractional CFOs.

What a data asset review is not

Set expectations with the client at the engagement letter stage:

• It is not a valuation. Book value is usually nil, and market demand depends on what AI labs and data buyers need at the time.
• It is not a legal opinion on rights. It produces a list of questions for counsel.
• It is not a promise that anything will be licensed. Nothing is binding until the company agrees price and terms and signs.
• It never involves moving data. Any later delivery happens only after an executed agreement, under de-identification and redaction rules agreed with the company before work begins.

Clients whose records are mostly consumer personal data, protected health information or material owned by their own customers, as at many agencies and outsourcers, rarely clear the rights questions. Say so early rather than after the review.

How the referral side works for a CAS practice

If the owner wants to go further, the firm can introduce the company to SourceX with a partner referral link or the referral form, and the company then applies and works with SourceX directly. Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. Rewards are payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, and no reward is guaranteed. Because the reward is paid out of SourceX's fee, it never reduces what the client receives.

Professional rules on referral compensation and client disclosure apply to many CAS practices, particularly inside firms that also perform attest work, so the firm's position should be settled in writing before anyone makes an introduction.

Next step

Pick one client with a system migration or an exit on the horizon and run the metadata-only review this quarter. When a client looks like a fit, register as a partner to make the introduction, or ask the owner to try the company fit checker first.