The Radical New Business Model for CPA Firms

By Jody Padar

This is book number three! I can’t believe I wrote my first book almost 10 years ago. Actually, I can’t believe this content is still as relevant today as it was back then. The part that has evolved, and what I write about here, is the HOW.

How do you transform your firm step by step?

How do you make these radical ideas practical?

How do you overcome obstacles that you’ll face along the way?

Over the years, I have come to realize that a firm can’t evolve without changing its pricing model. Because I changed my pricing model as I built my new firm, it took me a minute to understand that this is the biggest hurdle for firms to overcome. It’s the business model innovation that is holding firms back. It’s part of what separates the old-school firms from the new firms.

I started my career in a series of old-school firms that didn’t fit my life. That was clear to me time and again.

First, after giving birth to my son prematurely and having to take maternity leave unexpectedly during tax season. (Gasp! How dare I?) Then, when I went to another firm to work part-time, I wasn’t given the same opportunities as the male, full-time employees. (Seriously, wasn’t I a career professional just working limited hours?) I finally left and joined my dad’s tax prep firm, which evolved into New Vision CPA Group. Since then, my career path as a CPA has gone in different directions. These experiences have given me the unique perspectives that enabled Radical Pricing to be written.

Why the next generation of tax and accounting firms will look and operate a lot like software companies. 

As a small, innovative firm owner, I was courted by many of the top 100 firms. They wanted to get radical and wanted me to help. The market was ready to evolve, and big firms realized they needed to do something fundamentally different.

There was one big problem, though—I knew I could never fit in at a big firm. I didn’t have the patience or gravitas to wait for them to catch up to my innovative ways.

I ended up selling my firm to a technology company, Botkeeper, in 2020. Thus, I officially entered the world of tech startups! Here, I learned the operations of marketing, software sales, and customer success in what software companies call the “go-to-market” side of the house. Tech companies take a different approach than accounting firms.

Then, the pandemic happened. It pushed everyone forward, kicking and screaming. A silver lining, perhaps. The world required new ways of working that were forced upon accountants. The good thing is that most accountants adopted new ways of digital working. They learned advisory on the fly, adapted, and even thrived while completely exhausted. And, of course, there were the laggards who I couldn’t believe pulled the essential worker card, went to the office every day, and refused to change. Many firms were forced to take the first step on the radical path. Things started to change!

Things changed for me, too. After two years at Botkeeper, I was recruited to a fintech startup, April Tax Solutions Inc. I was employee number one, the tax expert who built the team and helped create tax software from nothing. I worked with other CPAs, engineers, and product developers to create a 1040 tax software app built for individuals but delivered through other fintechs and payroll companies. I have learned what it takes to create technology from nothing and scale it. Engineers showed me how to define requirements, make prototypes, and solve problems differently. Many things you think are simple to create are not, and other things that you struggle with daily can be fixed with one line of code.

From working in an old-school firm to leading a new firm for 14 years to working in venture-backed technology startups, I have gained multiple thoughts about the future. Through this lens and understanding, I now truly understand the differences between technology companies that sell software and professional service firms, and they are quickly evolving into one—a new “technology” company that just so happens to be in the business of accounting and tax.

We need to understand how we use technology at the heart of our business, but we’ll only be successful if we change our pricing to make sure we get paid what we’re worth and clients get the value they desire.

 

Contents

Chapter 1: Pricing Affects Every Area Of Your Firm

Chapter 2: Why Now? Pricing Basics

Chapter 3: Define, Standardize And Productize

Chapter 4: From Old To New Ways Of Measuring

Chapter 5: Aligning On Scope

Chapter 6: Determining Price

Chapter 7: Structuring Agreements For Value Pricing

Chapter 8: Getting Your Legacy Customers Onboard

Chapter 9: Brand And Marketing Matter

Chapter 10: The Time Is Now

Appendices

• • A Customer-Centric Firm Checklist

  • Radically Change Your Pricing Model: A Q&A

 

The Rave Reviews Are Already Pouring In

“This insightful book places pricing at the heart of accounting firm success, blending theory with practical wisdom. It skillfully navigates the balance between value and perception, encouraging innovation while honoring tradition. An invaluable guide, it reshapes our understanding of services in the accounting profession.”

