According to an article published by accountantsdaily, The rise of cloud technology will be the force that kills hourly pricing in the accounting industry.
Accounting firms should be focused on a few key things:
- Value: what is the value received by your client/customer?
- Costs: are your costs fixed/variable and when do they fall due?
- Invoicing/payments: how do you invoice and when? What pricing methods do you use? The current time/cost model does not work for the cloud.
The future of pricing strategies for the accounting industry lies in value-based packaging or pricing, which has been a debated topic as accounting and bookkeeping firms have found it difficult to move to a new pricing strategy, often causing them to fall back to the comfort of hourly billing.
The article then goes on to summarise some of the key principles of value pricing of accounting and bookkeeping services. These include:
- Value price, don’t price on time
- Offer up-front fixed prices to give clients price certainty – no surprise bills
- Explain the value of services offered
- Link the value to the price
- Offer a suite of services that gives clients choices that meet their needs
- Only offer services you have the competence to offer, so you don’t under-deliver
- Maintain close professional relationships with clients – be visible, contactable and connected
- Offer the occasional freebie
- Express appreciation that they are value clients
See the article for further details.
Courses in cloud accounting software
MYOB Essentials - The Cloud Version of MYOB