Scope and Who Needs to Understand It

Don’t let a partner do this alone.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Partners, managers and accounting professionals must all understand scope to deliver the right amount of work for the engagement.

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

Everyone needs to be aligned. Everyone needs to know what the customer ordered, how to deliver it and where the work ends.

READ MORE →

Focus on Value First

Hand moving triangle along beam to indicate balance between price and value

Don’t discuss fees as soon as a potential client calls.

By Sandi Leyva
The Accountant’s Accelerator

How do you talk to a prospect or client about your fee?

MORE by Sandi Leyva
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Some of the answers I have heard are:

  • “It depends.”
  • “Tell them and get off the phone as fast as possible.”
  • “I don’t know.”
  • “What is your budget?”

Most accountants spill the beans about their rates way too early in a conversation with a future client. So when should you talk rates?

READ MORE →

Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | ARC – SLC

Price discrimination segments customers by what they value most. 

Sponsored by Tax Season Readiness: Practical Steps for a Smoother Busy Season  | See Today’s Special Offer
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: AppleGoogle/YouTubeSpotifyiHeartDeezer, Amazon Music, AudiblePlayer FMAudacy, RSS
Is your firm truly ready for tax season—or just hoping to survive it? Join this 90-minute webinar featuring an Accounting ARC Live panel with thought leaders who know what it takes to optimize performance under pressure. 

Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations
With Harshita Multani
Center for Accounting Transformation

On Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations, host Harshita Multani interviews Ron Baker—author, educator, and sought-after speaker—about price discrimination and the psychology behind everyday pricing. Across coffee shops, hotels, streaming platforms, and movie theaters, Baker says the same principle repeats: value is subjective, so pricing must be, too.

MORE Accounting ARC: Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn’t Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape UsGen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking LicensureCPA Firm Ownership Under FireWalking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting’s Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes |More Admins, Fewer Students, No PlanWhat Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix ItYour Identity is Not a LiabilityBurnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough

Baker argues that pricing “behaves like art” because people don’t act like predictable particles. The goal is not perfect prediction, but rather constant testing: offering options, observing behavior, and refining strategy. That framing aligns with a growing body of hospitality research that shows how subtle cues—like removing the “$” symbol—change spending patterns. Cornell researchers find diners spend significantly more when menus list numerals without currency signs, a choice many premium venues intentionally make.  

READ MORE →

Let Your Team Fire Clients

The customer is not always right.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

There are few ways to sink an accounting firm faster than winning bad clients. They will rob your profitability, steal your sanity and cause havoc among your staff and other client relationships.

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

Ask yourself these questions and be prepared to walk away if you don’t get the right answers:

READ MORE →

Four Ways That Scoping Helps with Pricing

Maximize benefits for both you and the client.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Accurate pricing relies heavily on thorough scoping to measure the engagement, and good scoping defines the deliverables, sets the client’s expectations and calculates the labor it will take to get the job done.

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

 

With that said, here’s how your scoping process helps you determine the ultimate price:

READ MORE →