Some 36% of accountants and financial advisers have seen their cashflow worsen over the past 12 months, compared to 29% who say it has improved. One in three (33%) expect their cashflow to deteriorate over the next year, compared to 31% who expect it to improve.
This is according to a new study* from Premium Credit, which through its Fee Plan enables accountants and advisers’ clients to spread the cost of fees they owe to them over a number of monthly payments.
Nine out of ten (91%) accountants and financial advisers surveyed say that a rise in clients struggling to pay their fees has contributed to their deteriorating cash flow, with one in three (34%) saying this is the main contributory factor.
Three in four (75%) accountants and financial advisers questioned say they are seeing a rise in the number of clients who are struggling to pay their fees, and 65% anticipate this trend will continue over the next year.
The fact that more clients are struggling to pay their advisers’ fees may help explain why 81% of accountants and financial advisers allow some clients to pay their fees monthly over an extended period of time. Furthermore, if there was a scheme from a professional company that enabled clients to do this, 82% of accountants and financial advisers surveyed say they would consider using this and recommending it to clients who are struggling to pay their fees.
Fee Plan from Premium Credit is a simple way to enable accountants and other advisers to make their cash flow more predictable. It’s a payment smoothing solution for their clients, which means advisers get their professional fees paid in full shortly after the job is completed.
At the same time, Fee Plan enables an adviser’s clients to spread the cost of those fees over a number of monthly payments – anywhere from three months to 12 months. It’s simple to set up and free for accountants and advisers to use. Their clients benefit from spreading the cost at a competitive interest rate, enabling them to preserve working capital and make their cash work better for them.
Accountancy firms using Premium Finance’s Fee Plan product also gain exclusive access to the company’s hugely popular practice tax funding service, enabling them to spread the cost of their own tax bills at very competitive rates.
Jennie Hill, Chief Commercial Officer, Premium Credit (Specialist Lending) said:
“Like many businesses, accountants and financial advisers are prone to cashflow issues if their clients are struggling to pay their fees, which our research suggests many are.
“However, our study shows that many accountants and financial advisers are being flexible in helping clients who are struggling to pay their fees by enabling them to spread payments over several months.
“This helps explain why the number of accountants and financial advisers using our Fee Plan scheme has increased by 139% over the past three years.”
