Roberts Cowling

How Roberts Cowling Turned Advisory Services Into Their Most Valuable Offering

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Introduction

Roberts & Cowling is a progressive Brisbane accounting firm serving clients across Australia, from the bustling CBD to regional towns like Kilcoy. When Principal Ben Roberts recognised that their advisory services lacked the structure and professionalism their clients deserved, he turned to Brieff to transform their quarterly accountability meetings.

The result? A systematic approach that not only improved client outcomes but enabled the firm to justify premium pricing for their advisory services—including one client who saved $600,000 annually by acting on recommendations earlier than they would have without Brieff's automated reminders.

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The Story of Roberts Cowling

Roberts & Cowling serves a diverse client base across Brisbane and beyond, working with everyone from fruit brokers at the Brisbane Markets to architects in Fortitude Valley. Their strength lies in understanding the unique challenges each industry faces—whether it's the low-margin, high-volume transactions of market businesses or the cashflow complexities of property development.

What sets Roberts & Cowling apart is their commitment to advisory services that drive real business improvements. But as Ben Roberts discovered, delivering consistent, high-impact advisory services requires more than just good intentions.

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The Challenge of Structuring Professional Advisory Services

Ben faced a challenge common to many successful accounting practices: how to systematically deliver advisory services that justified premium pricing while ensuring client commitments were actually followed through.

"The major one is structured advisory," Ben explains. "We wanted to move beyond just giving clients an A4 sheet with the projects they committed to and then having to manually check in during the quarter to see if they've done it."

The reality was frustrating: clients would commit to important initiatives during quarterly meetings, but without systematic follow-up, these commitments often languished. "Typically what happens is they realise the next accountability meeting is coming up, but two days before that meeting they've ticked off those projects," Ben notes. This reactive approach meant missed opportunities for businesses to realise improvements earlier.

For Roberts & Cowling, the challenge wasn't just operational—it was about professional credibility. "We all get busy. Things happen throughout the day, and before you know it, while you're meant to check in with them halfway through the quarter, it's at the end of the second month and nothing's happened."

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Why Roberts Cowling Chose Brieff

When evaluating solutions, Roberts & Cowling needed more than just another task management tool. They required a platform that could integrate seamlessly with their existing workflow while adding the professional structure their advisory services demanded.

"We really only used an old template that we had in Word, and that was about it," Ben recalls. The firm had tried various approaches but hadn't found anything that addressed their specific needs around client accountability and systematic follow-up.

What attracted them to Brieff was its focus on the complete client service cycle—from structured meeting agendas to automated client communication to progress tracking. "It sort of completes the puzzle because we use a reporting tool, I can attach that report, obviously, to the meeting agenda and then send it to the client from there."

The onboarding process reinforced their decision. "I think we had a maybe even not been a 30 minute onboarding call and I think I'd already set up two clients in that time. So it was pretty straightforward."

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How We Helped Roberts & Cowling Transform Their Client Meeting Process

Understanding that Roberts Cowling's success depended on systematising their advisory services without disrupting their existing workflow, Ben and his team leveraged Brieff's platform across three key areas:

Structured Meeting Management: Brieff provided consistent agenda templates and goal-setting frameworks that eliminated the need to recreate meeting structures from scratch each quarter. "So we obviously have the agenda there, so we don't have to redo it every time, setting the goals, and then doing all the automation behind the scenes."

Automated Client Accountability: The platform's automated reminder system ensures clients stay engaged with their commitments throughout the quarter, not just before the next meeting. "This then automatically reminds them of it, because typically what happens is they realise the next accountability meeting is coming up, but two days before that meeting they've ticked off those projects where this reminds them to do it throughout the quarter."

Real-Time Progress Tracking: Brieff's notification system alerts Ben when clients complete tasks, enabling immediate follow-up conversations. "The notification back from Brieff when a client has ticked off a task is also great because I can then immediately follow them up, on the phone and see how they've gone permitting that change."

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The Impact: Professional Client Meetings That Deliver Real Value

The transformation at Roberts & Cowling demonstrates how systematic client engagement can drive both better outcomes and premium pricing:

Accelerated Client Engagement: "I do notice that the clients tick off their goals earlier than what they did previously which means that when we're setting these projects it's not because they're not going to have an impact so they do them earlier means that they drag that impact forward."

Dramatic Cost Savings: The systematic approach has enabled clients to act on recommendations more quickly, with significant financial impact. In one case, a Victorian mechanic saved $600,000 annually by implementing recommendations earlier than he would have without the regular reminders. "Doing it pretty quickly was, you know, a good idea. No one likes to leave that sort of saving on the table."

Enhanced Professional Credibility: The structured approach has elevated the firm's advisory services. "I think it's added a lot of validity to that service because we're probably undercharging for that service. Now I can probably justify our higher price for it because we are actually constantly following them up."

Perfect Client Retention: The impact on client relationships has been remarkable. "Every client that I've ever had in quarterly accountability is still on them. No one's ever dropped off them."

Internal Efficiency: The system has also improved internal management. "I couldn't really tell you where our agenda and items were for our meetings before. Now with Brieff, it's very easy for me to find."

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Conclusion

The AI-generated meeting summaries have also enhanced professional communication, automatically refining conversational language into polished, business-appropriate documentation while preserving the key discussion points and action items.