EBITDA Multiplier: A Deeper Look for Accountants and Advisors
In the world of business valuation, the EBITDA Multiplier method stands tall as a trusted and widely-used approach. EBITDA, which stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation, offers an insight into a company’s operational performance. When paired with a multiplier, it forms a powerful tool for valuation. But how does it work, and […]
Leveraging VFD Pro for Successful Recovery Loan Scheme Applications
Introduction The Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) 3.0 is a UK government-backed initiative aimed at supporting businesses as they navigate the challenges and opportunities of the post-pandemic landscape. While the scheme offers a lifeline, the application process can be daunting. This article outlines the key aspects of the RLS, the information typically required for a successful […]
Diving Deep into ROI: The Accountant’s Guide to Return on Investment Valuation
In the vast landscape of business valuation, understanding each method in detail can profoundly influence the advice and strategies you offer to your clients. Among these methods, the Return on Investment (ROI) Valuation stands out for its simplicity and directness, making it a favourite for many businesses, from startups to established entities. But what makes […]
Harnessing Automation for Accountants: Uncovering Risks and Opportunities in Client Data
In the fast-paced world of finance and accounting, staying ahead of the curve is essential for both accountants and their clients. Traditional accounting practices are evolving, and accountants are increasingly relying on technology to streamline their processes and provide more value to their clients. One such technological advancement is the automation of client base analysis, […]
How Technology Adoption Can Fuel Talent Management in Accounting Practices
Recent research reports that 86% of accountants expect technology to drive their firms growth through 2023 and beyond. Yet, challenges like the acquisition and retention of talent often compete for attention. The question arises: which should come first? How does technology help? According to industry data, firms who prioritise technology see a 33% higher retention […]
Empowering Your Clients: Business Valuation Methods for Accountants and Advisors
In the intricate world of finance and business, clients look to accountants and advisors not only for number-crunching but for guidance, strategy, and clarity. One of the most significant areas where your expertise can make a remarkable difference is business valuation. Accurately valuing a business is an art that blends financial metrics with market intuition. […]
VFD Pro to Participate in the Upcoming Digital Accountancy Show
VFD Pro, the leading financial reporting and modelling platform, has announced its participation in the upcoming Digital Accountancy Show (DAS). The event, set to take place on the 15th of June at Evolution London, serves as a platform for showcasing the latest advancements in digital accounting and finance. Representing VFD Pro at the show will […]
Transforming Financial Advisory: VFD Pro Through the Eyes of Our Clients
We are thrilled to share our latest client feedback review with you all. At VFD Pro, we take pride in helping our clients unlock their business potential through robust financial insights and it’s an honor to see the positive impact our platform is having. This review provides an analysis of recent client feedback, highlighting what […]
VFD Pro Proudly Sponsors Accountants in Industry Theatre at Accountex 2023
London, UK – VFD Pro, known for its transformative platform that delivers all the reporting and financial modelling tools accountants, bookkeepers, and business advisors need, is proud to announce its successful sponsorship of the Accountants in Industry Theatre at Accountex 2023. Held at Excel London on the 10th and 11th of May, the Accountex 2023 […]
In partnership with AVN, training to grow your accounting firm
Recent research shows that 88% of accounting firms face challenges in at least one of these four categories: marketing, sales, productivity, and profitability. With such a significant proportion of firms struggling in these areas, it’s clear there’s a real need for support and guidance. Despite being highly qualified technically, many accountants have never been trained […]
Turnaround and Recovery Just Became Much Easier
With rapid action, many distressed businesses that would otherwise go into Administration could be saved, but only with a robust plan and rapid action, typically to improve the immediate cash position. Ideally you would go from a first meeting to agreeing a robust action plan in under 2 hours and start implementation immediately. As an […]
In Partnership with Funding Options
Funding Options is on a mission to help accountants increase their foresightedness when dealing with SME clients and help them spot the funding that could help power their growth strategies or better manage cash-flow. Accountants spend considerable time and energy advising their clients on how to combat cash-flow problems once they’ve arrived. But much like […]
Energy Bill Relief Scheme – further information
Please find a useful update from Gerard Duggan and the team at Utilitrack. The Government has provided more information on the energy support package for business. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide, from 1st October 2022 to 31st March 2023, a discount on the bills of all businesses, charities and the public sector. The […]
Unexpected Ramifications – Not a lot of clients know this
A horror story you can help your clients avoid with a little bit of prior planning and provided you know how to help them. We all know some suppliers routinely check credit ratings before agreeing credit arrangements, this includes the Utilities sector. We also know business utility costs are going up by 100% to 200%, […]
Mastery Programme: Management Reporting Top Tips
This week our VFD Mastery Programme delegates were looking at two critical topics which apply to most businesses: Business Analysis & Opportunity Identification Business Start-Ups & Volatile Trading The led to a healthy debate about how to get clients to engage with the process. Engaged clients will see the value and be enthusiastic about doing […]
Big or Small, VFD is perfect for them all.
