Advisory 101
Offering accountants a high-level curriculum to become a Qualified Business Advisor (QBA) and gain the skills and knowledge to create new and lucrative advisory revenues.
Advisory 101
The Advisory Qualification for Accountants
Advisory 101 for Accountants offers you the world’s first comprehensive training program to develop the essential advisory skills to enable you to achieve the distinction of becoming a Qualified Business Advisor (QBA). This enables you to be appreciated by your clients and colleagues as a specialist in 'whole of client' centric advisory services.
The high-level curriculum, supported by online and self-study resources, provides a wide understanding of the advisory landscape including the skills and knowledge needed to create new and lucrative advisory revenues.
The course includes 12 modules covering the key elements of client-centric advisory, including ‘Integrating a Whole of Client Approach’ and ‘The Advisory Pricing’.
This qualification is delivered in 3 parts and has to be completed in the sequential order as follows:
Foundation Certificate - Certified Advisor – Modules 1, 2 and 3
After successfully completing Level 1, the Advisor will be able to better understand and articulate the essence of advisory services to their colleagues and clients. This will enable them to enhance the delivery of their advisory services.
This is essential in creating a 'whole of client' approach.
5 hours CPE.
Diploma - Qualified Advisor – Modules 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8
Level 2 extends the understanding gained in Level 1 and the Advisor will be able to create effective processes and structures for the delivery of a wide range of advisory services. This also introduces planning pricing strategies and the concepts behind working with clients progressively.
This is essential to effectively leverage these services.
15 hours CPE plus Foundation - 20 hours.
Advanced Diploma - Advanced Advisor – Modules 9, 10, 11 and 12
Following on from Level 2, the Advisor will be able to fully implement a plan for advisory within their firm that enhances the opportunities for growth and ensures a significant return on investment. This includes an increased knowledge of the science of engagement to support a truly 'client-centric' approach to the firm’s positioning and messaging.
This is essential to embed an advisory led culture within a firm.
10 hours of CPE plus Foundation and Diploma - a total of 30 hours.
Course Information
Each module will include:
1. A video lecture
2. A workbook enterable PDF with:
3. Exam questions
4. Designated correct exam answers for marking
5. Total CPE time for a module will include watching the video and completing the workbook.
How Advisory 101 is delivered
Proposed video structure of screen visuals and voice-over, with three learning stages:
1. Introduction to learning objectives, workbook and module learning stages.
2. Learning Stage 1 video with a pause at the end for reflective self-question and use of the workbook.
3. Learning Stage 2 video with a pause at the end for reflective self-question and use of the workbook.
4. Learning Stage 3 video with a pause at the end for reflective self-question and use of the workbook.
5. A summary, exam questions and close.
Foundation Certificate
Certified Advisor
Modules 1, 2 and 3
To start the Advisory 101 Qualification, the Foundation level must be completed first. To find out the finer detail of what's involved in the Foundation Certificate, please proceed to the Foundation Certificate page.
Investment £1,250 per candidate
Investment £1,250 per candidate
Diploma
Qualified Advisor
Modules 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8
Once an Advisor has completed the Foundation Certificate, the can move on to the Diploma. To find out the finer detail of what's involved in the Diploma, please proceed to the Diploma page.
Investment £2,500 per candidate
Investment £2,500 per candidate
Advanced Diploma
Advanced Advisor
Modules 9, 10, 11 and 12
Once an Advisor has completed the Foundation Certificate and the Diploma, the final step is the Advanced Diploma. To find out the finer detail of what's involved in the Advanced Diploma, please proceed to the Advanced Diploma page.
Investment £3,750 per candidate
Investment £3,750 per candidate
Introducing the Advisory 101 Team
Bringing expertise together to The Advisory Qualification
Martin Bissett, Founder of USP
Martin Bissett is the founder of the Upward Spiral Partnership (USP), the international consulting firm that specialises in enabling the accounting profession to win higher-end clients, create leaders from their ranks and save lives.
His professional purpose is to alert the accounting profession to the profound outcomes that their advisory expertise can create in the lives of their clients.
At the same time, he also alerts the accounting profession to the profound difficulties that can arise in the lives of their clients when they choose not to educate their clients about the impact that their advisory expertise can have.
The Upward Spiral Partnership is the 4th business Martin has played a key role in building and the first of his own.
In the first 5 years of USP, Martin has:
- Been engaged/retained by 4 of the World's Top 10 Accounting associations and 6 of the Top 10 in the UK.
- Authored 9 books including Passport to Partnership, content from which has been adopted into the curriculum of AAT Level 3 courses, and taught in selected UK colleges and US CPA Societies.
