Attention Bookkeepers: Do you prefer to bill your clients hourly or by value pricing monthly fees?

Hi @lynda11_2, I bet you have an awesome answer for @SteveChase!

:smileyhappy:

Value pricing is the way to go.  It was such a hot topic at QB Connect last year and I think I attended all of the sessions on it.   I have been part of Mark Wickersham's group and read all of Ron Baker's books.   Ron Baker is a wealth of knowlege on how to do this.  He has written some fabulous books.  

Basically, you give 3 levels of prices with 3 services.  The first one being the cheapest and most basic. The second one should be what the client has reached out to you for.  The third one is the bells and whistles one.  I price it as all inclusive, meaning I pad it with the cost of Hubdoc, QBO and my time (unlimited questions/access) during business hours.  

Hector and Michelle Long just did a webinar on this.  I highly recommend following QB Power hour, especially for someone just starting their own business.  I have been following Michelle for as long as she has been teaching QB to ProAdvisors and she is my personal favorite.  I got to finally meet her in person at QB Connect (and she gave me a hug).   She is wonderful teacher and compassionate human being.  Love her!

Great question Steve!

For me, I mostly bill hourly, but have value pricing available for more predictable work, such as monthly bookkeeping/accounting tasks. Most of my clients come to me with a lot of clean-up work required, amended returns to be filed, and needing additional compliance work to meet requirements for government contracts. Every client is very different in their needs and complexity, and I often handle a lot of ad hoc situations, making it more difficult to provide a value pricing format. I do try to offer value pricing when it makes sense to do so, but most of my work is still hourly simply because of the unpredictable nature and complexity of my work.

Steve

Congrats on starting your firm. I'm in the beginnings stages of starting my own practice. So, i know the pain. 3 podcasts that helped me iron out a lot of my questions and answer some that I didn't even know I needed to ask are below. I have an app that I can build playlists for the car and listen to at 2x speed. 

Grow my accounting practice - These guys are goofy, but they always have useful information and solid guests.

http://www.profitfirstprofessionals.com/category/grow-my-accounting-practice-podcast

The Successful Bookkeeper - Associated with the Pure bookkeeping system, a turnkey system for building a bookkeeping firm, I haven't bought in, but most likely will when I'm further along.

https://www.thesuccessfulbookkeeper.com/episodes/

Growing your firm - Done by the Jetpack workflow people. They are a project management company designed for bookkeepers, I am not a customer but will be when it is time.

https://jetpackworkflow.com/category/growing-your-firm-podcast/

Best of luck, if you have any questions let me know. No reason to go at this alone. 

Adam