How illumin8 Uses Float to Rock Their Clients’ World
Andrew Van De Beek. Founder. Head of Purpose. Rebel with a cause. Does this guy even need an introduction?
Find out how this rockstar accountant and Head of Purpose at illumin8 Accounting, based in Mount Eliza, Victoria, uses Float to help save his clients a hell of a lot of hassle.
One for the money
It’s the classic story. Business meets money troubles. Business reaches out to accountant.
And that’s how Andrew first got on board with Float. “It’s typical. Someone with cash flow issues needs more clarity and transparency. What actions will make a positive impact?”
“Cut your costs? Decrease your expenses? It’s not always that simple.”
But Andrew knew of Float, and knew the basics of what it could do. So he decided to give it a shot to see if it could make a difference to the client.
And it did!
“Using Float helped us to make some very smart business decisions and after three months, their business has transformed into being cash positive already – which is amazing considering where they were.”
Two for the show
Helping Andrew to make some smart decisions for his client, was just the beginning. With the ability to show their cash flow to the Tax Office, Andrew was able to negotiate a very generous payment plan.
“I would comfortably have my name against something that said: ‘but for having Float in our toolbelt to assist with our cashflow decision-making processes, my client would be broke right now’.”
A compelling marketing message if ever I heard one.
For Andrew, Float was able to help prove out the ability of his client to adhere to the Australian Tax Office’s payment terms, generous or otherwise.
“It was like ‘holy sh*t! You’re actually trying to do something and here’s the plan, here’s what you’re going to do!’. It visually mapped out everything we were telling them.”
Going into battle against bad business cash flow with their clients, illumin8 have a new weapon in their arsenal with Float. Equipped with their accounting expertise and Float as a visual aid, illumin8 were able to secure the best available payment terms for their client.
“Most of the time,” Andrew says, “if you show them that you’re trying to do something and there’s a plan, they get super excited about it, the conversations become friendlier, and usually, the outcome more favourable.”
Three to get advisory ready
Obviously, Float helping his clients is a benefit to Andrew. It helps to make him even more of a rockstar than he already is.
But there are additional benefits for illumin8. The first being that Float is a tool to make illumin8’s advisory services more attractive. “Looking at Float with our clients is a huge additional benefit to using our advisory services – it gives them a better understanding and helps to frame our conversations.”
Ever since he jumped on board with his first client, he uses Float as a sounding board to discuss the cash flow of other clients’.
“It came naturally to us. We’ve always been comfortable with having those advisory chats, and we have an agile approach with open-ended questions.”
This leads to the second benefit of Andrew having deeper and more actionable conversations as there’s more visibility on the impact of cash flow.
The third benefit? The ability to help his clients with their cash flow without charging them the earth. “For the client I’ve just mentioned, we could get the reports out and monitor their cash flow without charging them X amount to produce another forecast! It allows our services to be a bit more flexible, and we can truly get into the nitty-gritty of things.”
Confidence and clarity lead to the best decisions being made. We’re thrilled to be able to help Andrew help his clients to get better cash flow, in no time.
Next dram’s on us, Andrew.
But that’s not all from Andrew, we captured some of his wisdom on video the last time he was in Scotland. Check him out below, drinking his favourite whisky and discussing his favourite topic:
To find out more about illumin8 and their mission to help more businesses with their numbers, check out their website!
