Canterbury firm Croys on managing provisional tax for clients with big swings in profit and why getting compliance right opens the door to better advice.
“A lot of staff time was going into just getting an accurate view of our clients’ tax positions, so we could see who needed chasing for payment. As a firm that prides itself on proactive advisory, that’s not where we want to be spending our energy.”
That’s how Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director at Croys, describes provisional tax before a better system. For a lot of firms, it will sound familiar.
We sat down with Marcus to talk about where the pressure comes from, how Croys uses TMNZ today, and what a more proactive approach could look like for his team.
The situation: clients whose income moves with the market
Croys is an accounting and business advisory firm based in Ashburton and Christchurch. It exists to make an impact on its community and challenge the status quo, and it’s known for giving clients a straight answer.
Its clients work mainly in agribusiness, farming and commercial sectors. Croys also helps people buy businesses and build the lifestyle they want, with a strong focus on supporting younger business owners.
Many of these clients have income that changes a lot from year to year. Commodity prices, seasons and what’s happening around the world all affect profit. For a dairy farmer, a good year can be followed by a hard one.
Croys has worked with TMNZ for several years. When a client’s cashflow is tight or their tax position is tricky, TMNZ gives the team another option.
“TMNZ understands how we work as accountants. When clients are in tricky cashflow or tax positions, they have solutions that help us make the best decision for our clients.”
– Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director, Croys
The challenge: big swings and scattered information
For Croys, the hard part isn’t the tax itself. It’s keeping on top of it for clients whose position keeps changing.
The swings. When profit moves with commodity prices, provisional tax payments move with it. Payment dates don’t always line up with when a farm or business has cash available, which makes it hard for clients to plan.
“They have huge variability in their profitability due to commodity prices and what’s going on around the globe… which can be really tricky to manage from a cashflow perspective.”
– Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director, Croys
The scattered systems. Tax information sits in Xero Practice Manager, FYI Docs and, for some of the team, spreadsheets. Each one holds part of the picture. Getting a clear view of a client’s position takes time, especially when profit changes and the team needs to reassess what’s due.
The busy periods. Work builds around key dates, such as the 15 January provisional tax date and GST. That’s when the team is explaining payments to clients, checking what’s been paid and following up on what hasn’t.
The chasing. Staff time goes into finding who needs chasing, rather than planning ahead with clients.
“It often ends up being a reactive scenario to provisional tax.”
– Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director, Croys
The opportunity: compliance as the foundation for advice
For Marcus, getting provisional tax right isn’t the end goal. It’s what makes room for the advisory work clients value.
Croys already uses TMNZ to help clients pay tax at a time that suits their cashflow.
“What we often do is we use TMNZ to manage that cashflow and move those payments around into different times of the year that might meet our client’s requirements better.”
– Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director, Croys
The next step is to know what’s coming before it arrives: understand each client’s profit, what Inland Revenue requires of them, and which options are available, early enough to act.
What success looks like for Croys:
- a clear view of every client’s provisional tax position
- less time looking for information across separate systems
- payments planned around each client’s cashflow cycle
- less pressure around key tax dates
- a team that can find solutions without having to escalate every issue
- more time for advisory conversations
“If we can nail the compliance piece, we buy the opportunity to do advisory work.”
– Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director, Croys
The solution: what’s coming from TMNZ
Firms across New Zealand tell us the same things as Croys. Provisional tax is too manual, needs too much chasing, and means checking too many systems to find a client’s real position.
That’s why we’ve built the new TMNZ platform. It brings provisional tax into one clear view across your whole practice, using a direct connection to Inland Revenue. It’s designed to:
- show every client’s provisional tax position on one screen
- show each client’s status at a glance: compliant, deadline coming up, or needs attention
- help your team spot compliance gaps early, while there’s still time to act
- cut the cross-checking between Inland Revenue, spreadsheets and practice systems
- work alongside your accounting and practice management software, which stays your source of truth
There’s no subscription or platform fee for your firm or your clients.
“The TMNZ platform looks fantastic. It’s going to bring all of those disparate systems that we’re using into one spot, and actually be able to manage a client’s provisional tax from there.”
– Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director, Croys
For Croys, it also fits where the firm is heading.
“We believe in technology disrupting our business and we want to lean into that and partner with businesses that are heading in the same journey.”
– Marcus Murdoch, Managing Director, Croys
See it for yourself
Provisional tax will always move with your clients’ businesses. Managing it doesn’t have to pull your team away from the advice that matters.
Book a demo and we’ll walk you and your team through the new platform. We’ll show you how it fits the way your practice already works.