Annual client advisory meeting agenda: a timed template for CAS teams

An annual client advisory meeting agenda should fit into about 90 minutes: the owner's goals, results against plan, cash and financing, tax position, people and systems, risks and controls, assets the business is not using, succession, next year's priorities and an action list with owners and dates. Send it with a pre-read request a week ahead.

What should an annual client advisory meeting cover?

An annual client advisory meeting should cover where the business ended up against plan, what changed, and what the owner wants from next year, then turn that into a short list of decisions with owners and dates. Ninety minutes is enough when the pre-read arrives a week ahead and every item has a time box.

The template below is built for CAS teams, fractional CFOs and advisory partners who meet an owner-led company once a year. It adds one item most annual reviews skip: ten minutes on assets the business owns but is not using, including the records its teams have built up over years of work. If you are packaging the meeting as part of a CAS offering, the page on client advisory services examples shows where it fits.

The 90-minute agenda template

Item	Time	Led by	Purpose	Output
1. Owner's goals and what changed this year	10 min	Owner	Set the frame in the owner's own words	Top three goals for next year
2. Results against plan	15 min	CAS lead	Revenue, margin, cash conversion and the KPIs agreed last year	Variances explained, one lesson recorded
3. Cash, working capital and financing	10 min	CAS lead or fractional CFO	Forecast, covenants, credit lines, large payments ahead	Cash risks and any financing decision
4. Tax position and year-end moves	10 min	Tax partner	Projection, elections, timing of income and spend	A list of year-end actions
5. People, payroll and systems	10 min	CAS lead	Headcount, key hires, software renewals and migrations	Planned systems changes and their dates
6. Risks and controls	10 min	Engagement partner	Fraud exposure, segregation of duties, insurance, key-person risk	Two controls to strengthen
7. Assets the business may not be using	10 min	Engagement partner	Idle equipment, space, intellectual property and years of operational records	Owner interest noted, follow-up agreed or item closed
8. Succession and ownership timeline	5 min	Engagement partner	The owner's horizon and family or management plans	Whether to book a deeper session
9. Next year's priorities	5 min	Owner	Confirm what matters most	A ranked priority list
10. Actions, owners and dates	5 min	CAS lead	Read back every commitment	Action list sent the same day

Item 8 earns its place even for owners who seem years from an exit. McKinsey reports that more than half of US small-business owners are over 55, up from roughly 30 percent in 2002, so a five-minute check on the owner's horizon belongs in every annual review.

The meeting invitation and pre-read request

Send it seven to ten days before the meeting. Replace each item in braces.

Pre-read checklist for the advisory team

Last year's action list, with the status of each item
Trailing twelve months against budget, with variance notes drafted
Thirteen-week cash forecast and covenant calculations, if the client borrows
Tax projection from the tax team
Peak and year-end full-time headcount, with contractors listed separately
Software list with renewal dates, retired systems and who owns exports
Any correspondence about a sale, financing, merger or wind-down
Your firm's independence position and referral policy for this client, reviewed before item 7

How to run item 7: assets the business may not be using

Item 7 works because it starts broad. Begin with physical assets and intellectual property, then move to records, so the question never sounds like a pitch.

Then listen. The owner's answer decides what happens next.

What the owner says	What it suggests	Your next action
We have email, CRM and support history going back years	Possible fit for data licensing	Describe it in two sentences, offer a fit check, ask permission to introduce
We are moving off our old ERP next spring	Records at risk on a known date	Recommend a complete export before the switch-off, whatever else happens
Most of our records are really our clients' data	Rights likely sit with those clients	Close the item; no introduction
Not interested right now	No permission	Note it and leave it until next year
How much could that be worth?	Curiosity, not a decision	Explain that price is set only after an inventory and buyer review; give no estimate

If the owner wants to explore licensing, keep the explanation to two sentences: companies with years of operational records can license them to AI developers for a one-time payment, and the company keeps ownership, approves the scope and price, and shares nothing without a signed agreement. The baseline is a US company that reached 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), with several years of documented operations, clear rights to its records and an owner or senior executive who can sponsor the decision. The company fit checker gives a preliminary, non-binding read.

For question banks organized by topic, see questions to ask business owners during annual planning. For a walk-through of turning a review into a permissioned introduction, see annual client reviews for referrals.

