The CAS Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight

Help Entrepreneurs Apply "Money Models"

Author

Luke Templin
October 08, 2025

Read Time: 3:45 minutes

✋Welcome to The CAS Cache, a newsletter designed to help accounting firms grow their CAS offerings in five minutes or less.

Disclaimer: Some links below support my writing of this newsletter, and some give you a deal.

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When $100M Money Models sold 2.9 million copies in a single day, it wasn't just a publishing record. It was proof that millions of entrepreneurs are seeking help in growing their businesses. In the past two issues, I have discussed how I am utilizing $100M Money Models to reevaluate my Client Advisory Services (CAS) proposals. Now, let's talk about how you can use the book to advise your clients.

Upcoming Live Events that I will be at:

  • All Things CAS Roundtable - Have you got a question, challenge, or idea about running and growing your CAS service? Join our live, unrecorded monthly roundtable in The Kick C@$ Community. A space to ask anything and hear what’s working (or not) from fellow CAS leaders in real time on the second Tuesday of every month at 3 PM CST.

  • The CAS Quarterly Marketing Roundtable - Marketing a CAS firm isn’t one-size-fits-all. This live, unrecorded quarterly roundtable is your space to crowdsource ideas, check your strategy, and hear what’s moving the needle—from lead gen and niche positioning to referrals, content, and beyond. Join us on October 22nd at 1 PM CST in The Kick C@$ Community.

  • Speaking at Intuit Connect on October 27th at 9 AM PST.

We can translate the book's frameworks into actionable financial insights, including gross profit, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and lifetime gross profit. Once clients understand those numbers, pricing strategy becomes a financial lever you can actually pull, rather than a source of fear.

1) Start With Gross Profit

Most small business financial statements are designed for tax filing, not for informed decision-making. They lump revenue and expenses together in ways that hide what's actually profitable. The first step I take in most advisory engagements is to rebuild the chart of accounts to tell a compelling story.

Here's the quick playbook:

  • Split revenue by service line. Each sizable product or service gets its own income account.

  • Move direct labor into COGS. Allocate staff time realistically, including taxes and benefits.

  • Track gross profit per service. Track it monthly and over a trailing twelve months.

When owners see gross profit by service, clarity follows fast. One client looked "healthy" at a 60% blended GP. Once we separated the lines, one was 4%, another 29%, a small one 80%, and the flagship 60%. Only then could we decide what to fix, grow, or drop.

Targets that work:

  • Hormozi recommends 80%+ GP for service businesses that want to scale in his online training, which is wild to me.

  • I guide clients to achieve a 50%+ target in professional services and a 35%+ target in trade services.

Reaching those levels gives owners the margin to reinvest, hire, and market with confidence.

2) Tie Gross Profit to CAC and Lifetime Gross Profit

Once gross profit is clean, connect it to acquisition economics. This is where advisory moves from "accounting" to "strategy."

Key definitions:

  • CAC: total cost to acquire one customer (ads, sales comp, onboarding).

  • Lifetime Revenue (LR): average total revenue from a customer over time.

  • Lifetime Gross Profit (LGP): LR × Gross Margin.

Hormozi's benchmark: LGP should be at least 3x CAC.

Example: If a client earns $9,000 per customer at a 50% margin, the LGP is $4,500.

That means the maximum CAC is $1,500. Improve GP to 60%, and CAC capacity rises to $1,800 without changing price.

Once clients see these relationships, growth stops being a matter of guesswork. It becomes a formula.

3) Pull the Price Lever With Feature Downsells

Price is the single most powerful financial lever, yet it is also the one that owners hesitate to pull. Rather than defaulting to discounts, use feature downsells to protect value while serving price-sensitive buyers.

Here's an example from an IT managed service provider I work with. Their top-selling point is the rapid response times to support.

Instead of cutting prices, they are now considering flipping the conversation. If a prospect balks at the premium price, they can offer the legacy rate with a slower turnaround, moving from a 4-hour response to 24 hours.

That slight shift keeps the premium tier intact and clarifies the value of speed.

Downsells can be built around:

  • Speed: faster costs more

  • Access: more experienced staff at higher tiers

  • Scope: Ascynrous vs. real-time communication

It's not about giving less service. It's about positioning choice. The client feels in control, and you protect your margins.

4) Package It: The "Money Model Baseline"

You can turn this into a repeatable 3-meeting CAS engagement with a recurring element:

Meeting 1: Financials that tell a story

Redesign the chart of accounts, identify service lines, and calculate gross profit per line.

Meeting 2: Diagnose and set gross profit target

Review GP percentages and set a target.

Meeting 3: Design the pricing and acquisition model

Calculate CAC and LGP. Brainstorm feature-based pricing tiers.

Recurring delivery: Monitoring Gross Profit by Service and CAC using a tool, such as FinDaily.io, or meeting.

The CAS Advantage

Most business owners will read $100M Money Models and nod along. Few will know how to ensure they will be profitable executing it. That's the CAS opportunity.

When you help clients see which service lines truly profit, what they can spend to acquire customers, and how to raise prices strategically, you move from accountant to growth partner.

Thanks for reading, Luke Templin!

P.S. There are four ways I can help you grow your CAS offerings when you are ready:

  1. Join my How to Start Offering Advisory Services Cohort.

  2. Cannot wait until it starts? Check out the pre-recorded version here.

  3. Join The Kick C@$ Community to grow your CAS offering alongside others doing the same.

  4. Automated white-labeled financial digests for your clients with FinDaily.io