We were recently asked if VFD Pro could synchronise with Sage 200, the management team in this particular business were having trouble generating meaningful reporting and preparing a forecast for their business. Using two basic reports from Sage 200, they used VFD’s manual conversion tool to convert the reports and upload them to VFD to […]
Ensure your clients are using their headlights when driving in the dark
For most business owners, running a business is like driving a car at night without using any headlights. With good reporting, they will have a good idea of how they have got to where they are but will find it difficult to be certain they are heading in the direction they want to go. VFD […]
Digital Accountancy Show 2022
The VFD Pro are delighted to be teaming up with Tennick Accountants to deliver the ‘The Real ROI on Advisory’ session. In this reveal all session, award-winning accountant, Graeme Tennick, will be sharing the pains, gains, what works and what doesn’t when it comes to delivering advisory services at scale. Graeme will be joined by […]
VFD Pro Sponsoring Accountex 2022
We are in good company as sponsors of the Accountants in Industry Theatre at Accountex 2022. (Excel London 11-12 May 2022). Visit Accountex Day 1 Programme: Wednesday 11 May 3 C’s of Employment Law Jemma Fairclough-Haynes | CEO Orchard, Employment Law A must-have talk to equip employers about he basics and the latest requirements in […]
Better Meetings = More Value = Increased Fee Income… But how?
Client meetings that focus on the future and the potential for clients to increase profitability and the value of their business are invariably perceived as being much more valuable than the typical Year-End meeting that focusses on last year’s filed accounts and not much else – fact! If perceived as ‘more valuable’, this prompts some […]
VFD Mastery: Options for Every Stage of the Financial Advisory Journey
Until recently the VFD Mastery Training was an all-or-nothing 12-week programme that gave you and your team everything you needed to take clients from start-up to exit and everything in between. You can now just put a ‘toe in the water’ with 1) Compliance+, before deciding if, how or when to expand your Financial Advisory […]
Making yourself indispensable to the buying or selling process with EVA
Whether part of the buying or selling team, you have a pivotal role to play in ensuring your clients achieve the best possible outcome. Our EVA suite enables you to support your clients through the entire process from financial due diligence to helping them achieve a desired valuation on exit and shaves days off the […]
Michael Carthy of Carthy Accountants Impresses Clients with VFD Pro
Financial due diligence and offers made on three companies in one day
VFD’s EVA suite was recently used by a fast-growing Event Solutions agency in Hampshire to assess three businesses they were evaluating and potential acquisition targets. Having purchased businesses previously, and integrated them into the group they were painfully aware of the time and cost typically associated with assessing and valuing each business. Their CFO had […]
Elevate Client Meetings to a Whole New Level
The all-new Client Discussion Model could technically be described as an ‘issue and opportunity identifier and Agenda Builder’, it delivers so much more than simply building a Meeting Agenda with supporting Management Information. It solves three main problems: It cuts the time to prepare to meet with a client to discuss future opportunities and challenges […]
FiMBO: Price Rise and Part of the Service or a One-Off Charged for Option?