• Nick Boscia, CPA, EA, partner, Boscia & Boscia PC

“In Radical Pricing, Jody Padar unveils the strategies that pave the way for a profound metamorphosis — from the antiquated “We sell time” ethos to the dynamic realm of a “We sell outcomes” business model. It will propel your firm into a paradigm where pricing is anchored in the value generated, liberating it from the shackles of archaic notions like the billable hour and the tyrannical timesheet. The proven strategies will confer remarkable experiences for both customers and team members alike while plunging another nail in the coffin of the profession’s outdated practices.

• Ronald J. Baker, founder, VeraSage Institute

“If you’ve been thinking about making the shift to value pricing but are unsure of what to do to practically implement it, look no further! This book contains everything you need to incorporate value pricing into your practice. It’s a step-by-step playbook and Jody left no stone unturned. If you’re a firm owner, this is a must-read!”

• Charlie Price, CPA, Cardinal Thrive, LLC

“This book is about so much more than pricing. With questions throughout that get readers thinking about and detailing how they would implement the ideas contained within, this is truly a workbook for a more client-centric firm. How you price and package then becomes your key differentiator. Even accountants that have started down the radical pricing path will find nuggets of new ideas to think about.”

• Joseph P Manzelli, Jr., Manzelli Consulting, Inc.

“Jody Padar is an asset to the accounting profession. While reading her new book, I found myself fist-pumping the air, exclaiming, ‘Hell yeah!’ She comprehensively and clearly shares details on how to appropriately charge for your firm’s services. Moreover, she expertly fills in all the gaps, such as how to roll out radical pricing strategies with legacy clients and how to involve your team members in this transformative journey. I believe any business that reads this book could easily adopt several straightforward strategies, potentially increasing their bottom line by 25%. If you haven’t yet read this book, rest assured, your competitors likely have.”

• Heather Smith, host, the Cloud Stories podcast

“Jody’s book on Radical Pricing is an outstanding and insightful guide to proper and appropriate pricing, and for that reason, it should be read. However, the chapter on scoping and creating packages and nothing else would make this book a valuable asset to anyone running an accounting business. It is incredulous that anyone reading this book could walk away without some immediately actionable tips that would add revenues without any expenditures. That combo cannot be beat. This is a must-read.”

• Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, emeritus partner, Withum

“Jody does what she does best and pushes accounting professionals to think differently and be radical. Radical Pricing challenges the traditional models and, in its simplest fashion, encourages all of us to match our value to the uniqueness of our clients to put both mutual parties in a position to thrive. Jody has the ability to tackle topics in a way where her storytelling brings out those ah-ha moments so you personally discover insights to help foster much-needed change. She then masterfully outlines the plan to help you execute with real-world application. Perfection!”

• Heather Sperduto, VP of sales operations – accountant channel, ADP

“Jody Padar has crafted a comprehensive guide in Radical Pricing. What sets this book apart from others on the subject is Padar’s inclusion of practical, workbook-style questionnaires in each chapter. These tools enable readers to immediately apply the principles discussed. At a time when value pricing is reaching a pivotal stage, Padar makes a compelling case for embracing the automation of compliance work, traditionally seen as the cornerstone of many firms, irrespective of the time it consumes. It’s an essential read for accounting professionals keen on transforming their business model to prioritize value pricing.”

• Dominique Molina, CPA MST CTS, president, American Institute of Certified Tax Planners

“For CPAs looking to standardize offerings as they harness newer technologies, Jody’s book makes a case for moving away from hourly billing. Starting with the critical consideration: ‘Who is the right customer?’ she offers abundant tips for internal streamlining and cost containment. Throughout, it’s refreshing the way she reinforces the increasing relevance of employee empowerment and customer transparency.”

