CEO Insights Magazine

Every company needs growth and to enable that accurate reasoning should drive business decisions. Chartered accountants achieve this by bolstering a business's internal control through an exhaustive study of the client's transactions and the implemented audit system can take care of complexities and ensures a company's perpetual success. A client is benefitted by the verifications and re-verifications carried out by CAs that minimises error margins which can adversely affect a client. They also tackle the stress and risk that come with certification jobs. To address these concerns and more, is PFA and Associates, a well experienced team serving clients in Taxation and Corporate advisory since 2012. CA Prasad Akhani, Partner guides the team with his visions and scrupulous leadership that is both motivational and efficient.

Currently in conversation with CA Prasad Akhani, where we learn in detail about the company's offerings and its journey to success.

What was the driving force behind the establishment of Pfa And Associates Llp?
The reason behind the establishment of the organisation is the digital edition of India, because with this digitalization, there comes frequent changes in the government that lead to difficulties for organisations from the accounting and the timely compliance side. People in business are facing many issues because they don't have a technical accountant who can comply with these frequent changes of the law and are not capable enough on the digitalisation side at the same time. CS and the other tech consultants are limited in number as well. So for MSMEs, it's difficult to reach out to each and every customer and it's time to bring in a virtual CFO. A virtual CFO can help them in getting their data analytics for accounting and finance and which help them in the decision making that ensures smooth running of businesses.

What key principles does the organisation adhere to in order to be competitive?
Often , it is noticed that there is disparity between an organisation and the service provider over the scope of work they want different things and they are not aligned. For us, it is completely different. We work with the mindset that we are a team and we will collaborate as much as necessary there are no divides, basically. Especially with the introduction of the virtual CFO, we have considerably reduced the gap between the knowledge base and the technical functions. So, to summarise I can say that we believe deeply in oneness, commitment and competitive cost effectiveness our three principles that guide us.

How are you planning to adopt new tech tools and technologies to revolutionise the company services, to be on par with the current industry?
Currently we have noticed that the majority of CAs are unable to adapt to the changing environment, with the market being flooded with e-Commerce and blockchain technologies. So, we believe that to adapt or to understand the technology, we need to use better tools for preparation of the finances, MIS and other details. To achieve that, we are moving from typical excel sheets to high end digitalisation of the data management tools and high end online systems like the MI system. Additionally, we are also establishing our inhouse technology where the client can get access to their data in real time. This ensures a seamlessness in the process which I think is very helpful.

How are you planning to adopt new tech tools and technologies to revolutionise the company services, to be on par with the current industry?

Currently we have noticed that the majority of CAs are unable to adapt to the changing environment, with the market being flooded with e-Commerce and blockchain technologies. So, we believe that to adapt or to understand the technology, we need to use better tools for preparation of the finances, MIS and other details. To achieve that, we are moving from typical excel sheets to high end digitalisation of the data management tools and high end online systems like the MI system.Additionally, we are also establishing our inhouse technology where the client can get access to their data in real time. This ensures a seamlessness in the process which I think is very helpful.

What are the unique propositions offered by the organisation to its clients?
We as a firm have a rare combination where we provide both finance and legal outsourcing services. We ensure that we are very strong in both those departments be it for the compliance of the vetting of various banks, building the business structure or monitoring their cash flows. We do not just do data entry, but also manipulate various reports, and process the client's payments. This brings forth accuracy, timely compliances and trust.

Could you tell me what is planned for the future roadmap of the company?
What we are seeing right now is that many businesses and startups are lacking in the technical and the finance part. They have ample knowledge of the business but they are not very focused on the financial side of things. So, we are trying to help them in making a finance model for investment purposes or to reach the market. So, that's one area we will be looking into. We are also looking to expand into the Pune and Bangalore markets.

CA Prasad Akhani, Partner, PFA & Associates
CA Prasad Akhani's has extensive expertise in Corporate Advisory and Taxation. He has served as Faculty for Taxation for Certified Tax Practitioner. He is associated with many startups as Advisor helping them in building their Finance model. His vast experience in the field of Corporate and International Taxation, Due Diligence, Litigation, Assessment of Risk and Compliance process drives the firm to corporate practice then Traditional Practice.