Here’s what you’re looking for: Jody Padar

Here’s how to tell exactly what does and does NOT fall within the lines of scoped services.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

There’s a time to increase scope and a time to let it slide. Let’s explore these two options.

It’s professional responsibility to inform a client when a request is out of scope. In this instance, you have two options: either make it a separate engagement or include it in the existing service package. It’s important to have everyone on the same page about what is within scope and what falls outside of it.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

It would be best if you always built into your pricing agreements a 20 percent buffer to protect you against pricing mistakes. This doesn’t mean you should do work outside the scope for free, but if a client asks for a service not included, you could decide to let it go if the amount is immaterial.

READ MORE →

Plus three more basic steps. 

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

How often have you heard the old saying about having two ears and one mouth because listening is twice as important as talking? Hopefully, often, because it is as true as anything I’ve ever heard. Scoping is all about listening, so when you make a presentation, you’ll know what you’re talking about, and the client will know you know.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Here are four basic steps you can follow to make sure you and the client are in alignment when the time comes to start a new project or present to a potential new client:

READ MORE →

What are employees working toward? They need to know.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Key performance indicators separate the signals from the noise. Throwing timesheets into the trash is your opportunity to focus all your attention on what is most important to your firm’s continued success.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Good KPIs are quantifiable measurements agreed to beforehand. They must be important to the organization as a whole and specific. Here are a few examples you might consider adopting:
READ MORE →

Five reasons why.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

When you measure time on timesheets, you are measuring a scarce commodity. There are only so many billable hours in a week.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

By measuring billable hours, you’re living in a world of scarcity. This is bound to affect your firm, both internally and externally.

READ MORE →

Six steps to take.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

The accounting profession will never resemble an automotive production line, perhaps for no other reason than we don’t look good in steel-toed boots. We’ll never be widget producers and, from my viewpoint, that’s a good thing. However, our position among the professional class shouldn’t blind us to the benefits of standardizing many of our services.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Anyone who has been an accountant for any length of time has certainly seen enough to eliminate the need to reinvent the wheel every time they start a new engagement. An entire firm has even more institutional knowledge to draw from. You can develop reliable and repeatable recipes for different services and deliverables by capturing this institutional knowledge. This is standardization, and it makes your service offerings more efficient, cheaper, consistent and predictable – all good business practices. You’ll be able to predict with better accuracy the time frames required for new projects, and you’ll be able to scope out exactly what will be required to bring the project to a successful conclusion. READ MORE →

Measure your progress and success, just not by the hour.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

It may sound ridiculous, but the only people who are married to timesheets are professional services firms staffed by people who spend their professional lifetimes building their knowledge. Every other company in the world has figured out how to sell and price products or services without relying on timesheets.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Why do professional services firms believe you should sell knowledge in increments of time? Ron Baker, an accounting visionary and author of “Firm of the Future,” once asked, “When you’re a knowledge worker, should you be selling your time?” I don’t think so.

READ MORE →

Five great reasons.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

When you measure time on timesheets, you are measuring a scarce commodity. There are only so many billable hours in a week.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

By measuring billable hours, you’re living in a world of scarcity. This is bound to affect your firm, both internally and externally.

READ MORE →

Productize your services for consistent client value.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Now that you have hopefully standardized your services, it’s time to look at productization. Productization is the packaging of intangible services to make them feel tangible. You put everything you will do for a persona into an offering that resonates with them because it’s customized for them. It’s then clearly priced so the buyer knows what they get for their investment.

MORE by Jody Padar
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

This is just as useful for your clients as it is for your staff. Clients appreciate it because they know exactly what they’ll get and what to expect. Staff appreciate it because, unlike in traditional firms where there are at least four different ways to get to the same deliverable, this model has one pathway for each deliverable and service product, making it both efficient and traceable.

READ MORE →