Making the most of your trial with The Gap

Making the most of your trial with The Gap

Welcome to The Gap!

During your trial, you can:
  1. Complete your firm's minimum setup requirements:
    1. Customise your firm's settings.
    2. Configure your proposal payment terms.
  2.  Check out the free content available, including:
    1. Three full business advisory services (bridges).
    2. Mindsets.
    3. Training videos.
    4. Marketing collateral.
    5. Leadership resources.
  3. Familiarise yourself with our bridges, including:
    1. What is in a bridge?
    2. How to use a bridge?
  4. Review our Gap Champion content to discover best practice implementation of The Gap.
    1. Check out our Gap Champion Guide available in Navigation panel > Leadership > Gap Champion Resources folder.
    2. Additionally, read the Change Management for Advisory Success article for more information about implementing The Gap.
  5. Create a Business Plan for your firm:
    1. Add your firm as a client.
    2. Choose the facilitator and attendees for your session.
    3. Send pre-work.
    4. Prepare for the session.
    5. Deliver the session.
  6.  Upgrade your account to become a Gap member and gain access to our entire product.

We also recommend booking a demo with a team member from The Gap who can advise how you can get the best ROI with The Gap.

What is The Gap?

The Gap is a web-based portal for accounting and bookkeeping firms, enabling them to market, sell and deliver a broad spectrum of Business Advisory services to the small business community. Our offering spans four key areas: education, content, marketing, and software to enable efficient delivery of value-add services to accelerate small business success.

The App bar:


  1. Use the search  icon to search for documents.
  2. Under the question mark  icon:
    1. Help articles: access the knowledge base (you made it!).
    2. The Gap Community: a members only Facebook group.
    3. Contact Support: reach out for support here.
  3. Under the cog icon: access your personal settings, email signature, and multi-factor authentication settings in My profile. Admin users can also access:
    1. Firm Settings: access your personal profile and update your user settings such as email greeting, disclaimer and signature. You can also manage the FYI integration connection, plus view your trial end date.
    2. Manage Users: add, archive and send MFA setup requests to your firm users.
    3. Services & Pricing: manage your service names, descriptions, plans, pricing and payment options. These are pulled through to your proposals.
    4. Targets: Set up your business development targets and track them monthly.

Your navigation panel

The left-side column is your navigation panel. Use the arrow at the bottom to expand or collapse the panel.


From top to bottom:
  1. Use the Dashboard to access your dashboard, which includes My favourite content and the latest content updates under New and Updated content. Members can also access our Facebook community group.
  2. The Bridges area has all the content you need to market, sell and deliver Business Advisory services, webinars, seminars and workshops.
  3. The Mindset Tools includes mindset cards and videos.
  4. The Training area has recordings of training sprints and other training resources.
  5. Use the  Marketing content to streamline your firm's marketing.
  6. The  Leadership area contains internal best practice leadership content.
  7. The  Working Files takes you to your working files, where your Drafts, Completed and Template documents are stored, as well as your Inbox for documents submitted by clients and Outbox to check the status of emails sent to the client via the portal.
  8. The  Clients area is where you can view your clients. Portal administrators can add clients manually or sync clients from XPM, and access the Clients archive.
Admin users can also see the following areas:
  1. Firm settings - same as the Firm settings option under the cog on the App bar.
  2.  Services & Pricing: manage your service names, descriptions, plans, pricing, and payment options. These are pulled through to your proposals.
  3.  BD Targets: set up your targets and track them monthly.
  4.  Manage Users: add, archive, and send MFA setup requests to your firm users.

What is the minimum setup?

  1. Enter your firm's information under Firm Settings:
    1. Add your firm's contact information, Logo and Footer Text; this information will automatically populate portal documents
    2. For more information, see the Customising firm settings article

  2. Set up your Local Value Added Tax, Payment Terms and Payment Settings in  Services and pricing > Payment Options 
    1. These fields require information prior to proposal creation to populate the Pricing and Payment Terms section in proposals
    2. For more information, see the Configuring proposal payment terms article

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

All firm administrators are encouraged to set up MFA for improved account security in Navigation panel > Firm Settings > My Profile. For more information, see the Setting up multi-factor authentication article.

What content can I access?

As a trial user, you will have access to the following content:

Navigation panel > Bridges
  1. Proactive Onboarding
  2. Value Gap Analysis Report
  3. Business Planning

Navigation panel > Mindset Tools > Mindset Catalogue
  1. OARBED Mindset Card and Video
  2. Achiever Matrix Mindset Card and Video

Navigation panel >  Training > Training Videos > Getting Started folder
  1. About The Gap
  2. Getting Started With The Gap
  3. Value Gap Calculator Intro
Navigation panel >  Training > Training Videos > Service Delivery folder
  1. How Run a Proactive Accounting Meeting
  2. How to Run a Business Planning session
Navigation panel > Marketing
  1. Advisor Marketing Resources: access to guides and marketing collateral documents
  2. Proposal Branding: full access to the Proposal Cover and Back Cover templates and examples
  3. The Gap + BOMA: access to The Gap + BOMA Launch Webinar