As a strategy for Compliance clients, which makes more sense to you? To charge clients (and prospects), £300 to £600 to attend a valuable programme of Financial Education, or To offer Financial Education as part of your service, and increase fees across the board We will come back to that question in a moment because […]
BWP Inspire – Making a real difference to clients lives
Helping Owners use Financial Information to Build a Better Business. Meet Steve Price at BWP Inspire The Challenge – Getting Clients to Understand The Benefits Helping many clients at the same time, rather than one at a time is perhaps the best way to amplify the impact you can have on your clients lives and […]
Why you should upskill your clients on Managerial Finance
We have created the Financial Management for Business Owners (FiMBO) training programme to make it easy for you to provide your clients with the financial training they so desperately need and help you sell your Financial Advisory services. Why not join one of our weekly sessions which focus on the biggest challenges faced by SMEs. […]
Parlez-vous français, or do you prefer Z’s to S’s in your Organisation (Organization)
You can now present reports to clients in multiple languages and currencies (English UK, English US and French) and (£, $ & €). The following are already available in multi-language/currency: Business Overview Performance Analysis Management Report Customer Analysis Supplier Analysis Performance Trend Business Growth Model Client Segmentation Model Customer Targeting Model
Why not join us?
Fantastic to see more forward thinking accountancy practices added to the VFD Pro map. Improving the understanding of key financial data to deliver better business outcomes. Take out a free trial here.
Did you know you can now totally automate the monthly management reporting process?
Just simply decide which clients you wish to automatically synchronise each month, enable ‘Auto Reporting’, enter the day of the month you wish to generate an updated set of reports, and the day of the month you wish to automatically email your client to tell them their Management Reports are available.
VFD Pro is now even easier to use with enhanced tool tips
With the latest release you will discover the use of hover over tool tips, which have been added/extended to provide all users with an online, context sensitive help guide. Find out more here.
New Business Growth Model Report with added Cash Flow
When business owners don’t understand how you can improve their lives, persuading them to value your ‘Financial Advisory’ is tough. When they understand the growth potential using their numbers, persuading them to invest in their future, paying for enhanced financial reporting and support becomes a walk in the park. In a matter of minutes you […]
Report Branding Controls
All of the reports and models VFD Pro generates have always been branded with your logo, your company details and your company colours, however, until now you were not able to change any of these details, but with release 1.10.1 that has changed. There is now an option on your VFD Pro portal that can […]
Why you should upskill your clients on Managerial Finance
We have created the Financial Management for Business Owners (FiMBO) training programme to make it easy for you to provide your clients with the financial training they so desperately need and help you sell your Financial Advisory services. Why not join one of our weekly sessions which focus on the biggest challenges faced by SMEs. […]
Now you can offer even more value to your clients using the VFD Pro Academy
Resources:Key VFD Pro reports and models supported by a video guide. This will help you identify, interrogate the reports and build the models – making your client meetings even more productive. Support:‘Release notes’ are added each time new functionality is available. Here you will also find the most ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. Modules:A full range of […]
Updated Report – Business Overview
The Business Overview Report has been updated and improved to include a Breakeven and sensitivity analysis section. This is a great way to help your clients (and prospective clients) understand why they should not focus purely on selling more, by highlighting how margin improvement impacts profitability. If you are ready to discover how VFD Pro […]
New Report – Marketing ROI
The all new Marketing ROI Report has been developed in response to user feedback. You can now advise your clients on the effectiveness of their marketing activity by analysing the impact it has on their customer acquisition and retention and the revenue it helps generate. The Marketing ROI Report analyses 7 key areas of activity: […]
Enhanced Customer & Supplier Analysis
