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How Fees Work

Priced by complexity, not by a percentage of your revenue

Revenue is a poor predictor of accounting work. A clean company at five million can take less attention than a complicated one at eight hundred thousand. We price what the work actually requires.

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Most fee frustration in this profession comes from surprise. Either the client is surprised by an invoice, or the firm is surprised by how much work arrived. We try to remove the surprise from both sides by scoping the work before it starts and putting the boundaries in writing.

Three kinds of work, three ways of pricing them, all agreed before anyone begins.

The three pricing models

i.
Tax returns: quoted by projectAn anticipated minimum and maximum range based on the facts and records available. Unusual, corrective or out-of-scope work is discussed separately before it is done.
ii.
Recurring services: a scoped monthly commitmentEstablished after reviewing your actual environment, with what is included written into the engagement.
iii.
Special projects: quoted or at professional ratesTax controversy, cleanup, transaction work, research and amended filings are quoted separately or billed at the applicable rate, depending on the assignment.
The Value of One Firm

The scope conversation happens before the work, not after the invoice. When the work changes materially, we talk about it first.

Questions

Asked and answered

What actually determines the monthly fee?
The things that consume professional capacity: the number of entities, transaction volume, payroll headcount, the states and jurisdictions involved, reporting cadence, condition of the existing records, and how much ongoing advisory access the relationship includes. Revenue is one signal among those, not the formula.
Why not simply charge a percentage of revenue?
Because it prices the wrong thing. Two companies with identical revenue can require very different amounts of work depending on entities, jurisdictions, transaction volume and how clean the books are. Pricing on revenue overcharges the simple client and undercharges the complicated one.
What happens when the work turns out to be bigger than expected?
We tell you before we do it. The engagement defines what is included, and material changes in scope are a conversation, not a surprise line item. Scope also gets reviewed periodically, because businesses change and the fee should reflect what the work has actually become.
Do you bill hourly?
For some work, yes. Recurring relationships are scoped to a monthly commitment so you have predictability, while specialized projects are often quoted or billed at professional rates because their size cannot be known in advance. What matters is that you know which model applies before the work begins.
Can you quote a fee over the phone?
Rarely, and honestly not well. A responsible number requires understanding the entities, the records and the actual needs. That is what the first conversation is for, and it costs nothing.
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Related reading

i.Outsourced Accounting & CFOVISIT →ii.Why Choose UsVISIT →iii.Contact UsVISIT →
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One conversation. Everything handled.

Tell us where your finances live today, even if that means fragmented providers and disconnected responsibilities. We will show you what one coordinated firm takes off your plate.

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