How to adapt the agenda by client

Client situation	Swap in	Trim
Backed by a private equity sponsor	Sponsor reporting calendar, value creation plan progress, add-on integration	Succession, which the sponsor owns
Family-owned with a second generation in the business	Governance, family roles, buy-sell agreement status	The detailed KPI walk-through; send it as a pre-read
Planning a sale within two years	Quality of earnings readiness, data room gaps, any exclusive licenses or contracts a buyer will review	Long-range growth goals
Winding down or selling a division	Which systems will be retired and when, and who keeps the archives	Hiring plans
Growing fast	Finance team capacity, systems scaling, controls	Succession, unless the owner raises it

Follow-up timing after the meeting

When	What to send	Why
Same day	Action list with owners and dates	Commitments fade quickly
Within one week	Year-end tax actions confirmed in writing	Deadlines arrive before the next meeting
Within one week, if item 7 opened a door	Written disclosure of any referral relationship, then the fit check	Disclosure comes before any introduction
Two weeks out	Check-in on the top three actions	Shows the meeting produced work
Each quarter	A short progress note against priorities	Keeps the annual plan alive

The guide to raising records during year-end tax conversations with owners covers item 4 in more depth, including how to raise records in a meeting focused on tax.

What never belongs in the agenda or the minutes

Copies, exports or screenshots of client records, even as examples
A guessed value for the business's data, or a promised date for any payment
Reward amounts, or anything suggesting your advice depends on a referral
A licensing introduction the owner did not ask for
Notes about a client's records shared with a third party without the owner's written permission

Before item 7 leads to any introduction, confirm the client is not excluded under your firm's referral compensation policy and independence rules.

Next step

Put item 7 on the agenda for your next annual meeting. When an owner asks to explore licensing, register as a partner and make the introduction yourself, or share your referral link so the owner can apply at sourcex.si/apply.

Step 1Share your linkSend your personal link to a company you know.
Step 2Company appliesThe company applies itself at /apply.
Step 3Buyer selects and paysThe buyer selects and pays for the data and SourceX receives its fee.
Step 4You get your rewardYour share of SourceX fees becomes payable.

Common questions

How long should an annual client advisory meeting take?

Ninety minutes suits most owner-led companies if the pre-read goes out a week ahead and the results walk-through stays under fifteen minutes. Larger or more complex clients may need two hours or a second session for tax and succession. Meetings shorter than an hour tend to become a results recap with no decisions.

Who from the client should attend the annual meeting?

The owner or CEO has to attend, because the meeting exists to set priorities and make decisions. The controller or finance lead should join for results, cash and systems. Bring in a co-owner, a family member in the business or a board representative when succession or financing is on the agenda, and keep the group small enough to talk candidly.

How is an annual advisory meeting different from a year-end tax planning meeting?

A year-end tax meeting focuses on the current tax year: projections, elections and timing moves before December 31. The annual advisory meeting looks at the whole business, including results, cash, people, systems, risks, assets and succession, and sets next year's priorities. Many firms hold the tax meeting first and fold its conclusions into item 4.

What should we say if the owner asks what their data is worth?

Do not estimate. Price depends on the records, their depth and rights, and on buyer demand, and it is agreed only after the company completes a data inventory and the terms are worked through. Explain that the company is not committed to anything until it agrees a price and terms and signs, and offer a preliminary fit check as the next step.

Can the annual meeting be held by video?

Yes, and many owners prefer it. Share the agenda table on screen, keep cameras on for the owner's goals and the assets item, and send the action list the same day as you would after an in-person meeting. A site visit every few years still helps, because walking the operation often surfaces systems nobody mentions on a call.

What should the meeting minutes include?

Keep minutes short: attendees, the owner's stated goals, decisions made, actions with owners and dates, and items deferred to next year. Record that item 7 was discussed and what the owner decided, without describing the content of the client's records, so the minutes stay safe to circulate inside the client's leadership team.

Free resources

Operational data inventory builder — List systems, record types, years held and owners.
AI readiness assessment — Ten questions, five dimensions, a score out of 100.
EBITDA calculator — Reported and adjusted EBITDA from net income.
All free tools · MCP resource center

By SourceX Partnerships Team · Published 2026-10-09 · Updated 2026-10-09

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