CPA firms face pricing pinch

Price index declines 1.1% in latest month.

BLS CPA firms price index

After years of gains since the government started keeping track in December 2003, overall prices for CPA firm services plummeted with the onset of recession in December 2007.  Since then, firms recovered some of their losses, but now appear to be dipping again.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the price index for CPA firms declined to 113.7 in October from 115.0 in September. In the year-ago October, the index stood at 115.6, up from the October 2007 level of 113.1.

So, if you’re feeling a little squeezed on fees, you’re not alone.

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Posted at December 14, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 1 Comment

Comments

One Response to “CPA firms face pricing pinch”

  1. KC Truby on December 15th, 2009 5:09 am

    Plummet? I wish my stock portfolio had only dipped 1% or that my house only went down 1% or that sales were only off by 1%.

    In my marketing group were adjusting by going paperless, contracting more work to ‘at home’ retired CPA’s and using the Internet to find more clients.

    Every recession forces us to become better business people. After 25 years of almost steady growth I think most of us have forgotten that the economy can go both ways.

    The big advantage I see coming out of all this is a firm using a lot more technology to move low value work out of the office to contractors. In many cases our burden rate for staffing is 40% to 50% less as we embrace the new ‘virtual business’ model.

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