Upgrade 1.6.4: New enhancements to your client’s Customer & Supplier Analysis Report If you are a portal user, when you next synchronise your clients and run reports you will see some brilliant enhancements to your Customer and Supplier Analysis reports all of which have all been based on the feedback we have received from users. […]
Now supporting QBO
QBO Is Now Supported By VFD Pro When you next ‘Add a Client’, to your VFD Pro Portal in addition to Xero and Sage, QBO is now an available connection option. QBO operates in exactly the same way as Xero, simply enter the company name, registration number, and reporting date, add the month of the […]
‘Free’ Connections Now Available
Upgrade 1.6.1: ‘Free’ vs ‘Paid’ Connections – Now Live Now you can deliver much more value to all your clients and as a VFD Pro subscriber, it won’t cost you a penny more. Every VFD Pro user can now deliver the incredibly valuable Business Overview Report to ALL their Xero and Sage 50 clients and […]
New: Performance Trend Report
The all-new Performance Trend Report can be used with any client, whether they have one month or one hundred months of trading history, allowing you to offer actionable insight, each month, right across your client base. As with all VFD Pro content, there is absolutely nothing you need to do to use the new report. […]
Because Death is Not an Exit Strategy
A huge thank you to Cliff Spolander of Business Optics for a very informative, educational and above all valuable insight into the world of the SME Business Owner and the challenges of selling your business and exiting on your terms. My two ‘take-aways’ from the workshop were 1), start preparing for sale 5 years before […]
Practice Your Delivery – The Utilities Report
Mastering a new skill takes practice, providing online workshops to present, explain, and answer questions is a great way to do just that. In fact, it is a huge win-win, not only do you get to engage with both clients and prospects, you practice, master your skills and when you are required to discuss the […]
Support for Sage 50 is now live
We are pleased to announce that you can now offer the full suite of Enhanced Management Reporting, Business Growth Advice and part-time FD services for your Sage clients as well as your Xero clients. The analysis and identification of ‘by exception’ opportunities to optimise overheads, improve margins and increase sales are also now available to […]
Should you offer a Freemium Service?
Even practices on the ‘Advisor Plan’ who are paying just £50 per month, can send all clients the incredibly valuable Business Overview Report for free. Is this a good idea? Could this be your Freemium Offering? The Business Overview Reports demonstrate to clients that you can offer much more… To see the report for yourself, […]
How VFD Pro helped Evoke and their clients deliver and receive more value
The Evoke team have an exceptional skillsets honed throughout notable careers at large multinational corporations. Their part-time FDs allow smaller businesses to benefit from a top level FD as an affordable, practical and economical solution. To deliver exceptional financial guidance outstanding FD’s need timely financial information on which to base their decisions. In a large […]
Introducing Evoke Management
Evoke Management commissioned a series of bespoke workshops for their entire network of Part Time Financial Directors and Business Advisors to discover how VFD Pro could help them spend less time analysing and reporting to enable them to deliver greater value for current and future clients. The first VFD Pro / Evoke Workshop took place […]
A fifth of smaller UK firms ‘will run out of cash’
Wednesday’s BBC headline: Coronavirus: A fifth of smaller UK firms ‘will run out of cash’, clients need help and you are almost certainly the only one they can turn to. Read the article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52114414. Time is of the essence, businesses will need detailed financial and cash flow planning, to apply for funding support to […]
VFD Pro 3 Way Forecast Model – Online Workshop Video
The current crisis means more than ever, businesses need sound financial planning and that includes a robust forecast that reflects the current reality: The impact of Furloughing staff, putting VAT payments on hold (temporarily), delaying payment of corporation tax, payment plans for rental income, grants, the list goes on. The challenge of modeling the impact […]
CAMPARI – Lending Framework
The CAMPARI model (Character, Ability, Margin, Purpose, Amount, Repayment, Insurance) is widely used as a health-check for businesses when approaching a bank for lending. Helpful structure if you are applying for loans / funding. You will need a ‘business plan’, this framework is used by many lenders.
