Why clients should embrace fixed accounting fees
13/10/2014
We discuss below why clients should embrace fixed accounting fees. What do you think?
Does your Accountant charge you by the traditional method of time or does he charge a fixed fee?
Since time immemorial Accountants like lawyers have traditional charged their clients fees based on time spent. The problem with this approach is that clients do not know how much their bill will be.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Accountants started to charge fixed fees. This way the client would know up-front what they are being charged.
Accountants, should be embracing this value based approach but too often they dismiss this.
What are the advantages of fixed fee’s for clients:
1. You know upfront what something is going to cost. There are no surprises.
2. You benefit from not paying for inefficiencies within your accountants practice.
3. You can manage your cash-flow better especially if your accountant offer fixed fee packages that are paid on a monthly basis.
4. You can do price comparison.
5. If you negotiate a fee that includes telephone support it removes the fear factor that you will be charged for every phone call.
What are the disadvantages:
1. You may pay a premium as the Accountant prices in a risk component. However , you can do comparison pricing.
2. What you pay for is what you get. Both you and your accountant need to be clear what is included in the fee and what is not included.
3. You pay for value.
So what should clients do?
• If their happy with the status quo then do nothing and continue to be subject to the efficiencies of their Accountant.
• Ask their Accountant do they charge fixed fees and if not why not?
• Search for a new Accountant – Ah but I’ve been with my current Accountant for years now and I have built up a relationship with them, I hear you say. My response to this is well if there is a real relationship then you should be able to negotiate a fixed fee. After all, who better than your current accountant, who knows your business, than to commence charging you on a fixed fee basis.
Did you know that it is easy to change Accountants. Contact Us and will do all the work for you. We will contact your old accountant on your behalf.
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Preferred accounting systems
PB Accountants recommend Quickbooks Online (QBO) and XERO (both cloud based). We’ve had plenty of experience with both packages-- and believe that (except in rare cases) one or other of these will be the best accounting system for our clients.
Need help choosing an accounting system? Just get in touch with Michael and he’ll help you decide.
Switching to us (it’s easy!)
If you decide you’d like us to take over your accounting, we will contact your old accountants on your behalf and ask them to forward all your information to us. We’ll also notify the Australian Taxation Office of the change. Done.
It’s your choice
While we use and recommend Xero and Quickbooks Online, we’re happy to work with any accounting package you choose. After all, it’s you and your business we’re here to support.