• Michelle (Golden) River, CPF, president, Fore LLC

 

Your Firm’s Radical Transformation Starts with Pricing

Because Value Is Everything

By Jody Padar
(from Chapter 1)

 As a professional in the industry, you may find some of what you do easy. Just because you find it easy, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable and worth more than the time you put into it. If it was truly easy, your customers would be doing it themselves rather than paying you.

Undervaluing ourselves and what we bring to the table is a chronic problem plaguing accountants and CPAs. Why do I say this? Because people pay more for the luxuries they value. Let’s look at a comparison:

Today, the MSRP of a Cadillac Escalade is over $81,000, while the MSRP of a Chevy Suburban is slightly under $60,000. If these automobiles were priced according to the time it takes to make them, plus the cost of their parts, the difference between their retail prices would probably be far less. To maximize profits, GM spends a lot of time and money researching how much their customers value their different products. Certainly, the brand makes a difference, but the Cadillac also offers a more luxurious package. It doesn’t cost GM a lot more money to offer these luxuries, but their customers place a much higher value on them and GM understands that value.

Pricing according to value really isn’t a radical concept!

Accounting firms also factor brand into their pricing models by charging higher hourly rates, but the driving factor is almost always the same: hours x hourly cost = price. Value gets lost in the mechanics of tracking billable hours. As a consequence, accounting professionals tend to undervalue themselves and what they bring to the table. Measuring our value by the hour has done a number on our self-esteem.

Perhaps we should start valuing the important things we know rather than the length of time it takes us to do a job. I have high regard for factory workers, but the idea of paying for labor by the hour is a factory mentality. I don’t know many accountants who would prefer to stand at a machine making parts all day. So, why do we insist on being paid like people who do such work?

Customers pay you because they value your ability to provide a service. They may value your experience, your knowledge, or your relationships, but there is always a reason they want you to do something for them.

I am intentional with my use of the word customer, too. To me, it’s more relatable and friendly…and maybe a bit radical. Customers traditionally purchase goods or services from a business while clients use the services of a professional like an accountant. I think the customer is the right word for a few reasons: firms are now selling productized services; accountants now compete with technology companies; and the profession is transforming into one that prioritizes value, experience, and innovation. We need to evolve our terminology to reflect how we are serving our customers in today’s marketplace.

Value pricing is all about understanding your value to the customer. It should not be based on the amount you think a customer is able to pay. That’s charity. If you’re feeling charitable, it’s better to appropriately val- ue your worth and then donate some of your profits to a worthy 501(c)3.

Value pricing means coming to terms with your inherent value and not compromising it. It means pricing fairly for you and the customer.

Why Value Pricing is Radical

By definition, radical is something new or different from traditional or ordinary. I used radical in my first book because, at that time, the changes I suggested we make in our firms and indirectly to the profession were fundamental to their core. They were abrupt, disruptive, unexpected, and far-reaching.

Ten years later and the profession has moved to the cloud (thanks in part to a worldwide pandemic that forced the laggards onboard). Most accountants realize that we sell differently today than in the past and that legitimate leads and relationships can be developed online thanks to social media and video. And we’ve all managed to navigate change that is coming at us like a never-ending wave. Yet, despite all of our successes, the word radical is still applicable.

Rethinking your processes and changing the way you price was covered in my initial book. Kudus to you radical practitioners who have already made these changes in your firms. In the spirit of continuous improvement, you will find nuggets of information in this book to help you up your game. Unfortunately, though, most of the profession is still selling their value short and pricing by the hour or via some fixed price formula that has hours at the core.

To you, I say: Wake up! It’s a new world.