- Been retained by Accountingweb as a judge of their prestigious practice excellence awards for three years in a row.
- Been highlighted as ‘one to watch’ in AccountingToday’s Top 100 Most Influential countdown for 2 years running.
- Spoken on 4 continents.
- Created several trademarked items of intellectual property including the ACCOUNTS™ system and ‘Martin’s Relationship Pricing™’ Model.
- Written for several professional publications including AccountingToday, AccountingWeb, CPA Practice Advisor and Chartered One.
- Sat on many international expert panels and guested on professional podcasts in the US, UK, and Australia.
- Sits on a parliamentary steering committee tasked with bringing advisory services to the fore in the accounting profession.
The outcome of Martin’s work is profitable new business for the practices he is engaged by, alongside the fine-tuning of teams of partners and emerging leaders who can develop new business by increasing their commercial awareness for themselves, without significant ongoing third party assistance.
Previously, Martin served 10 years as a director (appointed at age 26) on the board of a marketing consultancy firm serving the accounting profession. There, he held the responsibility for the growth of the client base including six of the U.K.’s top 30 accountancy firms.
He now coaches, mentors, speaks, trains and consults with accounting firms worldwide.
In total, he has worked with over 1800 firms of accountants and found it unnecessary to keep track of his contributions to the new business growth of those firms once it surpassed £500m collectively.
John Thompson, Founder and MD of F3C
John is the Advisory Guy and is the Expert in how to successfully deliver advisory services.
He is one of the Founders and the MD of F3C, a company that enables accountants and their firms to build the structures and processes required to deliver advisory services by providing them with CAS - The Complete Advisory Solution
He is an FCA with the ICAEW and former national partner with a Top Ten firm. He was New Business Director in a Regional Practice which tripled their Top Line in two years by focusing on Advisory Led approaches before selling to a Top Ten firm for several million pounds.
He has also worked in the Corporate World with, what was at the time, the UK's largest Leisure Corporation and was FD of a fast growth SME.
He co-authored the Growth Program Service Manuals of a Top Ten firm where he trained and coached more than 100 partners and managers.
He continues to train and coach advisory skills and techniques, and the development of business advisory strategies, for firms of all shapes and sizes, and is also a NED and Board Advisor to several SME's.
He is a key member of the CAS Product Development Team.
John describes himself as a simple Geordie who fell into accountancy by accident, quickly realised that working with clients beyond the numbers is what makes the biggest difference to them, and now passionately believes there is a place for all accountants in an advisory led future.
Tony Sandbach, Co-Founder of F3C
Tony is one of the Founders of F3C, a company that enables accountants and their firms to build the structures and processes required to deliver Advisory Services successfully by providing them with CAS - The Complete Advisory Solution.
He is a Qualified Coach, an FCA with the ICAEW, and former partner with three Top Ten firms. He is also the former President of the East Anglia Society of the ICAEW.
As Chairman of the Audit Committee of a Top Ten frim and author of their Audit manuals, Tony travelled around the UK and Ireland delivering audit training and technical updates for partners and managers but also client engagement and the art and science of advisory services.
He co-authored the Growth Program Service Manuals of a Top Ten firm and continues to train and coach advisory skills and techniques and the development of business advisory strategies for firms of all shapes and sizes.
He is a key member of the CAS Product Development Team.
Tony describes himself as an army brat who grew up in Germany and Cyprus before returning to the UK when his father set up an engineering business in the North of England, before training as a Chartered Accountant.
Richard Walters, CEO of HWL Innovation Ltd
Richard Walters is one of the leading experts on strategic planning for entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses and led the way as a Thought Leader in the UK, as the inventor and author of the Strategic Planning Toolkit and the Complete Advisory Solution, which have been successfully used by accountants with their clients, for over 15 years now in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Africa and the USA.
He started, as so many chartered accountants, by forming his own start-up practice, and developed an expertise in advisory services which enabled it to grow significantly and when it was sold to a Top 10 firm, he employed approximately 80 people. Richard now focuses on helping accountants grow client-centric, 'whole of client' advisory services in their firms using virtual meeting toolkits through a number of strategic partnerships around the world.
Richard is the author of the acclaimed thought-leading book for accountants, ‘Delivering Advisory Services – the essential guide’ and is author of several books on small and medium-sized business strategy and success, with book total sales now over 100,000 worldwide.
He is also a serial entrepreneur and notably took one business in partnership with others, from an innovative cottage industry manufacturing start-up to its ultimate sale to a public listed company and to this day the boiler is Europe’s biggest-selling electric boiler.