Three Demos: Pricing Your Value Add

Woman examining documentHow to take that big first step.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

The big part of pricing is the value added. How do we go from fixed to value-added pricing where the firm actually can really make a difference and move from just back-office support to client advisory services? The steps to get there mean providing the base of BOS so that you have the needed knowledge to perform client advisory services.

MORE: Set Expectations with an Anticipatory Set | Get the Most Out of Your Client Meeting | Why BOS Calls for Flat Rates | Four Steps for Controlling Source Documents | Why You Need Standard Naming Conventions | Procedures Require Regular Revisiting
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that about 20 percent of small businesses will fail in their first year and by the end of the fifth year 50 percent will fail.
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The Why Behind Your CAS Why

Four empty metal bucketsFour ingredients to consider.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

“WHY did I start my accounting firm/practice?”

If you are the owner of your firm, print this in a bold, big font and post it somewhere in such a way that you can see it, even if it is just in your peripheral vision, every moment when you are working at your desk.

MORE: Who Is the Professional?
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If you are a partner of the firm or an employee, print the following question to post it where you can see it all the time:

“WHY did I get into the accounting profession?”
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Jackie Meyer: Be a Problem Solver, Not a Number Cruncher

Jackie Meyer: Redefine your boundaries and stop conforming to inappropriate behaviors.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

Jackie Meyer is a fan of value pricing and niching your practice. Her favorite area is tax planning, which doesn’t require a huge investment of time to provide huge financial benefits for clients.

Her own firm tripled revenues by focusing on tax planning.

MORE: Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees HappyErik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a MindshiftJennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone LovesMike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training PracticesHector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be FreePrivate Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt WilkinsonWhen Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey SchmidtCan Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves?Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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Firms that focus on low-volume, highly-niched areas solve several problems at once.

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Why BOS Calls for Flat Rates

Timesheets are used, but for tracking productivity.

By Penny Breslin
It’s Not Just the Numbers

Let’s get to the big questions that confound professional service providers of all types in today’s tech environment:

  • How do I charge my client for these services?
  • How do I continue to get paid?
  • How do I charge hourly for processes that will be taking less and less time because of the application of technology?

MORE: Four Steps for Controlling Source Documents | Why You Need Standard Naming Conventions | How to Develop Internal Procedures | Workflow Tools Can Deepen Client Relationships | Going Viral: Today’s Top Marketing Strategies | Which Kind of Team Do You Have? | Meet the New BOS | Why AI Is Not the Enemy
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Fixed Pricing

Flat-rate billing is the logical choice for back office support (BOS) services. This fixed pricing is typically used for monthly recurring work. We can do this by knowing how long it takes to create any given transaction. There will be swings in time, but the idea is that the fixed monthly rate considers the busiest season or months for the business. That way, on less heavy months, you receive the same rate and it makes up for the times when the workload increases.
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Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life

Play the infinite game and 11 more takaways

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr for CPA Trendlines

“We’re ultimately in the people business. We’re in the relationship-building business. We just happen to do accounting.”

That’s how Clayton Oates, the founder of QA Business, views the accounting profession.

MORE: Randy Crabtree: Follow These Three Rules to Keep Employees HappyErik Solbakken: Yes, You Can Work Less and Make More | Donny Shimamoto: Future Firm Growth Requires a MindshiftJennifer Wilson: Empower Young Workers to Build the Firm Everyone LovesMike Whitmire: Re-Think Your Hiring and Training PracticesHector Garcia: Success Strategies of a Quickbooks YouTube Superstar | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be FreePrivate Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go  | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers  | Disruptor: Jason Statts Shakes Up the Status Quo | Think Small to Think Big with Matt WilkinsonWhen Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey SchmidtCan Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves?Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson

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Oates also believes accountants can choose whether they are playing a finite, zero-sum game with clients or the infinite game, which continues forever and results in an abundance forever mindset with clients, who will then be your clients for life. 

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Why Time Tracking Still Matters

If your team dismisses timesheets as old school, you may want to rethink that strategy.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Pen ready to fill in blank timesheet

Because capacity is the denominator in the Lean Six Sigma equation, and employee productivity is a big factor in capacity, employee productivity becomes a big factor in determining turnaround time.

MORE: Business Owners Face One of Three Exits | Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow | Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Easy Ways to Avoid ‘Done But’ Tax Returns | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
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First, let’s dismiss all the consultants who tell us time tracking and productivity metrics don’t matter. For the most part, these consultants have never managed or owned CPA firms. Rarely have they worked in firms for any length of time. They have never known the struggles of meeting payroll the first pay period in February, when employee hours are up but the tax season money is not rolling in yet.

Here’s an example that shows why time tracking and productivity metrics matter:
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10 Questions for Reconsidering Your Prices

Coins and small bills in a plastic boxStop undervaluing yourself.

By Martin Bissett
Business Development On a Budget

Undercharging – or lowballing as it’s also called – is the scourge of the profession. It has always been present, and unfortunately, it will probably be with us for the foreseeable future.

Undercharging is directly related to fear – fear of rejection.

MORE: Five Reasons Firms Don’t Thrive | Prioritize Your Prospects | Good Enough Is Not Enough | Consistency Is Key to Business Development | Comfort vs. Complacency | Five Questions about Your Network

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When you are building your pipeline according to the process, you have assigned fees you think might be in the ballpark of what you believe you could get from a new piece of work or a new client. You may tend to estimate on the low side, which is not a bad idea in theory, because it lets you be pleasantly surprised when it’s anything beyond that.
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How Bullish Are You This Tax Season?

Tax pros see gains in clients, revenue, and profits.

ROSY SCENARIO: 75% forecast increases in revenue per client. More work, or higher fees, or both?

Join the 5-minute survey. Get the answers. Start here.

By CPA Trendlines Research

If the early results of the 2023 CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer are any indication, tax practitioners can look forward to a lucrative year.

MORE TAX SEASON ’23:Accountants’ Top Problems for Tax Season 2023Tax Season 2023: Better or Worse? | Tax: The Procedural Checklists Your Firm Needs  |  Stop Tax Return Review Shortcuts  |  Offers in Compromise Aren’t for Everyone  |  Trump’s Tax Returns: Read The Originals Here  |  SURVEY: Tax Software Favorite Keeps Crown

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Over 46 percent of respondents expect a five to ten percent expansion of clientele, and another 13 percent say theirs will swell by more than ten percent.

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