Are your clients outgrowing your accounting practice? It’s time for backup

Stefan Olivier has nurtured his accounting firm Profinan Services, and its clients for almost two decades. Recently, some clients have grown large enough to require audits and complex technical assistance. 

Faced with the choice of losing these clients to larger firms or undertaking risky expansion, Stefan found a third option.

“My heart has always been in advising clients,” says Stefan Olivier. He started Profinan Services almost two decades ago. “My main focus was to keep accounting as close to advice as possible. Not just advising on what clients should do, but also why.”

Profinan is based in the Vaal Triangle, Located only 40 km from Johannesburg, but culturally almost a different country where clients value personal relationships. 

Stefan sees himself as part educator, part business counselor. “People are in business, but they don’t always understand business,” says Stefan. Profinan does far more than compliance. It helps local businesses grow. 

“By doing this, you’re enriching people, their businesses are growing and getting bigger, and you find yourself in a position where certain clients are moving to the next level. Growing from an independent review to a full audit.” 

Increasingly, Profinan found itself in a position where the businesses it nurtured needed skills Profinan didn’t have in-house. 

Finding back office backup 

“As my clients’ businesses grow, I know I also need companies which can be my backup support. Especially with clients that need large independent audits and internal reviews where there are risks,” says Stefan. “That’s when I first spoke to Guillaume.”

Guillaume Oberholster is a partner at accounting giant Mazars. His office is based in Bloemfontein. While he deals with large corporates, Bloemfontein is close enough to small-town

South Africa to place Guillaume in a unique intersection and ability to render these professional support services to firms like Profinan.  

Stefan explained to Guillaume, “We’ve got established personal relationships with our clients, but we need assistance for us to take our services further. That is how the relationship between Profinan and Mazars started several years ago.

Guillaume and CIBA CEO Nicolaas van Wyk saw the potential in this kind of relationship and later came together to drive an alliance agreement between Mazars and CIBA. 

The agreement’s goal is to allow smaller accounting firms that are CIBA members to enter into a formalised partnerships with Mazars to support them in rendering services to existing and new clients.

A win-win relationship 

Smaller accounting firms considering the Mazars-CIBA alliance agreement sometimes worry that they open themselves up to competition from the larger, better-capacitated Mazars. 

This hasn’t been Stefan’s experience. Instead, he describes a symbiotic relationship. 

“My role with clients jointly assisted with Mazars is to have a good relationship with the client. A large player like Mazars can’t always be there with the client to the same extent, and as smaller SMEs – that’s our playing field,” says Stefan. 

“My responsibility is not to relax and spend less time with the client. I must make an effort from my side to be the best accountant there is, but I now know I have support.” 

Guillaume explains, “What I’ve said to all the CIBA accountants so far is that we don’t want to disturb your relationship with your client. We want to reinforce and strengthen and then expand it”.

Guillaume also wants to see smaller firms grow and this is a way for Mazars and Guillaume personally to put something back into the profession.

Opening up new markets

Far from losing clients, Stefan has gained significant business through this alliance with Mazars.

Stefan explains, “There is no big five accounting firm in the Vaal. I’ve already tendered for the business of large stock-listed companies with the backup support of Mazars.”

“By using technology, we’ve gotten clients who do business in England, the US, Australia, UAE, even Saint Helena, as well as across South Africa.”

Dealing with clients with tax affairs in other countries is far easier when Stefan can turn to Mazars for assistance while upskilling his staff. 

“I have a client setting up a training centre in the UAE. The quote they got from the UAE to register a business was nearly R500 000. Our quote is not even R200 000 because we have the support of Mazars, who have offices globally.”

Other accounting firms in the Vaal initially saw Profinan’s agreement with Mazars as a threat. However, they now view it as an opportunity to outsource work to Stefan, who uses the resources at Mazars.  

“So yeah, that’s what can happen if you know you’ve got the right and relevant backup.”