That is the title of the first chapter of my first book, and it’s just as applicable today. We have to shake up the status quo. We have to change because our customers and the world are changing around us. We can no longer be complacent with our firms and must prepare ourselves and our teams for the changes around us.

Most firms today cannot yet call themselves that “new firm” I advocate they become. Here’s a look at the four fundamental tenants of the radical movement and where we are as a profession today:

• Cloud/Technology. While firms embrace the cloud, most do not take advantage of all the new technology available today.
• Social/Communication. Communication takes place digitally, but it’s more about what the firm needs and not what the customer.
• Pricing/Value. The billable hour is still prevalent, and that has nothing to do with one’s value.
• Process/Experience. Processes are not yet standardized for maximum efficiency and customer experience, and the customer journey is an afterthought in too many.

This book dives into the pricing, process, and new technology component because, for too many firms, value pricing is different and unordinary—it’s radical.

Why Pricing Has to Change

One of my favorite mantras is “The world has changed.” Accountants and CPAs have to keep pace or fall behind.

Perhaps you’ve wondered how to move forward in an age when a CPA firm a thousand miles away can compete against you for local business in your hometown. Or maybe it’s not even a traditional accounting firm you’re competing with.

How many nights have you stayed awake wondering how you are going to get the work done when employees are harder and harder to find?

Perhaps you’re struggling to evaluate and implement new technologies when new ones seem to be coming to the market daily. You’re an accountant, not an IT person.

If only we could stop the world, but we can’t. We must forge ahead!

Change always brings challenges. Today it’s harder to find people who want to join the accounting profession rather than join one with more sex appeal. The cost of keeping skilled professionals is rising. Artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies are providing automated solutions to the compliance work that was once the backbone of the CPA profession.

But technology has also given us a great gift. It’s transforming the way we work and providing solutions to the difficulty of finding new employees and the challenge of rising costs. Most of all, it is pushing us to han- dle more advisory work where value-based pricing makes more sense.

Advisory work relies more on technical knowledge, experience, and relationship building—attributes impossible to price by the hour. You may well have to upskill to meet the demand for these services, and you’ll quickly learn that customers value industry-specific insight and advisory services over compliance.

The People Shortage Isn’t Going Away

If you’ve posted a job for an accountant in the past few years, you know people are hard to come by. The number of responses you received was likely down if you were lucky enough to get any at all.

According to a recent AICPA Trends Report, the number of people graduating with a bachelor’s degree in accounting is down, and we’ve seen a steady decline since 2015. All this while half of U.S. CPA firms have increased the number of new graduates they are looking to hire. Many of us are looking for team members who simply do not exist.

It doesn’t get any better when you look at the number of CPA candidates. The number is at its lowest since 2006, the furthest back the data goes in the report. Experienced hires are even harder to come by than new grads.

Accounting just isn’t sexy enough! The accounting profession attracts a lot of people with analytical data skills. If someone is interested in numbers, they can study accounting or data analytics. These fields of study are competing for the same people in colleges. Accounting also has the 150-hour rule, so when choosing a major, a student can choose data analytics without having to go to school for another year. Plus, there’s no having to take the CPA exam. Data analytics majors come out of school and make more money, too. No wonder it’s hard to get the next generation excited about accounting.

The AICPA is working on a pipeline acceleration plan, but it will take time before we see results. This leaves us in a sticky situation where capacity is a big handicap. We’re constricted by the number of workable hours in a day, limiting a firm’s ability to grow revenue.

A typical accountant has, on average, 2,000 productive hours per year available, including the time needed for administrative tasks, training, marketing, and business development. Therefore, to grow revenue, a firm has to hire additional team members to expand the number of customers they can support. A shortage of available talent makes hiring a poor option for revenue growth.

And you thought AI was going to eliminate jobs. That’s not the case!

So, what are we to do? The answer rests in two main factors: Keep a tight grip on the people you have and use technology to take over the daily grunt work.

