When Hourly-Billing Hurts Profits

The Rule of Three Algorithm vs. the New Cost-Plus Worksheet.

By August J. Aquila

The time has come for the accounting professional to rethink the paradigm on which pricing has been based.

Most now agree that the traditional methods of price setting can have a negative impact on a firm.

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Somewhere along the line accountants began to believe that an hour of their work had a set value to their clients. As we shall see, this false assumption has led to the current state of affairs and has caused accountants to:

  • Produce more chargeable hours by constantly reinventing the wheel
  • Hoard work and, consequently, do a poor job of delegating
  • Inhibit the creation of more efficient ways of producing accounting services
  • Hinder the development of more efficient project management