VFD Pro now free to help Businesses deal with Covid 19
New Report: The Customer Exception Report
This report is the first of the ‘Top Line Growth’ exception reports and is generated when the combination of new client acquisition and client attrition indicates a future contraction in the total client base of the business is likely to happen if current trends continue. The report is generated on an ‘exception basis’, i.e. it […]
A More Intuitive Report Layout
Revised Report Layout: The reports will be presented in three sections: Enhanced Performance and Management Reports Business Growth Advisory Models Opportunity Exception Reports And there’s more… Reports: There are new reports available, specifically the Business Overview report and the Customer Exception reports. Delete Function: There is now an option to delete reports from the portal. […]
FREE One Page ‘Business Overview Report’
The Business Overview Report is a simple but incredibly useful one-page overview of your client’s business. This report has been created and added to the VFD Pro system to address requests from users who want the option to send a simple one-page summary report to all clients. This report can be delivered to all clients […]
Now Even Easier To Use With System Help Icons
Whilst the VFD Pro Portal is simplicity itself to use, it just got a whole lot easier with the addition of the ‘Info’ icon. Simply hover over the icon wherever you see a green ‘i’ and help text explaining what the feature or function does will appear
“As a Financial Controller VFD Pro will save me 3 to 4 days per client per month”
These were the words of an ambitious CIMA qualified accountant who, having spent time in corporate as an FC, knows what it takes to do the job the ‘old’ way. “Using Excel Spreadsheets is time-consuming and error-prone, plus you could never be sure the numbers were correct and the models regularly broke… but no-one ever […]
Accountants also use VFD Pro to understand their own financial performance.
Before discussing the VFD Pro reports, the financial models or the BI Dashboard with their clients, accountants who use Xero, frequently add their own business to VFD Pro. After all, the business they will know best is their own, and any data inaccuracies would immediately be highlighted. You would be amazed to discover how often […]
If you only read one thing… New Exec Summary
VFD Pro have now made it even easier for you to understand the opportunities and risks your clients are facing with their new executive summary added to the Performance Analysis. It’s simple layout makes it easier to exactly what needs to be focused on in order to improve business performance. CMO Daniel Plowright said: “whilst […]
More analysis carried out for our accountant’s clients whilst they sleep
VFD Pro have launched their first 2 opportunity exception modules (Utilities & Telecoms) which will automatically analyse every single transaction within a business and highlight whether or not there is an opportunity to improve profit. “Our Opportunity Exception Analysis combines programmed A.I. with industry expertise to ensure our customers are alerted whenever an opportunity presents […]
VFD Pro Launches Playbooks
New playbook now available for VFD Pro Performance Analysis Report with accompanying Accountants ‘User Guide’.
Burgis and Bullock – Breaking the Mould and Offering Their Clients Much More
When business owners receive an email from their accountant saying: ‘There are some very specific things you could do to improve your financial performance’, they pay attention… On Friday the 2nd August, Sean Farnell, a Partner at Burgis and Bullock Chartered Accountants arranged for a substantial number of clients to be added to the Virtual […]
An Easy Quick Win And A Great Partner: Helping Clients Save on Utility Costs
VFD Pro is delighted to announce that Utilitrack, the UK’s best kept Utilities Secret have been approved and added to the VFD Vetted and Approved Supplier List. It is not an area we think about much, just another line on the overheads, but for some clients it is a significant expense. Have you ever paused […]
Congratulations, your certified integration has been listed on the Xero App Marketplace!
On the 16th July 2019, these were the words contained in an email sent to the Virtual Finance Director from Xero, confirming the Virtual Finance Director has now been listed in the Xero App Marketplace. The Virtual Finance Director claims to be ‘The Only Complete Turnkey Solutions for Improved Financial Performance’ this is quite a […]
See the wood and the trees with the new VFD Pro Practice Portfolio Summary (Development Update)
Is it time to increase your prices?
Increase prices and your profits will soar, but how do you avoid the risk of losing or upsetting clients? It’s relatively straight forward really, find out if clients are delighted with the service you provide and if they score you 5 out of 5 for ‘Value for Money’, put the price up. Just one of […]
