You Know Advisory Is the Future. Here's the System to Deliver It.
After running a virtual CFO practice, acquiring and growing a bookkeeping firm, and conducting hundreds of client meetings, we documented exactly why most firms fail to engage clients on advisory—and what actually works instead.
That's what Baifokal was built around. But first, here's what we learned.
Works with QuickBooks Online & Xero
Advisory Starts With Less, Not More
The platforms tell you the answer is forecasting, budgeting, and scenario planning. Here's what we learned the hard way:
Advisory doesn't start with complexity. It starts with clarity. Help clients understand what happened this month, why it matters, and what to focus on next.
Once they trust you to translate complexity into clarity, forecasting and budgeting follow naturally. But only after the foundation is solid.
So what does that foundation actually look like?
What / So What / Now What
The foundation is a narrative structure that turns data into a conversation clients engage with. This is the one we developed—and the one Baifokal is built around:
What happened?
High-level summary. Revenue, margins, the 2–3 metrics that matter most. Here's the headline.
So what does it mean?
Interpretation. A 40% spike in marketing spend isn't just a number—it means customer acquisition cost changed. Facts connected to business impact.
Now what do we do?
Recommendations on a 30, 60, and 90-day basis. Not 15 action items. Two or three things that matter most, with a timeline for results.
You can apply this tomorrow. Manually. In a spreadsheet. The framework is yours.
Most financial deliverables fail because of structure, not data. Every line item gets equal weight. No overview, no interpretation, no direction. What / So What / Now What replaces that with a structure clients can act on.
This structure handles individual client engagements. But advisory is bigger than any single month.
Equal-weight P&L walkthrough vs. structured What/So What/Now What narrative
The Five I's: From Clarity to Action
We found a repeating cycle in our most successful client relationships—five stages that every good business decision flows through.
Instinct
Every decision starts with a feeling. Business owners usually have good instincts. The problem isn't lack of instinct.
"What's your gut telling you?"Insight
Instinct alone is gambling. Insight validates it with data. This is where What/So What/Now What lives—turning numbers into understanding.
"Let's check that against the data."Intention
The Now What surfaces 30/60/90-day recommendations. This becomes the advisory conversation: what's needed to make this real? What external accountability is required? Where does the budget come from?
"Which path, and what does it take?"Implementation
The client acts. Results start appearing in the books. You're the external accountability coach and sounding board—the mirror that keeps them honest about progress.
"We said 60 days. Let's track it."Inspection
Next month's report IS the inspection. Did the expected changes materialize? Baifokal surfaces the results automatically. The cycle closes—and the next one begins.
"Here's what happened. Did it work?"
The clarity of the presentation enables you to be what your client actually needs: an external sounding board, an accountability partner, a mirror for their business. That's advisory. And it's a cycle, not a one-time event.
If you've been nodding along, chances are you already know what comes next.
You Know the Problem. You've Lived It.
The advisory delivery bottleneck shows up differently depending on your practice:
"I can't take on another client without dropping quality."
You manage 5–15 clients. Six to eight hours per client on mechanical work alone. You've turned down new business because the capacity isn't there.
"My team does great compliance work. Advisory is a different skill set."
Advisory-level output requires narrative structure your team wasn't trained for. You can't personally review every client deliverable.
"Monthly engagement would transform my tax practice."
Annual engagements could become monthly advisory relationships. The question isn't whether it's valuable. It's how to deliver it at scale.
Different practices. Same bottleneck.
So what's actually in the way?
The Capacity Problem and the Delivery Gap
Stage 2 is eating all your time.
Pulling data from QuickBooks. Calculating variances. Formatting outputs. Reconciling discrepancies. Six to eight hours per client per month—consumed before you ever get to the work clients actually value.
The client gets a data dump. They don't get clarity.
Mechanical WorkWhat a computer should do
Extracting data from QuickBooks or Xero
Calculating variances across every P&L category
Comparing to prior months, trailing averages, and same-month-last-year
Identifying anomalies and material changes
Drafting narrative explanations of what changed
Formatting deliverables with graphs and indicators
Flagging uncategorized or unreconciled items
Fact-based, repeatable, rule-driven.
Judgment WorkWhat only you can do
Deciding if 7.6% growth is good for this business
Knowing whether a marketing spike was planned
Recognizing if a trend aligns with client strategy
Adding the context that makes insights actionable
Being the accountability partner who tracks follow-through
Facilitating the conversation that drives decisions
Context, relationships, professional judgment.
And delivery is a different skill from analysis.
You know the data. You understand the business. You can spot what matters. That's the kitchen—and you're an excellent chef. But translating that expertise into structured narratives, plain-English explanations, and consistent deliverables? That's front-of-house. A different skill set entirely.
