What does an accountant bring to business coaching?
An accountant brings the figures into the coaching. A coach who prepares management accounts for a living can read your profit and loss with you, and the sessions start from what it shows.
Each line of the accounts turns into a question the business has to answer. The example on the right shows the questions a first session asks of a simple year.
Where does the accounting stop and the coaching start?
Your accountant
Your accountant produces the figures and files them: bookkeeping, year-end accounts, payroll and tax returns. They keep the business compliant and tell you what happened.
Your coach
Your coach works on what you decide because of the figures: which jobs to reprice, which customer to let go, whether the hire in your plan survives the margin, and whether you hold to the decision in the month sales dip.
You can keep your existing accountant. What matters is that the bookkeeping is current enough for the figures to be real. If it is months behind, the first step is getting it straight, with them or with Buzz Accounting. Nothing said in a coaching session goes into your accountant’s file.
Which programme fits?
Financial Coaching
With Peter, for owners who want to read their own numbers with confidence: cashflow, margin, pricing and a monthly review. £950 a month plus VAT. Finance coaching for business owners
1:1 Business Coaching
With Andy, fortnightly ninety-minute sessions on strategy, pricing, profit and systems, worked on your own figures. £1,500 a month plus VAT. Business coaching
Know Your Numbers
A one-off piece of work: the handful of numbers that run the business, in your own figures, and a budget built backwards from the profit you want. £950 plus VAT. Programmes and prices
Who are the coaches?
Peter Allen
Co-founder and Finance Director. More than 20 years in finance, working on profit, cashflow and planning, and licensed by the AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians). Financial Coaching runs with Peter.
Andy Jackson
Co-founder and Operations Director. Personal, leadership and business coaching runs with Andy, and he takes the discovery calls himself. More on both on the about Buzz Coaching page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to move my accounts to Buzz to get coaching?
No. Coaching is open whether or not Buzz does your accounts, and you can keep your existing accountant. The sessions need figures that are current enough to be real, so the bookkeeping has to be up to date. If it is months behind, the first step is getting it straight, either with your accountant or with Buzz Accounting. What you say in a coaching session is confidential, and it is not passed to the accounting side of the Buzz family unless you ask us to share it.
Is coaching from an accountant the same as financial advice?
No. Buzz Coaching sells coaching, and it is not regulated financial advice. Financial Coaching works on your own business numbers: what the figures say, what they mean and what you do differently because of them. It does not cover pensions, investments, mortgages or personal debt, which need a regulated adviser or, for debt, a free specialist service. Neither coach is a regulated financial adviser. Where a question needs a qualified specialist in tax, law or regulated advice, the session says so and points you to the right person.
What figures do I need for the first session?
The last twelve months of management accounts if you have them, or the last set of year-end accounts and a current bank balance if you do not. For one-to-one Business Coaching, bring what each type of job billed against what it cost and a rough log of where your week goes. For Financial Coaching, Peter sends a short set of questions and asks for the current figures a few days ahead, so you arrive having already looked at them. The discovery call works out which of these you need.
How much does it cost?
Financial Coaching with Peter is £950 a month plus VAT. One-to-one Business Coaching with Andy is £1,500 a month plus VAT, as a ninety-minute session every fortnight. Both are billed monthly with no minimum term and no joining fee, and each engagement is reviewed at ninety days against the measures set in your first month. The one-off Know Your Numbers piece is £950 plus VAT, and the 12-Month Plan is £1,250 plus VAT. The discovery call is free and lasts thirty minutes.