How to Price Bookkeeping Services for Clients of All Sizes

With the right technology, you can automate bookkeeping processes and tasks that once took hours of your time. Marketing the services that add value to your clients outside of your typical responsibilities is a great way to increase revenue. Fixed-fee pricing allows you to increase profit as you increase efficiency—the more efficiently you can work, the greater the profit margin. For example, the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB) offers a QuickBooks Online certification. Xero and other accounting software have their own qualifications which, once stale dated checks earned, show you’re an expert in their product. Generally, small to medium-sized businesses expect to pay between $500-$2,500 USD monthly for their outsourced bookkeeping—an dauntingly large range to deal with.

Choose the pricing strategy that works for your firm

1. I like this method when getting started with a new client.
2. For example, in Massachusetts, in-house bookkeepers earn 20% more than the national average, whereas in Kentucky, they earn 22% less than the national average.
3. For example, if a firm decides to focus on value pricing, it may choose to sell its products at a higher price point than its competitors to make more profit.
4. Get up and running with free payroll setup, and enjoy free expert support.
5. Clients in major cities may be willing to pay more for bookkeeping services than clients in smaller towns.

Move beyond hourly billing and embrace value-based pricing. This means setting your rates based on your impact on your client’s business, not just the hours you work. Large clients are where you can truly showcase your skills and expertise. At this level, businesses typically have their basic bookkeeping needs covered but require more advanced advisory services.

Why Is It Important To Get Pricing Right?

I’m in charge of sending invoices out to their patients, so I look in the system how much we are supposed to be charging them. For example, the appointment may have cost $300, the insurance covered $200 of the charge, which leaves $100 as the patient’s responsibility. One of the extra tasks I do for this law firm is their bill pay.

Fixed costs

There are plenty of ways that accounting firms can proceed when looking at pricing options. It begins by examining each service provided and determining its value to the target market, maximizing the profit margin, and remaining competitive. The benefits of a thoughtful pricing strategy include organic growth, stability, and profitability. This offers a solution for bookkeepers who serve clients with varying levels download the avalara ebook “sales and use tax compliance for dummies” of bookkeeping complexity. It requires you to create different service packages with predetermined features and price points. These tiers allow you to cater to a wider range of clients by providing options that fit their specific needs and budgets.

It’s important to have a flexible approach when it comes to bookkeeping pricing, to ensure you’re providing value and meeting the individual needs of each client. Do your due diligence to make sure you’re billing your clients fairly. But, don’t minimize your worth and expertise in the pricing process. Typically, you’ll want to charge your more frequent clients at a lower rate because you’re seeing them more often and reviewing their books on a regular basis.

In addition to your standard pricing, design some premium pricing packages. The way you charge for your services shouldn’t be an afterthought in the way you run the rest of your business. Let the values what are the rules for debits and credits in accounting and ideals that guide your everyday work inform the way you structure the fees for your clients. Value-based pricing is putting a dollar amount on that differentiation.

Additionally, by focusing on value rather than cost, businesses can avoid making decisions that would result in losing money. When you’re just starting out, it might be tempting to determine how much you want to earn per hour and back into your pricing from that point. Instead, you need to ask yourself how much value you provide for your client. If you can do the job more efficiently or insightfully, you’re likely adding more value for your client than your hourly wage goal. Though they may seem relatively minor, 2-3% fees will quickly eat into your profits. When setting your prices, ensure you are charging enough to cover these fees.

With an hourly rate, unless you can find more hours in the day, it’s difficult—borderline impossible—to drive up profit significantly. And with time being the ultimate resource, it’s important to charge clients proportionally to the amount of time you’re dedicating to their services. As a bookkeeper, you can and should leverage your experience to increase your profit.

But the hourly rate is becoming outdated with the dominance of technology. Tech makes once time-consuming work quick, and in many cases, effortless. This means that regardless of a service’s value to your clients, you’re capping your pricing based on how long it takes to deliver that service. If there are few bookkeepers or very high demand in your area, you can command a higher price for your services. Additionally, if you come highly recommended by other local businesses, you can typically charge higher prices. Make sure to keep your clients happy and let them know you appreciate referrals.