fee structure

client’s difficult daughter balks at bill

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and ado you talk to the dad?

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i have a very good client who pays us to prepare his daughter’s tax return. the daughter was going through a divorce and asked us to assist her and her attorney and she said she would pay us herself, and we shouldn’t ask her father to pay us and she also asked us not to tell her father what was going on. we did a lot of work and because of what we did she got a much better settlement than if we did not help her. additionally a lot of what we did was rush on-demand work and some of it was quite difficult. also, she was not the most pleasant to deal with on many occasions. read more →

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 forum: tax season prep tips?

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readers’ forum: hours worked. firing clients. setting prices.

chris basom
chris basom
  • chris basom, managing partner of your money matters in mission viejo, calif., wants to know the “one thing you wanted to implement before tax season but just couldn’t get to.”
  • “is cash still relevant?” asked solo practitioner roxann otto of otto tax & accounting services in slinger, wis.
  • charles g. read in the melbourne, fla., area would like to know how other accountants arrive at the charges they present.
  • deborah mcdowell cain of her eponymous firm in fort worth, texas, asked, “does your firm work five, six or seven days a week? is overtime for staff mandatory? are senior staff hourly, salaried, offered overtime or comp time?”
    • and harking back to the busy season, she also asked, “how many people touch a return? why?” read more →

14 ways to switch to value pricing

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aby ed mendlowitz 

question: how do i switch to value pricing?

response: there are a number of ways. ron baker’s books tell how to do this. so does dave cottle’s but in a different way. i believe most firms do some sort of value pricing and that is when a fee is determined in advance with the client. i’ve written previously on this and have presented programs for cpa firm management groups, but here is a descriptive checklist to use as a guide: read more →

pricing, billing, costing: don’t blame clients

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communication negotiation pricing istock_000020509177how good communication habits can head off problems.

by ed mendlowitz
implementing fee increases

professional fees are typically billed based on time. yet, clients want outcomes and place a value on results, which doesn’t necessarily relate to time spent.

ingrained habits are hard to break away from. for ages, many professionals quoted jobs by providing hourly rates and possibly a range of expected hours. some projects are open-ended in the sense that no one knows where it will take them and what will be uncovered once work commences. this might include a forensic investigation, litigation where the discovery process becomes acrimonious, unraveling transactions in a complicated bankruptcy, a first-time audit of a multinational corporation or a tax audit for a reasonably sized business.

however, for most work, there is an understanding of what will need to be done and the approximate value to the client. this could include an annual audit, tax return, setting up a cost accounting or internal control system or a transfer price study. read more →