The good thing is that these two areas are related. Yes, you need to pay your people well, not work them to the bone, and provide a culture where they can flourish. However, you can also keep your people happy by removing repetitive work from their workload.

That’s where AI, specifically machine learning (ML) in the form of a bot, comes into play. When tasks are automated, accountants can get back up to 70 percent of their time, depending on what you task them with doing. This newfound time can be used on higher level work. That’s the work that motivates your people and, with the proper training, they will excel in their new responsibilities. Since that new work is high-value, customers will pay you more for it.

Automation Has Made the Billable Hour Irrelevant

Automation lets firms scale up without adding more team members or hours. What does it take for a mid-size firm to sustain 2 percent quarterly growth? If a firm operates “as-is,” it cannot achieve that growth without hiring an additional person. However, a firm that gets substantial assistance from tech can gain thousands of hours a year to reinvest in training, technology, advisory, and growth.

As a firm increases reliance on ML-supported technology, it must also rethink billing strategies.

The billable hour really doesn’t apply when you have a bot doing your work.

How can you bill for a bot’s time? You can’t. When it takes a team member 40 hours to do something the bot does in four minutes, time is irrelevant.

Many firms get caught up in the fact that their costs when utilizing bots are significantly lower than before, which is why cost-plus pricing no longer works as a blueprint.

New technology requires standardizing processes, which is something accountants have historically struggled with. And it eliminates manual data entry, which also improves the accuracy and reliability of data. When the data entry is done for you, you are free to become more creative, analytical, and strategic. The result of technology innovation is data that’s humanized. It is relevant. Actionable. And you know who can interpret that data? You.

If there is an available tech option that automates an antiquated or repetitive process, run toward it with open arms. Use your newfound time to provide more value to customers.

The Market Has Moved

Change isn’t just knocking at your door; it’s kicking it down.

We’re in the middle of a major transformation because of new players, cutting-edge technologies, and a financial surge. The rules are being rewritten before our very eyes.

If you consider accounting a giant chessboard, many players are making strategic moves. On one side, the old-school firms are navigating a rapidly changing landscape. On the other side, you have the new-school disruptors. These innovative entities are reshaping the industry with cutting-edge technologies and fresh approaches.

Legacy old-school firms have been a bit slow to modernize and are finding it hard to keep up with the times. Smaller firms embrace emerging technologies, while larger firms find it harder to implement change quickly.

The new-school competitors are well-funded disrupters who are shaking things up. More progressive than legacy firms, they have integrated (or are in the process of integrating) modern technologies and have innovated their business models. They are thinking and preparing for the future. And then you have the PE-backed firms. With significant financial backing, they are at the forefront of pushing the industry forward.

They are implementing modern tech and expect big returns.

There are true new-school players who are disrupting the market as we know it. They are using new approaches in new ways and it’s the most rapidly changing segment of the market today. These companies are your competitors, even if you don’t realize it.

They include:

• Stealth Startups on the Horizon
  Behind the curtain, innovative startups are brewing specialized solutions, quietly gearing up to revolutionize accounting and tax services. Each one targets specific market segments with surgical precision, and that’s changing customer expectations along with everything else.
• The “Uber for Accountants” Phenomenon
  Platforms like Taxfyle and Picnic make it easier for accountants to outsource hefty tax return tasks. They also make it easy for accountants to be self-employed, allowing them to just do work and not even have to think about getting clients. They dream of even greater expansion and intuitive software, underscoring their potential to redefine service delivery and capture market share.
• Intuit’s Disruptive Role.
  Now, let’s talk about Intuit’s platforms. The infusion of AI into products like TurboTax and QuickBooks marks a huge shift. These software behemoths have seamlessly tied technology together with personalized accounting services, altering the very fabric of our industry. On top of that, they are hiring accountants and even acquiring firms. They are competing with the more traditional firms for the same team members: accountants who will provide similar services to yours, albeit in a different way.
• Legal Tech in the Arena.
  Legal tech firms like Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom are stepping into finance. Leveraging their legal tech DNA and Intuit small and mid-sized business backgrounds, they offer comprehensive financial services and challenge the offerings of traditional CPA firms.
• New Non-CPA Startups
  like Bench, inDinero, Zeni, and Pilot have secured funding and are ready to disrupt the industry with fully integrated fractional accounting services, offering innovative, easy-to-use financial approaches for customers.
• Fintech’s Expansion
  Meanwhile, Fintech, with large amounts of raised capital, has recently branched out from credit cards to accounting and tax services, offering a more holistic approach to financial management for small and mid-sized businesses. Plus, Fintech has exchange fees, so this company is essentially making money on mon- ey, which is then reinvested into its tech stack.