Navigation panel > Leadership
  1. Gap Champion Resources: contains resources to help you implement advisory services and fast-track your ROI from The Gap

The Bridges

The Bridges area is where you'll find the content to deliver Advisory services to your clients. We call these services 'bridges' as they 'bridge the gap' between compliance and advisory. As a trial user, you will have access to three bridges:
  1. Proactive Onboarding:
    1. Client onboarding is about starting the relationship on a productive, positive, and engaging footing which will likely result in referrals and a better working relationship
  2. Value Gap Analysis Report:
    1. Use the Value Gap Calculator to identify strategies to improve your client's cashflow, profit, and overall business value
    2. Generate a report detailing the strategies and overall impact the suggested changes could have
  3. Business Planning:
    1. The Business Plan is a dynamic one-page plan which addresses the heart and soul of a business, establishing revenue targets and identifying and prioritising personal and business goals, KPIs, opportunities, and vulnerabilities
    2. Add your firm as a client and use the content to develop your Business Plan
The Process Guides in the Process folder for each bridge clearly explain the process for marketing, selling, and delivering each service. Ensure you read these prior to getting started.

Important info
The Process Guide is available by clicking the Download Process Guide button in the top right-hand corner.

What is in a Bridge?

Most bridges are split four stages:
  1. Process: a Process Guide and Video to show best practice use of content.
  2. Marketing: collateral and templates to position the value of the service to clients.
  3. Selling: proposal scoping notes and proposal templates to send via the portal for online acceptance.
  4. Delivery: everything needed to deliver the service including pre-work, guides, checklists, delivery notes, plans, meeting minutes, and feedback forms to send via the portal for clients to complete online.
Warning!
Ensure you've set up your Payment Options prior to creating a proposal.

How to use a Bridge

  1. Select the bridge from Navigation panel > Bridges or use the Search  feature in the App bar to find a specific bridge or service.
  2. Review the Process Guide.
  3. Utilise the marketing content to promote the service.
  4. Send a proposal via the portal.
  5. Send pre-work 1-2 weeks prior to the session; follow up if not received on time.
  6. Use the remaining content in the Delivery folder to deliver the service to the client.
  7. Send the Feedback Form within 48 hours of delivering the service.

Creating your firm's Business Plan

We recommend you use the content in the Business Planning bridge and follow the process to develop your firm's Business Plan during your trial.

Tip
Check out our How to Run a Business Planning Session training video in Navigation panel > Training > Training Videos > Service Delivery for more information about creating a Business Plan.

Add your firm as a client 

  1. Navigate to Navigation panel > Clients > Add Client.
  2. Fill in the client profile using your firm's details. The required fields are Client Name, Primary Contact and Contact Email.
  3. Click Save.

Your firm's name will appear in the Clients list and all Client selection dropdowns throughout the portal.

Choose your facilitator and attendees

  1. Allocate one team member to facilitate the Business Planning session, ideally a senior team member who intends to deliver the Business Planning service to clients.
  2. Direct this person to follow the complete process and use the Delivery Notes. 
  3. Determine who will attend the session. All partners should attend.

Send the pre-work

  1. Navigate to Navigation panel >  Bridges > Business Planning > Delivery > Business Planning Confirmation and Pre-work Email or use the Search  feature to find the Business Planning Pre-work. 
  2. Select your firm from the Client dropdown in the top right-hand corner.
  3. Update the name in the greeting to reflect the recipients.
  4. Update the input fields and edit the email content if required.
  5. Review the pre-work questions then click Next or Action at the bottom.
  6. To send the pre-work to more than one attendee, click the  button in the Recipients list and search for existing recipients or type additional email addresses in the text area, separated by a comma. Note that the client's primary contact will already be there by default.
  7. Click  Send.
Important info
Each email sent via the portal contains a unique pre-work link; add additional recipients if multiple people need to submit pre-work. 

Prepare for the session

  1. The administrator prepares for the session using the Administration Support Checklist, accessing the completed pre-work from Navigation panel > Working Files > Inbox.
  2. The facilitator reviews the Delivery Notes, OARBED Behaviour Model and attendees' completed pre-work, noting common themes.

Tip
Check out the Business Plan Example to see a best practice example of a completed Business Plan. This can be accessed via the Example button in the Delivery folder of the Business Planning bridge.

Deliver the session

  1. Follow the Delivery Notes to deliver the session.
  2. Use flipcharts to brainstorm ideas, then complete each section succinctly in the Business Plan.
  3. Record additional notes in the Meeting Minutes.
  4. At the end of the session, click Next or Action on the Meeting Minutes.
  5. In the Email section of the Business Plan, click Attach, select the completed Meeting Minutes, then click Attach.
  6. Click Next or Action on the Business Plan.
  7. Click the  button in the Recipients list and select existing recipients or type additional email addresses in the text area, separated by a comma. 
  8. Click  Send.

Upgrade your account

You can upgrade your account at any moment during your trial by clicking the Upgrade Account button:
  1. When it shows upon clicking on restricted content links
  2. Under the Personal Settings in App bar >  > My profile page

Alternatively,  book a demo or contact our team to learn more about becoming a member.