What ties all of these players together? Money!

The new market is investing a lot of money in innovation, which is pushing the market. PE money has the same effect. More financial resources translate into greater innovation and automation at breakneck speed.

This is your wake-up call. You must adapt, innovate, and embrace these disruptors head-on.

The Convergence of Trends Makes Pricing Changes Imperative

The speed of change is faster than ever. How are you going to react to it? That’s what this book is really preparing you for—redesigning your entire business model to become a more customer-centric advisor. Value-based pricing models are the key component, but not the whole story.

Today’s automation, new competitors, staffing challenges, and new technologies are conspiring to bring more value to customers than they ever could have enjoyed before. All of it is shifting the way you need to think about your services, what customers value, and how you get paid fairly for the expertise you bring to the table.

You possess something more valuable than time.

You have knowledge. You have been trained to know things other business people don’t know. You have experience doing things of critical value to any business, and customers value your advice because they don’t know the things you know.

It’s how all these forces come together that will impact your business model. That’s why you need to rethink pricing—it affects every aspect of your firm. Profitability, operations, capacity management, customer experience, culture, recruiting and retention, and even your happiness can be improved with proper pricing. It’s truly a holistic approach to practice management.

Unfortunately, there is not one single solution on how to price. That makes it difficult for you to figure out what to do, but on the bright side, your pricing model is uniquely you and can be a competitive advantage. This book is not a step-by-step set of instructions for you to follow. Rather, it contains questions for you to answer for yourself. It gives you examples of things to consider. It encourages you to think about the barriers you’ll face on this journey and how you’ll overcome them. You can use it to work through your own pricing evaluation and modeling, regardless of the size firm you’re in. The concepts that work for everyone. Make them your own.

The time has come to begin valuing your own worth over the billable hour.

Now, let’s dive into how you can embrace your real-world value unchained from the ticking clock.

 

ABOUT the AUTHOR

Jody Padar, The Radical CPA™, is one of the accounting profession’s foremost visionaries and pioneers. Since her days as a small firm owner, she has advocated for bringing the accounting profession into the digital age and leading the next generation of accounting professionals to a better life where they can go home on time, give more to their clients and foster their passion for the industry. An author and lecturer, Jody is known for offering practical tips and advice on running a next-generation firm. Her best-selling books include The Radical CPA and From Success to Significance: The Radical CPA Guide.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright ©2024 Jody Padar. All rights reserved. Published by CPA Trendlines, an imprint of Bay Street Group LLC, New York, NY, USA, which is the sole owner of exclusive rights of the work in all media and forms and the authorized agent of the author in all matters pertaining to the work. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without prior written permission of the publisher. Such requests should be addressed: Permissions, CPA Trendlines, 235 East 22nd Street, New York, NY, 10010, USA, or via permissions@cpatrendlines.com. DISCLAIMER: The information, data, and opinions contained herein do not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice. The authors are not attorneys and are not engaged in rendering professional service or advice. Please consult your professionals for advice in specific situations. The authors may not be held liable for any interpretation or use of the information in this publication. ISBN: 979-8-9892329-3-2